Brighton and Hove Albion v Derby County ****Official Match Thread****

[brakespear]

Well we need to be a little more positive in the next game. It's no good putting crosses in to Ulloa on his own in the box unless they are 100% accurate. Our delivery was awful.We do not get enough players into the box when we have a cross coming in during open play. All too slow and predictable.

Sound familiar? WE ARE NOT BARCELONA!!!!! We are Brighton and need to realise that.

Absolutely this, no point putting hit and hope crosses into the box with only one player to receive it - even they get a touch there's no-one there to follow up. And NO MORE SHORT CORNERS!!!!!

edit: also, no more crosses to the back post when the tactics don't seem to allow for anybody to be there.

 

[Buckley's Chance]

Derby one shot on target but 2-1 is just such a depressing stat! Still we're in it I suppose.

 

[brakespear]

First quick look on the Beeb site:

Martin 29′ (pen)
Kuszczak 45′ (og)

Just got in from work -- expected on the strength of two parenthesized goals to see a lot of grousing about bad luck, and bad refs.
Instead, a chorus of 'We suck!'.

What the hell's up with that?

We weren't unlucky with the penalty and we were with the OG - it balances out

 

[maltaseagull]

Derby - 1 shot on target, 2 goals.

They won't get that luck again in the 2nd leg.

The Derby keeper being MOM says it all.

Can still turn this round.

I would love to think you are right, but am sorry to say that it looks like we can have 80% possession and loads of goal attempts and still concede from a team that can break faster than our ageing defence. We looked in trouble every time they crossed the half way line whereas we looked dangerous if we got the ball in the penalty area sometimes.

JFC,Orlandi,Lua Lua were non effective. Buckley was good until he got injured AGAIN. Ulloa isolated yet again.

 

[Hamilton]

The more I think about it, we were quite unlucky.

The first 25 minutes we easily matched them and scored.

Second part of the first half they were great - very direct - but their goal came from a penalty (fairly won) and a lucky deflection.

Second half was practically all us and we hit the woodwork. We managed to deal with their directness and looked strong enough in defence.

On top of this we were still making errors in passing and yet they couldn't capitalise.

Was we robbed? Not quite, but you can make a case for saying a draw would have easily been a fair result.

Am I confident about Sunday? No. Do I think we could still do it? Yes.

 

[Smile]

"The more I think about it, we were quite unlucky.

The first 25 minutes we easily matched them and scored.

Second part of the first half they were great - very direct - but their goal came from a penalty (fairly won) and a lucky deflection.

Second half was practically all us and we hit the woodwork. We managed to deal with their directness and looked strong enough in defence.

On top of this we were still making errors in passing and yet they couldn't capitalise.

Was we robbed? Not quite, but you can make a case for saying a draw would have easily been a fair result.

Am I confident about Sunday? No. Do I think we could still do it? Yes."


Spot on

 

[KZNSeagull]

Unlucky, think we played well. More disappointed with the fans.

That was the most disappointing thing for me. They seemed up for it early on and the team responded - we played very well for the first 25 minutes or so. Crowd were deathly quiet after that.

It is not over yet - I still think we can do this.

 

[Simon Morgan]

I suppose one good thing about being behind at the halfway stage is that when we go to their place we cannot afford to be as static, ponderous and predictable as we were going forward in the second half this evening. Something has got to give. A 1-goal lead is a fragile one but an early goal for them makes it very very difficult. We need to give more support to Ulloa, we need more direction in midfield and we generally just need to be quicker on the ball. Far from the end of the world, and I think much of tonight hinged on their first goal, which was the turning point in the game. However, I must say I was very disappointed with our play in the second half.

 

[maltaseagull]

The more I think about it, we were quite unlucky.

The first 25 minutes we easily matched them and scored.

Second part of the first half they were great - very direct - but their goal came from a penalty (fairly won) and a lucky deflection.

Second half was practically all us and we hit the woodwork. We managed to deal with their directness and looked strong enough in defence.

On top of this we were still making errors in passing and yet they couldn't capitalise.

Was we robbed? Not quite, but you can make a case for saying a draw would have easily been a fair result.

Am I confident about Sunday? No. Do I think we could still do it? Yes.

Hope you are right. I do agree with your comments but also think we are too slow and lack quality in the delivery. It's a shame Norwich are going down as maybe Elliott Bennett would have been released and he would be the sort of player we need. Maybe Kemy can get back in favour too.

