[Albion] Carlos Baleba

[Van Cleef]

Ooff.
He was levels above EVERY player on the pitch.

This 100%. I'm amazed anyone could find anything to criticise about his performance.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I just don’t get this line of argument, which seems to surface every time late flags are discussed. How is the lateness of the flag in any way related to an injury? They could just as easily be injured after an early flag and a quick restart.

Of course, but it is a lot more galling for it to happen when the ball is effectively dead.

Given that these are likely goal scoring positions, I would suggest the injury risk is heightened.

As you highlight, an injury can happen at any time, but as a manager/coach you want the ball to be ‘live’.

 

[martin tyler]

Did the half dozen Ipswich counter attacks not concern you, they ripped us to shreds? JPVH I think last ditch saved us twice, whilst some awful finishing by them saved the day. So open to pace.

First half they didn’t really create anything bar the very first attack with a brilliant ball in the box.
They set up quite well I thought. 4 attacking all had pace and in Delap they also had a bit of power. We defended that very well in first half and pressed well when they went short.

2nd half there were 2/3 solo counters by them. The Delap one I think we may have under estimated his pace a bit, Hutchinson also had a decent run from half way. I couldn’t think of many others where we were opened up. There expected goals was 0.49 ours was 1.72.

 

[Flounce]

BEAST, that’s all

 

[Hiheidi]

 

[brighton_tom]

You can tell that he's really starting to believe in himself and his confidence in building. A joy to watch.

 

[Zeberdi]

You can tell that he's really starting to believe in himself and his confidence in building. A joy to watch.

It helps when you don’t have a manager telling the world and his wife in a presser that one day you could be the best midfielder in Europe but at the moment you are not even ready for the Premier League.

It seems he plays better when he has the freedom to carry the ball into the central midfield ->attacking areas than making him sit at the back as the one half of the CDM pivot.

That’s probably a testament to Húrzeler’s system of using players in a more fluid positional role and encouraging them to carry the ball into whatever area of the pitch play happens to be dictating - Baleba may not be the only break out player this season.