Pascal Gross is the unheralded secret to Brighton's success

If you had to hazard a guess at the Brighton player Roberto De Zerbi has hailed as one of the best he has ever worked with, who would you pick?

Alexis Mac Allister, the Argentine World Cup winner coveted by the biggest clubs in Europe? Moises Caicedo, who the Seagulls rejected £70m for in January and is probably worth a lot more now?

Kaoru Mitoma, with his university thesis in dribbling and ability to glide past any opposition full back as if they do not exist? Evan Ferguson, who is the Irish Erling Haaland or Wayne Rooney or Alan Shearer or Marco van Basten or Duncan Edwards, depending on who you ask?

What about Lewis Dunk and Solly March, two homegrown Brighton stalwarts turning in their best career performances since De Zerbi breezed into the AMEX Stadium as Graham Potter's replacement in September?

The answer is actually the unheralded, underrated Pascal Gross. De Zerbi is on record more than once singing the praises of the 31-year-old German who has deservedly earned the moniker bestowed upon him by Albion fans of Der Kaiser.

In March, De Zerbi told The Argus as Gross prepared to make his 200th Brighton appearance: "To explain the importance of Pascal, I can tell you he is one of the best players I have had in my career. He is a fantastic player. He can play everywhere on the pitch."

“He is fantastic in terms of attitude and passion. He is very clever to understand difficult situations and I am lucky to have him in my team. He is a leader like Lewis Dunk, like Adam Lallana, like Danny Welbeck. They are different types of leader but they are always positive guys."

With De Zerbi such a fan, it has come as little surprise that the Albion have handed Gross a new contract which extends his stay at the AMEX through to 2025. De Zerbi again took the opportunity to sing Gross' praises when the deal was announced, telling Brighton's website: "He is one of the best players I have worked with during my career and every day I appreciate him more and more. He is one of the secrets to Albion’s success.”

While Gross does not attract the same level of attention or praise as Mac Allister, Caicedo and Mitoma, his departure from Brighton would be more keenly felt than any of his younger, more exciting teammates. He is that important to the Albion for a myriad of reasons.

If anything, his importance has only increased under De Zerbi. And he was already pretty important.

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Take Brighton's debut Premier League season in 2017/18, for example. Gross contributed seven goals and six assists, meaning he was involved in nearly 50 percent of the 34 goals scored by Chris Hughton's side. Had Gross not arrived for a bargain £3m from Ingolstadt in the summer of 2017, the Albion's top flight adventure would have been over long before either Graham Potter or De Zerbi pitched up on the south coast.

Potter found out the hard way the difference Gross makes. It seems incredible now, but at the start of the 2020/21 season there were a decent number of Brighton supporters who wanted Gross dropped. He was labelled too slow, too old and, most bizarrely of all, a set piece merchant. As if being able to deliver a pinpoint corner or free kick onto a teammate's head was a bad thing.

Even more incredible than the barmy opinion of some Albion fans was that Potter appeared to share their views. Gross did not start a Premier League game in the 2020/21 campaign until November 1, a 2-1 defeat at Spurs. By the middle of January, he had made only six starts.

In that period, Brighton made a club-record worst start to a top flight season, winning just two of the opening 18 games.

Gross was given his seventh start of the campaign in game 19 at a point where Brighton were right in the thick of the relegation battle. The Albion won 1-0 at Leeds and Gross started every league game from then until the end of the season.

With Der Kaiser back in Potter's XI, Brighton went from setting a piece of unwanted history which left them in the middle of a relegation battle to winning seven and drawing six of their final 20 matches, eventually finishing 13 points above the bottom three.

It was no coincidence either that the Seagulls' worst run of form in 2021/22 came when Potter jettisoned Gross. The Albion were holding their own against Manchester United at Old Trafford in February despite trailing 1-0 when Gross was hauled on the hour mark. Things fell apart alarmingly with him off the pitch.

Gross was then an unused substitute in back-to-back home defeats, a dire 2-0 loss to Aston Villa and an even worse 3-0 defeat against a Burnley side who had won once all season before arriving at the AMEX. Brighton managed just two shots on target across 180 minutes against those two claret-clad visitors.

Potter recalled Gross for the trip to Newcastle, where he assisted the consolation goal for Dunk in a 2-1 defeat. It was back to the bench again for the visit of Liverpool, another home game with only one shot on target. Gross returned to the XI for a 2-0 loss to Spurs before helping the Albion create 31 chances at home to Norwich.

Brighton being Brighton under Potter, none were taken in a 0-0 draw.

The Canaries stalemate at least ended a run of six consecutive defeats, although one goal in seven was a huge concern. That was, however, followed by a sequence of just two losses from 13 games spanning the end of the 2021/22 and the start of the 2022/23 season. During that period, Gross scored five times and assisted three, enough to earn Potter the Chelsea job and ensure Gross had once again proved himself undroppable.

His performances through 2022/23 show that like the finest German Riesling, Gross is getting better with age. His seven goals so far mean he has already equalled his best-ever haul from the 2017/18 campaign. He needs only three more assists to overtake his previous high of eight, set in 2020/21.

What makes those numbers more impressive is that Gross is no longer the number ten playing just behind the central striker he was when he arrived at the AMEX. De Zerbi has used Gross as one of the holding midfield two in the Italian's favoured 4-2-3-1 or at right back, a role he first fulfilled when Chelsea came to the AMEX in October to more than a few raised eyebrows.

90 minutes later and Brighton had embarrassed Potter and his new employers with Gross completing the humiliation by netting the fourth and final goal. Any doubts about Gross and his new position disappeared after just one game of football and he has diligently switched between right back and central midfield ever since.

It is this versatility that goes a long way towards explaining why De Zerbi views Gross so highly. His professionalism is another and perhaps it is this avoidance of the limelight which explains why his ability, performances and numbers do not get the attention they deserve.

Gross never appears in the newspapers and he has no form of social media. He simply turns up, bamboozles opponents with that most beautiful Cruyff Turn of his, creates countless opportunities, scores a goal here and there and then goes home again.

He is not a player in it for the money, either. When his contract was set to expire last summer, he said: “I’ve been here for five years, that’s a long time when you come from abroad.” The implication was that he was considering returning to the Bundesliga, even though very few German clubs could compete with the wages being offered by Brighton.

That statement from Gross sent a wave of fear through the Brighton fanbase. "Pascal Gross, we want you to stay" rang around the AMEX during the final game of the season. Gross responded by scoring one and assisting another as the Albion hammered West Ham 4-0 to secure ninth place, their highest finish in English football.

Thankfully, that was not auf wiedersehen to Gross. He signed a new two-year deal at the conclusion of the campaign, with his latest contract adding a further year on top through to 2025. That keeps Gross at the AMEX until just past his 34th birthday and it would not be a surprise to see him still performing to the same high standards as he hurtles into his mid-30s.

Gross does not have to worry about losing his pace as he gets older as it is the one attribute missing from his game. Brighton should be grateful for that, because if Gross was quicker he would be considered one of the best players in the world playing for Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid rather than the Albion.

Words do not really do justice to the impact Gross has had on Brighton over his six seasons and counting. Numbers scratch the surface slightly, with his 23 goals and 33 assists from 184 Premier League appearances giving him by far and away the most goal involvements of any Albion player in top flight English football.

Much of the rest of the football world might be immune to the talents of Gross, but not Brighton fans and certainly not De Zerbi. "The secret of Brighton is not the coach or style of play," De Zerbi once said. "The secret of Brighton is the part of the squad like Pascal."

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