Hello all.
This is my maiden post.
Before I begin... sensational performance against Arsenal yesterday. You out Arsenaled Arsenal. Kudos.
Not many teams can do that. Not just talking about in the EPL. I'm talking about teams of Earth.
Firstly, I'm not a Brighton fan. I'm a Manchester United and Scotland fan. (Scotland first, actually, as I'm Scottish)
I'm not sure what your policy is with regards to fans of rival clubs. If rival fans registering is, in any way, is frowned upon, I'll respectfully take my leave.
Talking of... The Brentford board is a funny one. On the register sheet, they give you options of what team you support. So you'd think that they encourage "outsiders". Wrong.
The admin told me, in no uncertain terms, they don't tolerate non-Brentford fans signing up.
They probably aren't used to fans of other clubs taking an interest in them.
Classic small club mentality.
Besides, there was a wee bit of a creepy "Deliverance" vibe in that place.
Before I begin on the gist of my post. Brighton have been a breath of fresh air in the EPL. Stylish, from top to bottom. And your brand of football is top four material. No question.
If you actually did finish above Manchester United, I wouldn't have complaints. United have been fractured this season.
I enjoy watching Brighton more than Manchester United.
Oh. For the record. You deserved the recent victory against Manchester United. The only disservice was the scoreline. Brighton should have won by at least three. Our midfield was lampooned.
I wanted to wait till Billy Gilmour got his feet under the table and delivered a couple of prime performance before I came out of hiding and gave you a dissertation on him.
If anyone has any trepidation over him because of his Norwich stint, don't.
The truth is, there he was, a 20 year old boy, who arrived on loan from the European Cup champions. Fresh from absolutely dominanting England's midfield in the Euros.
He joined Norwich City and the fans expected prime Zinedine Zidane and they expected him to keep them in the EPL singlehanded.
Sadly, the Norwich fans forgot that Gilmour had zero seasonal experience. Also, within their squad, they had no one of note.
They had a Championship standard team.
Gimour was a kid. He needed someone to learn from and someone to mentor him. He had no one. Usually, the senior players are better than the younger ones, but it wasn't the case at Norwich.
The older players probably learned more from Gilmour than the other way round. In fact, I'm sure of it.
I saw all of his matches at Norwich. He was perpetually two or three steps in front of his team-mates. The numbers and stats will prove that. He was just made the scapegoat.
If they had owned him, I'm positive players like Normann and McLean would've taken much more blame than Gilmour.
But they didn't, he was going back to Chelsea, so it was fair game to give him abuse and leave the other players alone.
Don't believe what you hear, though, I would say that the majority of Norwich fans rated him, but just saw him as "the right player at the wrong time".
As is the way of the Internet, the vocal troglodytic minority drown out the reasonable minded majority.
From a purely Scotland point of view, I'm glad that he received so much abuse. It thickened his skin and put hairs on his chest (Metaphorical hairs... which are now literal hairs on his fae)
The biggest compliment that I can give him is that it didn't affect his Scotland performances.
Besides, and this key, they expected an anchorman, for him to put out fires and be world class with his defensive positioning.
Or they expected him to be a box-to-box midfielder, someone who will carry the ball forward and send raking balls forward and score scorchers onto the top corner.
He's none of that:
He's a prototypical deep-lying playmaker.
The work of a DLP can go unseen by the fans, but not by their team-mates or manager. This is why he was so unappreciated by the Norwich fans.
His main attributes are setting the tempo of the match from build up to progression, all the way to creation.
He's great at both helping create space between the lines, and then breaking lines, recycling play, beating an opposition’s press and seeking spaces closer to goal.
He does the unglamorous and unsexy sexy things well, like, recycling the ball, knitting transitions together with simple backwards or sideways passes, but he has also has the passing range to switch play with darting passes.
He's great under pressure, he'll accept the ball even with a man on him.
His counter press is on a world class level. Always has been. His quickness of thought, knowing where everyone is, at all times, allied with his one time passing ability, assures him that he very rarely gets caught in possession.
His spacial awareness is also world class. His technical ability is top class His passing range is brilliant. His ball retention skills are brilliant.
He's the kind of a midfielder who keeps things ticking over and sets the tempo.
Like a metronome.
He's a naturally confident lad, which is why his performances didn't drop when the Norwich scapegoat. Given the platform, and if the manager shows trust in him, he'll bloom.
I'd say that there's a £100m player in there. And let's be honest, if Declan Rice goes for £80m-£100m then Billy Gilmour will easily cost that. The only thing that Rice beats Gilmour with is defensive positioning and physically. Everything else, Gilmour wins.
But they're two different players.
Anyway.
Hopefully, Gilmour gets a few more matches under his belt this season, leading up to the Norway and Georgia matches.
And I hope he breaks into the starting XI and becomes a permanent starter next season and ultimately fulfills his massive potential.
Best of luck for the remainder of the season.
TL;DR: "Gilmour iz gude"
This is my maiden post.
