Football at this level is an exceptionally intricate game in which the world’s best coaches plot out their strategies in stunning detail, compute its thousands of moving parts, make contingencies upon contingencies. It feels hopelessly simplistic to boil down the issues with Graham Potter’s complex and delicately balanced Brighton team to “just sign a striker”. But, you know. Sometimes you really do just have to sign a striker.
![Neal Maupay’s spectacular misses cost Brighton in stalemate with Leeds](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f7f6417af626d8fcc5c10ca370a110cec6eb731d/0_118_2792_1675/master/2792.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=4869748f7909bfc1a81291c3966ef538)
Twenty shots, plenty of ambitious attacking
Football, their highest expected goals total of the season, and ultimately a familiar refrain. The wind blew in off the English Channel and the Amex howled and roared to keep out the cold, and yet still the ball refused to drop. There were numerous areas of encouragement: the marauding wing-backs Tariq Lamptey and Marc Cucurella, the sharp passing and movement in midfield.