Adam Webster believes having no crowds has helped him to become more vocal on the pitch.

Albion have not played in front of a full house at the Amex since their 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last February.

One positive the defender has found is that he has been able to work on being more vocal.

Despite only being in his mid-20s, the centre back is seen as one of the senior players in a young Albion side along with the likes of Lewis Dunk, Joel Veltman, Adam Lallana, and Danny Welbeck.

Webster was asked whether he sees himself as a leader and a future skipper, to which he said: “I think so.

“That has been one of the positives from having no crowd.

“When there is a crowd you cannot hear the person five yards away from you, let alone 50 yards away.

“Whereas now you can use that to your advantage, and if you need to tell the striker something or communicate, it does make things a lot easier.

“I feel that is a strong part of my game and is something I have worked on quite a lot over the last two or three years I’d say and being more comfortable with it.

“It is something I want to do in the future.

“But I feel like I have done ever since I was a kid and then when you come into a first-team environment and there are more senior players you maybe take a step back.

“But now I feel like because we have such a young squad still, so I feel like I am one of the more senior members and feel I can help players.

“I can also use it to my advantage when there is no crowd, we have got to make the most of it while we can because as soon as there are fans back you will not be able to hear a thing and that can be tricky.”

This season Graham Potter’s side have dropped the most points in the division from winning positions (20).

But Webster believes the Seagulls would have fared better in some of those games with a crowd when they were trying to hold a lead.

He said: “We have probably missed that a lot, to be honest.

“It is not a good stat but I keep seeing it, when I am watching the games on TV, that we have dropped a lot of points this season from winning positions.

“Now there does not seem to be a real advantage of being at home, you see it across the whole league.

“If you got 30,000 Brighton fans there and you are 1-0 up, you are going to see out the game a bit differently and it will definitely help us having that home advantage.

“So, I think that is something we are all looking forward to having back.”

Webster also admits that not having supporters urging them to get forward has allowed them to put into place Potter’s philosophies and playing style on the pitch.

He said: “I think sometimes the fans want to ball forward and they want to see exciting football and goals.

“But sometimes it has allowed us to stay a bit more patient in terms of the way we want to build up and open up teams.

“So, it probably has helped us evolve a bit in that way, but everyone is dying for the fans to get back.

“It is mad to see an old game and there is a full stadium it just looks weird.

“As players, we will have to adapt when the fans do come back.

“As professionals we have to show if the fans are being a bit impatient we have got to deal with and stick to our beliefs and do what we need to do to try and win the game.”