Before I begin... sensational performance against Arsenal yesterday. You out Arsenaled Arsenal. Kudos.
Not many teams can do that. Not just talking about in the EPL. I'm talking about teams of Earth.
Firstly, I'm not a Brighton fan. I'm a Manchester United and Scotland fan. (Scotland first, actually, as I'm Scottish)
I'm not sure what your policy is with regards to fans of rival clubs. If rival fans registering is, in any way, is frowned upon, I'll respectfully take my leave.
Talking of... The Brentford board is a funny one. On the register sheet, they give you options of what team you support. So you'd think that they encourage "outsiders". Wrong.
The admin told me, in no uncertain terms, they don't tolerate non-Brentford fans signing up.
They probably aren't used to fans of other clubs taking an interest in them.
Classic small club mentality.
Besides, there was a wee bit of a creepy "Deliverance" vibe in that place.
Before I begin on the gist of my post. Brighton have been a breath of fresh air in the EPL. Stylish, from top to bottom. And your brand of football is top four material. No question.
If you actually did finish above Manchester United, I wouldn't have complaints. United have been fractured this season.
I enjoy watching Brighton more than Manchester United.
Oh. For the record. You deserved the recent victory against Manchester United. The only disservice was the scoreline. Brighton should have won by at least three. Our midfield was lampooned.
I wanted to wait till Billy Gilmour got his feet under the table and delivered a couple of prime performance before I came out of hiding and gave you a dissertation on him.
If anyone has any trepidation over him because of his Norwich stint, don't.
The truth is, there he was, a 20 year old boy, who arrived on loan from the European Cup champions. Fresh from absolutely dominanting England's midfield in the Euros.
He joined Norwich City and the fans expected prime Zinedine Zidane and they expected him to keep them in the EPL singlehanded.
Sadly, the Norwich fans forgot that Gilmour had zero seasonal experience. Also, within their squad, they had no one of note.
They had a Championship standard team.
Gimour was a kid. He needed someone to learn from and someone to mentor him. He had no one. Usually, the senior players are better than the younger ones, but it wasn't the case at Norwich.
The older players probably learned more from Gilmour than the other way round. In fact, I'm sure of it.
I saw all of his matches at Norwich. He was perpetually two or three steps in front of his team-mates. The numbers and stats will prove that. He was just made the scapegoat.
If they had owned him, I'm positive players like Normann and McLean would've taken much more blame than Gilmour.
But they didn't, he was going back to Chelsea, so it was fair game to give him abuse and leave the other players alone.
Don't believe what you hear, though, I would say that the majority of Norwich fans rated him, but just saw him as "the right player at the wrong time".
As is the way of the Internet, the vocal troglodytic minority drown out the reasonable minded majority.
From a purely Scotland point of view, I'm glad that he received so much abuse. It thickened his skin and put hairs on his chest (Metaphorical hairs... which are now literal hairs on his fae)
The biggest compliment that I can give him is that it didn't affect his Scotland performances.
Besides, and this key, they expected an anchorman, for him to put out fires and be world class with his defensive positioning.
Or they expected him to be a box-to-box midfielder, someone who will carry the ball forward and send raking balls forward and score scorchers onto the top corner.
He's none of that:
He's a prototypical deep-lying playmaker.
The work of a DLP can go unseen by the fans, but not by their team-mates or manager. This is why he was so unappreciated by the Norwich fans.
His main attributes are setting the tempo of the match from build up to progression, all the way to creation.
He's great at both helping create space between the lines, and then breaking lines, recycling play, beating an opposition’s press and seeking spaces closer to goal.
He does the unglamorous and unsexy sexy things well, like, recycling the ball, knitting transitions together with simple backwards or sideways passes, but he has also has the passing range to switch play with darting passes.
He's great under pressure, he'll accept the ball even with a man on him.
His counter press is on a world class level. Always has been. His quickness of thought, knowing where everyone is, at all times, allied with his one time passing ability, assures him that he very rarely gets caught in possession.
His spacial awareness is also world class. His technical ability is top class His passing range is brilliant. His ball retention skills are brilliant.
He's the kind of a midfielder who keeps things ticking over and sets the tempo.
Like a metronome.
He's a naturally confident lad, which is why his performances didn't drop when the Norwich scapegoat. Given the platform, and if the manager shows trust in him, he'll bloom.
I'd say that there's a £100m player in there. And let's be honest, if Declan Rice goes for £80m-£100m then Billy Gilmour will easily cost that. The only thing that Rice beats Gilmour with is defensive positioning and physically. Everything else, Gilmour wins.
But they're two different players.
Anyway.
Hopefully, Gilmour gets a few more matches under his belt this season, leading up to the Norway and Georgia matches.
And I hope he breaks into the starting XI and becomes a permanent starter next season and ultimately fulfills his massive potential.
Best of luck for the remainder of the season.
TL;DR: "Gilmour iz gude"
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