Brighton boss Graham Potter says Spurs did not deserve Bayern thrashing
Brighton boss Graham Potter says he was impressed with elements of Tottenham’s play during their 7-2 drubbing by Bayern Munich.
Potter was in north London on Tuesday evening to watch Spurs’ Champions League humiliation at the hands of the Bundesliga champions.
Under-fire Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino felt his side’s first-half performance during the heavy loss was their best of a stuttering start to the season.
Potter, whose team host Spurs in the Premier League on Saturday, echoed the Argentinian’s assessment and felt the emphatic scoreline was harsh.
“It was a really good game, from a neutral perspective. Tottenham were fantastic at the start of the game, they could have been two or three nil up,” said Potter.
“Some real impressive play, pressing, put them under pressure and then Bayern grew into the game, were very clinical. If you look at the expected goals model, it’s not a seven game.
“But that’s what can happen sometimes with the quality of play on the pitch. It was a good game to see.
“For us, we focus on ourselves and what we have to do. It’s a home game against a top team with a top manager and we have to play well.”
Pressure has increased on Pochettino following an unconvincing start to the campaign which has included top-flight defeats to lowly Newcastle and high-flying Leicester.
The midweek European embarrassment came a week after they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by League Two Colchester.
Despite those recent struggles, Potter remains a great admirer of his fellow manager as he prepares to welcome him to the Amex Stadium.
“What he’s done at that club, I have the utmost respect for,” said Potter.
“He’s competed at the top of the league, restructured in terms of into a new stadium, not competed in terms of the resources at the very, very top but still in the top four above big teams.
“The style of football I really like, flexible, Champions League finalists (in June) – I think he’s done a wonderful job.”
Brighton go into the weekend on a poor run and without a win since the opening day of the season.
Asked if he was confident of an upturn in results, Potter replied: “Yeah, I am.
“It’s the Premier League, every game’s a challenge, every game’s difficult.
“The challenge for us is to try to keep that consistency of performance and to improve the performance level to get it as high as we can and then you hope, as a result of that, you can get consistent results.”
