Scout report: How Brighton can limit the threat of Southampton

Brighton go into the Monday night game against Southampton on the back of a good display against Premier League champions Liverpool last week, picking up a point against Jurgen Klopp's men at The Amex.

Southampton, who are just two points off a Champions League spot, have been somewhat of a dark horse so far this season - ever since that 9-0 thrashing to Leicester last season Ralph Hassenhuttl's men have been pretty impressive.

Both teams play a pressing-based, pass-between-the-lines, build-from-the-back style, with their full-backs pushing on and overlapping, so it will be interesting to see the two systems go head to head.

In terms of Expected Points (xPTS) - a metric which calculates how many points a team would be expected to pick up if a game was played out hundreds of thousands of times - Brighton sit in seventh place in the xPTS table, at the time of writing, on 16.48 and Southampton in 12th on 12.75.

Here are some of Southampton's strengths and how Brighton boss Graham Potter might look to play against them.

Southampton's Strengths, according to WhoScored.com

Shooting from direct free kicks - very strong

Southampton have scored from three of their six direct free kicks so far this season thanks to dead ball specialist James Ward-Prowse.

Brighton will have to be mindful about conceding fouls around the edge of the 18-yard box. The likes of Tariq Lamptey, Lewis Dunk, Solly March, Ben White have all given away between one and two fouls per game this season, so they'll have to be extra careful.

Stealing the ball from the opposition - strong

Southampton under Ralph Hassenhuttl have been moulded into a high-intensity, pressing machine.

Southampton attempt 139 pressure situations on average per game, winning the ball back 32.6 per cent of the time within five seconds of starting the press. This is similar to Liverpool's pressing stats, with the Premier League champions winning 32.1 per cent of their 136 pressures per game within five seconds of initiation.

So Brighton may look to by-pass the Southampton press, like they did against Liverpool last week, by playing long balls over the top to willing runners Aaron Connolly, Danny Welbeck and Neal Maupay, or sweeping diagonal passes from wing-back to wing-back.

Finishing scoring chances - strong

Southampton have been strong at finishing their scoring chances this season. So far, they have accumulated an Expected Goals (xG) of 11 but have scored 19, meaning they have outperformed their xG by eight, which is the highest in the division.

This is down to the impressive form and clinical finishing of Danny Ings and the free-kick technique of Ward-Prowse - fortunately for Brighton it looks like Ings is only fit enough to make the bench after a spell out injured.

Che Adams is Southampton's other danger man, who is in good form with three goals and three assists in ten league games so far this season.

Adams has been playing in a similar role to Harry Kane, where he both plays on the last man and drops deep to act as a creator - a sort of nine-and-a-half position. So it looks like Yves Bissouma and his centre-backs will have to be in constant communication to deal with this threat.

Attacking set pieces - strong

Fifteen per cent of Southampton's goals have come from set-pieces or corners (3). Twenty-five per cent Brighton's conceded goals have come from set-pieces or corners (5).

With James Ward-Prowse standing over a dead ball and the man mountain of Jannik Vestergaard (6ft 6') looking to get on the end of them, it makes sense Southampton are a threat from these types of situations. Brighton boss Graham Potter must be urging his team to concede as little corners and free-kicks as possible.

Other thoughts

Southampton have been caught out on the counter-attack multiple times due to playing a high line and I would expect Danny Welbeck to be looking to emulate his goal against Aston Villa, where he darted past Villa's line from inside his own half and dinked over Emiliano Martinez.

Most of Brighton's attacking play has come through Solly March and Tariq Lamptey this season and it will be no different tomorrow. Southampton have decent full-backs in the likes of Ryan Bertrand and Kyle Walker-Peters, so the duels out on the wing will be interesting to see who attacks who.

So far this season it is normally Lamptey who the opponents can't deal with, so Bertrand will have a tough afternoon defending against the rapid teenager.

Brighton may also have a slight home advantage now due to the small amount of fans allowed back in the stadium.

Prediction: Brighton 1-1 Southampton

Scorers: Welbeck and Adams