The manager of Brighton Graham Potter has admitted that he had to leave out his best striker Neal Maupay in the squad that lost 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur on November 1 due to an undisclosed “incident”.
Brighton needed a victory to rescue themselves from their consistent drop from the safe zone on the Premier League table and all hands were meant to be on deck to salvage the dwindling fortunes of the club. To the dismay of the club’s fans, Brighton left out Neal Maupay from the squad that visited Tottenham Stadium on Sunday.
After the match, reports were speculating that there was a misunderstanding between Neal Maupay and the club’s manager Graham Potter since there were no reports that he was injured or not fit for the match. When the match ended, Graham Potter told the press that the French forward was left out of the squad for tactical reasons.
However, on Wednesday, the club held a pre-match press conference ahead of the club’s game against Burnley on Friday. In the press conference, the issue of Maupay’s omission was raised.
Graham Potter revealed that the 24-year-old French center-forward was not having any health problems ahead of Tottenham’s match. He also revealed that the player was not included in the matchday squad because of indiscipline conduct on the part of the player.
“He has trained with us this week and accepts it wasn’t his finest hour,” Potter said.
“I think when I use the word ‘tactical’, it can be seen as 4-2-3-1, a system, or a formation. Sometimes you have to make decisions that are right for the group.
“But sometimes mistakes are made and tempers are high, people get frustrated and emotional, which you want to a certain extent.
“We are in professional sport at the highest level and sometimes the line gets crossed and it is how you react to that.
“There is no problem with Neal. It is something we have a deal with as an incident and moved forward from it.”
Neal Maupay was very instrumental in the survival of Brighton in the Premier League last season. The France international scored 10 goals and provided 3 assists which helped the club to remain in the league for the 2020-2021 season.
So far this season, Maupay has played 6 league games in which he scored 4 goals and provided an assist. But this performance has only helped Brighton to remain in the 13th spot on the league table after four losses, two draws, and a win in 7 league games.
The French international will be available for Brighton 8th league game on Friday against struggling Burnley. If Brighton fail to win the match, they will have to go into the Fifa international break struggling in the relegation zone.
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