Brighton show they can cope without big name stars

Graham Potter believes a stronger squad has enabled them to cope without some big name players this season.

Albion have had their fair share on injuries and unavailability with Lewis Dunk, Yves Bissouma, Shane Duffy, Adam Webster, Danny Welbeck, Adam Lallana, Tariq Lamptey and Steven Alzate all missing for chunks of the campaign.

The emergence of Jakub Moder, Moises Caidcedo and Enock Mwepu will also give fans more confidence that they can cope if Bissouma departs this summer.

“We’ve been tested this season with that, I would say,” Potter said. “That’s probably the biggest step we’ve taken. If you’d have said at the start of season we’d be without Lewis Dunk for the time that we’ve had then I think we’d be really concerned. But, actually, the team handled that quite well. Obviously, we want Lewis Dunk available and it’s the same with Yves Bissouma – and with all the players. But this year more than any I would say we’ve been tested a lot with that.

“Adam Webster, Adam Lallana, Danny Welbeck, Tariq Lamptey for different periods. We’ve had to suffer with that. And that’s what makes it even better, where we are now. Because for a club of our size, you need things to go your way really, to make sure that you can keep getting the points in the Premier League.

“And regardless of what we’ve had to do this year we’ve managed to keep points ticking over and now we’re on 40 with six to go so that says a lot for the players and how they’ve stuck together and how we’ve as a group grown.

“So in terms of a question of whether we can deal with things a little bit better, probably, yeah - as much as we want all our players available.”