 

[Hamilton]

Hope you are right. I do agree with your comments but also think we are too slow and lack quality in the delivery. It's a shame Norwich are going down as maybe Elliott Bennett would have been released and he would be the sort of player we need. Maybe Kemy can get back in favour too.

I agree with that. We lack the end product and the directness Derby showed.

 

[Seagull]

Got to a pub after work and saw the last 30 mins. Cannot believe we lost, Derby showed almost nothing. We were all over them. It's half time and we look the better side. We can still win this tie. C'mon you blues!

 

[lasvegan]

Everest OUT!

 

[matbha]

Unlucky, think we played well. More disappointed with the fans.

Why thought we were good and noisy

 

[Blue3]

I was quite impressed with the Albion think CMS should have come on sooner Orlandi shows what a fantastic crosser he is shame he is just not fit enough

 

[JCL]

Garcia has a lot of questions to answer. There was no urgency, tactically void and worst of all the team line up.

Tactically, we were being bullied off the ball far too much because of the strength of their midfield. The stubbornness to change how we play is an issue, as we will be pushed off the pack and ran amok by bigger built teams such as Derby. The 4-3-3 doesn't appear to work for our team, this is blindingly obvious. We don't have the midfield maestros capable of pulling those audacious passes let alone simple passes. 4-3-3 requires each and every player to have an option to pass which is why it's often the most patient based football system.

We're not playing to our strengths, we have a big targetman and a speedy forward. Yet we isolate the big man and shove the speedy forward on the wing. We had JFC and Orlandi shown to be out of their depth, bullied, passing inadequately etc. To me, we played the most defeatist possible way we could have. We allowed them too much time on the ball, and when we were on the break Ulloa was isolated and we'd still cross which lead to the immediate break.

However, Derby didn't look threatening in the final third. Their breaks were fast and deadly but they were incapable of converting. Sunday is now or nothing, I hope Garcia ditches his ideological and calculated approach and takes on a pragmatic and more risked based approach. We have nothing to lose now, and everything to gain. The pressure is most certainly on Derby.

Very much this!

 

[Tubby-McFat-Fuc]

Garcia has a lot of questions to answer. There was no urgency, tactically void and worst of all the team line up.

Tactically, we were being bullied off the ball far too much because of the strength of their midfield. The stubbornness to change how we play is an issue, as we will be pushed off the pack and ran amok by bigger built teams such as Derby. The 4-3-3 doesn't appear to work for our team, this is blindingly obvious. We don't have the midfield maestros capable of pulling those audacious passes let alone simple passes. 4-3-3 requires each and every player to have an option to pass which is why it's often the most patient based football system.

We're not playing to our strengths, we have a big targetman and a speedy forward. Yet we isolate the big man and shove the speedy forward on the wing. We had JFC and Orlandi shown to be out of their depth, bullied, passing inadequately etc. To me, we played the most defeatist possible way we could have. We allowed them too much time on the ball, and when we were on the break Ulloa was isolated and we'd still cross which lead to the immediate break.

However, Derby didn't look threatening in the final third. Their breaks were fast and deadly but they were incapable of converting. Sunday is now or nothing, I hope Garcia ditches his ideological and calculated approach and takes on a pragmatic and more risked based approach. We have nothing to lose now, and everything to gain. The pressure is most certainly on Derby.

Spot on!

Unfortunately he wont change.

 

[GreersElbow]

Spot on!

Unfortunately he wont change.

Maybe, but the way we played against forest towards the end showed urgency, there wasn't much patience and it was attacking not patient in the way we saw before. Let's hope the players grasp this idea of now or never.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Couple of points:

As stated many times above - they had ONE shot on target and that was the PENALTY. This indicates we defended well against one of the most free-scoring attacks in the division - good work.

Several have complained about the 3rd sub being held back too long. I think OG was being cautious as Ward was carrying a knock as well as both full backs being on a yellow. If we'd lost either of them in the last 15-20 mins I suspect OG would have wanted to sacrifice a midfielder / striker to bring on Chicksen or Dunk - so maybe wise to hold that final sub back until 82 mins given the circumstances?

We know we are a decent side away from home - we start on Sunday a goal down - critical we do NOT concede first. An early goal for us to level things up will maybe give them the jitters.

Keep the faith ....

 

[Acker79]

I've been pessimistic since perseus started his poll-laden (pre) match thread yesterday. Now he comes in here trying to question Everest as if to make people think this is the thread to blame.

Remember, people. It was perseus who is to blame, not Everest.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Very proud of my boys tonight. Both teams had stonewall penalties & hit the bar; they got lucky and got 2 but we'll be back harder and stronger !