Lallana was one of Brighton's better players on the night against the Baggies but was replaced on the hour for Pascal Gross. Brighton went on to drop two points as newly-promoted West Brom battled back to draw with a late equaliser through Karlan Grant. Potter admitted it was pre-planned to withdraw Lallana on 60 minutes as he tries to carefully manage the workload of a 32-year-old with a long history of injuries. "If you are just watching the game and that's what you do, then you can certainly be critical of that decision," said Potter when asked if he was surprised by criticism received from some fans. "From a football level I can look at it and think Adam was doing really well but unless I check my contract, my job is to manage people here and manage the individuals and manage the team day to day. "I am not just here to watch a game of football and then just have an opinion on it. We have just spoken about injuries and players getting hurt and we try our best to help a guy who has not played much and has a history of things so maybe we went on the side of caution. "But I'm not going to apologise for that because there is a bigger picture and I have more information than what people on the side with their keyboards have." It was a lively press conference on Thursday and Potter believes expectations from certain sections of the supporters outweigh the reality. Brighton have five points from their opening six matches having lost to Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton. They have two draws from Crystal Palace and West Brom with their one victory coming from an impressive 3-0 win at Newcastle. Some fans however remain frustrated that they have recorded just four wins in the past 24 league matches under Potter. "Honestly I don't know, because I don't read anything, but I get a sense," said Potter. "Have we had a good start or not based on one result is a strange reality for me. "Of course, it's all about perspective. Sometimes there's a difference between illusion and imagination and reality. "The frustration is not with the players, that's for sure, because the players give everything, I think the performances have been really, really good, we've got one of the youngest teams in the Premier League. "We've performed against Manchester United and Chelsea quite well and maybe could have got something more than we did but we didn't. "Unless I've missed something since I've been in Wales or Sweden, I don't think Brighton have ever been a top team or a top performing team. "I think when I came in, the season before they had 36 points, so I'm not sure where this perception of where we should be or whether it's bad or not comes from. "Because if we're a club that expects to win games in the Premier League just because we're Brighton, then I must have missed the memo, I must have missed something. I don't quite understand it. "For us to sit here and go, 'Oh yeah, it's a really bad start, we've got five points' in the Premier League. We've played Chelsea, Man United and Everton. I find it strange."
