[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs AEK Athens *** Official Match Thread ***

[Oh_aye]

I got home in time to watch the 2nd half live. It looked like AEK followed the WH playbook to a tee. There was just so little space to shoot through when we were in the box. We still haven't found a reliable solution to the low block and killer counter-attack after controlling play for 10 minutes.

Call it our De Zerbichilles Heel.

.

I thinknthat oversimplifies it a bit. Against West Ham we totally dominated the ball and had a tons of chances.

We were quite poor on the ball last night. It didn't stick when it went forward. We made lots of rudimentary mistakes and until late on didn't massively dominate or make many chances

It was just poor all round.

The only player who played well for me was Billy Gilmour.

 

[Comrade Sam]

We passed poorly and did not deal with their physicality. The ref was poor as well. But the thing I found most annoying was: Whilst watching a stream on my phone, the match can lag and get behind real time by a minute or two. So when my messages started pinging 3 minutes from the final whistle I watched with utter confidence a spectacular equaliser was imminent. In fact my phone pinged 10 times, previously when I looked it was mates commentating on events and it ruined the surprise. With this many pings surely 2 in the final minute awaited me. Was it bollox, just a few minutes of tut football and 10 messages about my mother in law's birthday take away on Saturday, via the family WhatsApp. f*** me I was fuming.

 

[Horses Arse]

Dunk was a massive miss last night. Thought Igor was pretty decent I’d like to see him next to Dunky sometime. Also thought Ferguson was a massive miss, start with him and Pedro instead of Pedro and Fati it’s a very different challenge for their defence.

I thought Igor was excellent. Very very good on the ball, great distribution, strong calm - thought he fitted in so well. We certainly missed the organisation and on-pitch mangement of Dunk but Igor will step up into that I think - Van Hecke suffered but defenders seem to when Dunk is missing. If Dunk alongside Igor has the same effect on Igor then we've got an absolute gem on our hands.

 

[Cordwainer]

We got a lot of things wrong tonight, but the biggest thing we got wrong was our understanding of AEK. Had they been the flimsy bunch that we’d convinced ourselves they were going to be, even this new Albion line-up would have comfortably seen them off. But they weren’t. They hadn’t come here to lay down, as some of us thought. They were confident, muscular, determined and energetic. Halfway through the first half I was comforting myself with the thought that they couldn’t keep us this energy for long but they did. The wouldn’t let us settle, they fought for everything, and ultimately they deserved this victory.

We might have got away with it if AEK had been less singleminded. But we were poor, and had nowhere to hide. I can’t think of one player I’d single out for praise. I’ve seen Fati twice now and can see his quality a mile off — but he hasn’t yet been fully integrated into the team and our style of play. What I like about him is his instinctive, decisive passing and movement. What he does, he does well. We just haven’t yet seen enough of it. It’s hard to criticise someone who won and scored two penalties but I’m afraid I don’t fully share the love for Pedro I’ve seen from some posters here. He’s elegant and gets involved in delicate interplay but in a way is the opposite of Fati in that I find him indecisive and over-elaborate sometimes. Fati sees something and goes for it. Pedro, despite his obvious ball skills and quick feet, doesn’t have such developed instincts. He seems to hesitate sometimes, as if surprised to find himself in a good position, and can make the wrong decision. But as I say, hard to be too negative about a guy who produces two excellent penalties under pressure. Pervis was inexplicably poor tonight with barely a single pass finding its target. And…. but it’s best not to go through the team as there’s almost nothing positive to say.

The one consolation for me is that it might actually do us some good. After the West Ham defeat, the bloke next to me said something similar. "Sometimes we need to be reminded not to believe all the bullshit", he said, and thought the West Ham result might be a useful kick up the arse — as the results against Newcastle and United seemed to bear out. We all know that RDZ rarely repeats his mistakes. I think it’s true that he’s never lost two games in a row here (except possibly right at the beginning) because he quickly learns from his mistakes. So I’m expecting a a big rebound against Bournemouth, and against Marseille. Disappointing though the evening was, in the long run, it might just be the reality check we all needed.

