Sussex Nomad
Well-known member
Brighton manager Gus Poyet:
"It was one mistake. We played the kind of football that if you make a mistake it will be expensive.
"But I'm proud and Brighton is back to its best, playing against a Premiership team and not letting them touch the ball for I don't know how long.
"It was one-way traffic. The whole game was the same, someone wants to play and go forward and someone wants to defend but unfortunately it didn't work with the result. Gary Dicker has an ankle problem but we will know more tomorrow."
Taken from the BBC
Now, this is the first live game I have seen Brighton play on the tellybox this season. When I am there, not far from the tv view actually, I am carried away by passion, atmosphere and singing. Today it was easier to be critical and praiseworthy about our performance from afar. I have to say I absolutely 100% disagree with Gus. From my position in a chair in a pub, being the only one watching it in north London for obvious reasons (Championship, East end v Sussex, not even top of the table, if you didn't understand), I have some thoughts of my own.
The most glaring thought I have is that our central midfield is excruciatingly weak. Nooney was the star he will be one day in the Prem and I forgive Bridcutt an uncharacteristic mistake. But we have been found out now, since Palace and maybe a little earlier. Pressure us on the ball and we fall to pieces. I don't even have a bad word to say about our back four (remember this is on tonight's performance). Our central midfield gets packed out, we don't have strength and we lose possession. Once we lose it the defence is under pressure, and to be fair I understand now why Greer is on three yellows and Dunk has served a suspension. They have nowhere to go. They have to constantly take one for the team. From my position as armchair pundit tonight, I think we seriously need to look at the midfield and our constant loss of possession by them in dangerous situations, exemplified by the West Ham goal. I will also question what we have as a front pair, as I remember just one glaring moment when a ball was perfectly flicked on by Macka I think to.... no-one, no-one was pairing up. All good teams defend from the front to the back and quite frankly I can't see our shape in central midfield, and when I do see it I see us being out-muscled literally every time, if we aren't giving the ball away yet again under pressure.
Please don't get me wrong I have been as vociferous as many about supporting Gus to get us to be this dream team and I will still shout it from the roof tops. But from my first armchair game I have seen a complete shambles through the middle of the park that leaves our defence bare and them taking all the yellow cards for said midfield. I'm not campaigning for anything, I am not complaining, I am just telling it as I saw it.
We were not playing a premiership team and it was not one way traffic as Gus would like to tell us... our 62% traffic could be tempered by the 4 on target to their 3. Our possession tends to come from the 30% we pass it around the back whilst other teams sit around and wait, and when they pressure us unexpectedly as was the case tonight they score.
I'm sure it will get better but I didn't see a team for me to have a lot to be confident about. We had no spine through the middle. And if we cannot command that middle patch of the island we are going to lose more than we win.
Still... onwards and upwards! I still believe.
"It was one mistake. We played the kind of football that if you make a mistake it will be expensive.
"But I'm proud and Brighton is back to its best, playing against a Premiership team and not letting them touch the ball for I don't know how long.
"It was one-way traffic. The whole game was the same, someone wants to play and go forward and someone wants to defend but unfortunately it didn't work with the result. Gary Dicker has an ankle problem but we will know more tomorrow."
Taken from the BBC
Now, this is the first live game I have seen Brighton play on the tellybox this season. When I am there, not far from the tv view actually, I am carried away by passion, atmosphere and singing. Today it was easier to be critical and praiseworthy about our performance from afar. I have to say I absolutely 100% disagree with Gus. From my position in a chair in a pub, being the only one watching it in north London for obvious reasons (Championship, East end v Sussex, not even top of the table, if you didn't understand), I have some thoughts of my own.
The most glaring thought I have is that our central midfield is excruciatingly weak. Nooney was the star he will be one day in the Prem and I forgive Bridcutt an uncharacteristic mistake. But we have been found out now, since Palace and maybe a little earlier. Pressure us on the ball and we fall to pieces. I don't even have a bad word to say about our back four (remember this is on tonight's performance). Our central midfield gets packed out, we don't have strength and we lose possession. Once we lose it the defence is under pressure, and to be fair I understand now why Greer is on three yellows and Dunk has served a suspension. They have nowhere to go. They have to constantly take one for the team. From my position as armchair pundit tonight, I think we seriously need to look at the midfield and our constant loss of possession by them in dangerous situations, exemplified by the West Ham goal. I will also question what we have as a front pair, as I remember just one glaring moment when a ball was perfectly flicked on by Macka I think to.... no-one, no-one was pairing up. All good teams defend from the front to the back and quite frankly I can't see our shape in central midfield, and when I do see it I see us being out-muscled literally every time, if we aren't giving the ball away yet again under pressure.
Please don't get me wrong I have been as vociferous as many about supporting Gus to get us to be this dream team and I will still shout it from the roof tops. But from my first armchair game I have seen a complete shambles through the middle of the park that leaves our defence bare and them taking all the yellow cards for said midfield. I'm not campaigning for anything, I am not complaining, I am just telling it as I saw it.
We were not playing a premiership team and it was not one way traffic as Gus would like to tell us... our 62% traffic could be tempered by the 4 on target to their 3. Our possession tends to come from the 30% we pass it around the back whilst other teams sit around and wait, and when they pressure us unexpectedly as was the case tonight they score.
I'm sure it will get better but I didn't see a team for me to have a lot to be confident about. We had no spine through the middle. And if we cannot command that middle patch of the island we are going to lose more than we win.
Still... onwards and upwards! I still believe.
