What did Percy Tau do to Potter?

It is time to ask the question, even if the answer, perhaps, isn’t clear.

Was Percy Tau going back to Brighton and Hove Albion this season the wrong move for the Bafana Bafana attacking star?

Tau arrived at the English Premier League side in January with hopes high after they recalled him from his loan spell at Anderlecht.

It seemed at the time, indeed, that the change in regulations that allowed the former Mamelodi Sundowns talisman to get a work permit to play in the UK, might just be the only good thing about Britain’s departure from the European Union.

And the feel-good factor around Tau was only enhanced as he made his debut coming off the bench in an FA Cup win over Newport County, and then, to much fanfare, was handed his first EPL start by Graham Potter against, of all teams, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

And yet, as Tau prepares to come to South Africa for Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the end of the month, assuming Brighton allow him to leave in the current Covid-19-affected climate, the 26 year-old finds himself woefully short of game time, constantly in the match-day squad, but never called on by Potter, even though the Seagulls have missed chance after chance after chance in their struggle to avoid relegation.

In the EPL, after the City start, Tau has got just 17 more minutes in a 1-0 win at Leeds on 16 January, and while the Brighton head coach gave him another start in the 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round win over Blackpool on 23 January, and another in the 1-0 loss at Leicester in the FA Cup fifth-round on 10 February, Potter has not seen fit to use him now in over a month.

It has been hard to watch as Tau has sat on the bench, not deemed worthy of an appearance, while his team have netted just seven times in nine EPL matches.

In the recent goalless draw with Aston Villa for example, or the 1-0 loss to West Brom, did Potter see nothing in his Bafana Bafana player that he thought might swing the game in his side’s favour?
There is a decenct counter- argument to Tau’s lack of game time, of course.

He is in a far more competitive league than he was in Belgium, training with better players, and as such it might well be that if and when he rocks up to play for Bafana, he is in better shape than ever.

It could also be that Potter is trying to protect his player until next season, with avoiding the drop the clear priority for a side sitting just three points above the relegation zone, and those three points are courtesy of a 2-1 win at Southampton on Sunday.

Tau is also no doubt not about to rock the boat for being left out of the team time after time, figuring that he cannot simply expect to walk into a side containing established Premier League attackers like Adam Lallana and Danny Welbeck.

Perhaps if and when Brighton are safe, we will see Potter take more of a risk, and Tau allowed to express himself in this side. One hopes so, because seeing one of this country’s most promising talents thrive in the EPL is a dream any South African football fan would surely have.

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