Agree with all this and posted pretty much the same last night albeit in a grumpier manner! Pedro and Fati seemed to occupy the same areas of pitch and didn’t work well together..thought Fati showed some good technique in flashes but seemed unsure of his role..not helped by Pedros lack of positional discipline. Shame Ferguson was out as I think he could have caused them issues.

 

[Horses Arse]

Just looked at the brief highlights. No argument for their first, a brilliant header. We should have dealt with their second. Am I alone in saying that Lampty was fouled as he ran towards goal for their third?
Perhaps it is the result of having a scratch back four that that have never before played together. We had a kid at centre half, I might have preferred Webster for this one.
Oh well.... it is done now and despite the excitement and it being a milestone for the club, the league is more important. Let’s see us bounce back on Sunday!

The first was Mitoma not bothering to challenge and no one coming our to meet it either - some challenge means that perfrect header is not perfect

 

[Mackenzie]

Disappointing performance and result but it’s match one of six. We can put this right.
Well played to AEK they were a good team and set of fans.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

The only embarrassing thing was how long it took to get their player onto a stretcher. Oh, & the ref missing 2 stonewall pens.

And the Lamptey assault. And booking Pedro when he didn't dive, but not their guy seconds later when he did dive.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I thought Igor was excellent. Very very good on the ball, great distribution, strong calm - thought he fitted in so well. We certainly missed the organisation and on-pitch mangement of Dunk but Igor will step up into that I think - Van Hecke suffered but defenders seem to when Dunk is missing. If Dunk alongside Igor has the same effect on Igor then we've got an absolute gem on our hands.

I know it’s a game of opinions- but blimey

 

[scwiffy]

Agree with a lot of what is being said on here but people are missing the worse performance which was De Zerbi. I thought AEK manager completely out manoeuvred him. De Zerbi needs to figure out a way to unlock these low block defences as it appears to be a successful tactic to use against us. The only positive here is that hopefully it will stop top clubs poaching him from us (as that’s they type of setup City Madrid etc face every week). The ‘pass directly to the striker for him to pass back out’ play was completely ineffective and AEK were more than happy for us to play it around like a lost cause, reminded me very strongly of some dull Potter games.

Agree with others that…
-Fati seemed anonymous (I’d prefer him out wide)
-Mitoma had a dreadful game
-We could have done with Lallana on the pitch to unlock defence
-The frustration of not shooting towards the end of the game when we needed a goal (again reminded me of the Potter days)

Other thoughts…
-Igor looked good, especially ooze quality on the ball.
-Milner is getting a hard time on here, he played fine to me, but I don’t think him and March have any chemistry.
-Lamptey was 100% at fault for 3rd goal, AEK clearly targeted long balls to his side of the pitch and it payed off for them.

Final thought. Brighton (not De Zerbi) has a deep routed set price problem. This has haunted us for many years. When I look back at all the towering players we’ve had over many years, it’s criminal how bad we are, players like Dunk, Webster, Burn, Duffy, you can even go far back as Goldson, Greer, Ulloa.

 

[peterward]

I thought Igor was excellent. Very very good on the ball, great distribution, strong calm - thought he fitted in so well. We certainly missed the organisation and on-pitch mangement of Dunk but Igor will step up into that I think - Van Hecke suffered but defenders seem to when Dunk is missing. If Dunk alongside Igor has the same effect on Igor then we've got an absolute gem on our hands.

Wow. Shows its a game of opinions.

I thought he was pretty poor, missed a great chance with a poor header, and was just too slow in transition. Gross was saying something to him and waving his hands about. (That looked like positioning?)

JPVH also off with passing couple of times. He wasn't rubbish, but he wasn't particularly good on night either. Certainly couldn't use word "excellent"

BBC player ratings ranked him as lowest for all starters of game!

 

[Horses Arse]

Wow. Shows its a game of opinions.

I thought he was pretty poor, missed a great chance with a poor header, and was just too slow in transition. Gross was saying something to him and waving his hands about. (That looked like positioning?)

JPVH also off with passing couple of times. He wasn't rubbish, but he wasn't particularly good on night either. Certainly couldn't use word "excellent"

BBC player ratings ranked him as lowest for all starters of game!

Those ratings are always off. The header wasn't poor but was off target for sure. I didn't see him put a foot wrong and he was great on the ball I thought.

Understand re transition but was that him or the options available? Would have to watch it back and there's no way I'm doing that!

...and, just for a laugh about ratings and opinions check this out

 

[nicko31]

Poor performance but our standard but a historic night all the same, never got so wet leaving the Amex!!!!

Draw would have been a fair result

 

[heathgate]

Adingra looked good when he cqme on.

JPVH was decent but missed having Dunk besise him

I am sorry, JPVH was a disaster all night, he struggled to even get good head contact on regulation clearences that Dunk does in his sleep, he got turned and was 'wrong side' on a number of occasions... he also gave the ball away with sloppy passes, particularly in the first half.

 

[pb21]

The header wasn't poor but was off target.

I thought Igor was OK generally, but that header 'should' have been on target at least.

In fact I thought everyone was OK generally, it didn't click though, possibly not surprising given a lot of different players.

 

[heathgate]

The first was Mitoma not bothering to challenge and no one coming our to meet it either - some challenge means that perfrect header is not perfect

Look at the replay,... Mitoma shifted across and was actually marking the ref,... I kid you not.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Interesting opinions.
I felt JPVH was struggling with having Igor as a partner.

First half, all of Igors passes seemed under-hit which slowed us down/made us lose possession.
Centre-backs fizzing passes into our midfielders, is a crucial part of our game.

Igor grew into the game and you can see he will be quality once he gets up to speed.
But it cost us last night.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

And the Lamptey assault. And booking Pedro when he didn't dive, but not their guy seconds later when he did dive.

Only THAT ref could book De Zerbi for a dreadful foul on OUR full back. The guy really shouldn’t be officiating at this level.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Just looked at the brief highlights. No argument for their first, a brilliant header. We should have dealt with their second. Am I alone in saying that Lampty was fouled as he ran towards goal for their third?
Perhaps it is the result of having a scratch back four that that have never before played together. We had a kid at centre half, I might have preferred Webster for this one.
Oh well.... it is done now and despite the excitement and it being a milestone for the club, the league is more important. Let’s see us bounce back on Sunday!

Whilst it was a brilliant header that he could probably only put in the top corner once out of ten attempts, he had all the time in the world to get the perfect contact and place it into the corner, there’s no way we should have allowed him that much space on the edge of the box. Mitoma should have been much closer and could have put him off. Quite a basic mistake on our part.

 

[Simster]

I thought Igor was excellent. Very very good on the ball, great distribution, strong calm - thought he fitted in so well. We certainly missed the organisation and on-pitch mangement of Dunk but Igor will step up into that I think - Van Hecke suffered but defenders seem to when Dunk is missing. If Dunk alongside Igor has the same effect on Igor then we've got an absolute gem on our hands.

Good LORD.

I will say Igor looked alright in the second half going forward (and a massive improvement on the first half), but what the actual f*ck was he doing for the winning goal? Christ.

 

[Cordwainer]

Whilst it was a brilliant header that he could probably only put in the top corner once out of ten attempts, he had all the time in the world to get the perfect contact and place it into the corner, there’s no way we should have allowed him that much space on the edge of the box. Mitoma should have been much closer and could have put him off. Quite a basic mistake on our part.

exactly..looked like it came of the top part of his bonce to me..if that was a placed header..then fair dos lot of misfortune in the other two goals conceded but that doesn’t take away from the poor play that coughed up the opportunities in the first place.