[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs Burnley *** Official Match Thread ***

[raymondo]

Would Ferguson be continuing to start if we didn't have as many injuries? The ability is there, but was v poor today and has been for a while. A rest would help when we have numbers back.

I think RDZ hoping Ferguson can play himself back into form

 

[peterward]

I sort of appreciate the need to rotate and give players a rest - but TBH I'd rather we tried resting them in the second half of matches, not the first!

Watching Villa v Arsenal who are 1 up and Emery fielding same team as last 2. They're in europe too.

This tinkerman stuff, injury/suspension aside, may have some advantage but also disadvantages.

 

[Triggaaar]

Blimey.

That first half was like a recurring dream from the Potter era.

The Potter era was a good one (despite regularly failing to convert chances)

We were crap first half. It happens. No drama.

But our overall play in the first half was still better than theirs.

If they didn't get their lucky goal, and we'd converted one of our chances, everyone here would be saying at half time 'not at our best, but too good for Burnley'. But they scored, so we're shit.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Agreed, and we miss Fati for playing through the middle... I think.

Just once in a while would like to see one of our 1-2’s around the D resulting in the 2 being a first time shot and catching the keeper off guard, a hand ball or favourable deflection, which we have been on the receiving end plenty of times.

I think it would really make a difference, feel we are becoming too careful again

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I understand RDZ's desire to rotate to save legs, but what frustrates me is why he doesn't put his strongest XI out at the beginning of the game with the aim of making a strong start, securing the game with, say, a 2 goal lead and THEN swapping out Mitoma, Gilmour etc. for Milner, Buonanotte... to keep the lead shored up. I dislike the idea of putting out a weaker team against the lower sides in the vague hope of beating them and sparing the better players. Time and again we've seen that strategy fail by handing the initiative to weaker opposition, and giving them unexpected confidence - forcing Roberto to make sweeping changes later in the game in a desperate attempt to claw something back. I'd like him to put out his best possible team every game, then take it from there.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Looked immediately more threatening when Mitoma and Gilmour came on

 

[GT49er]

But if we'd gone in 1 up instead of 1 down, we could have rested them for even longer, and had them fresh for Marseille.

But we didn't. And starting sluggishly and giving the opponents a foothold seems to be becoming a bit of a pattern.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Only 3 teams have scored more than us, but you think that's the problem?

The truth is that we've got a lot of injuries and we're rotating players who aren't on the same wavelength, and playing people out of position, so we're making mistakes. We're also bedding new players who aren't up to it yet.

Van Hecke was fairly poor when he first played for us (to be expected), but now he's great. Dahoud hasn't played well for us yet (bar the friendlies in the states) - maybe he'll make the grade, maybe he won't, but we don't have the luxury of buying ready made talent, so we bring new players in and lose points as a result.

scoring 1 from 29 is a problem , if we could finish we would be in the CL spot. 8 points dropped against teams who we were much better than in open play and possession but unfortunately neither of those really count .

Dahoud was acquired as the finished article ,Van Hecke is still learning.

Team slelection was the issue - easy to say i know after the fact but best team on at start and leading puts us in a better position to rotate...All about opinions though.

 

[raymondo]

P

Just once in a while would like to see one of our 1-2’s around the D resulting in the 2 being a first time shot and catching the keeper off guard, a hand ball or favourable deflection, which we have been on the receiving end plenty of times.

I think it would really make a difference, feel we are becoming too careful again

Yep, our 1-2s are usually out on the wing. The last successful one I remember in the box was Adingra-Buonanotte-Adingra.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

We took time to get going, but we were the better side in the first half. One deflected goal doesn't change that. Yeah, bad luck and a keeper doing well, that's fair. So you agree that we had bad luck. Then you agree that Burnley were lucky. Or is that too complicated for you?

We were the better team, without doubt. But we didn't take our chances, which I don't think is being unlucky.

A few posters have complained about our performance, and I've disagreed with them. You called us League 2 or something, and I disagreed. .......

I struggle to know how to summarise a situation where one side makes tons of chances but fails to score (well, once as in our case today). Are we good for creating the chances through skilful build-up play? Or bad/unlucky for not converting them? You can argue both cases.

 

[DJ NOBO]

The Potter era was a good one (despite regularly failing to convert chances)



But our overall play in the first half was still better than theirs.

If they didn't get their lucky goal, and we'd converted one of our chances, everyone here would be saying at half time 'not at our best, but too good for Burnley'. But they scored, so we're shit.

100% agree that we dominated that first half.
But come on, you’ve been watching Albion since God was a boy.
You know , in those kind of games when we don’t score , we tend to concede.
So I stand by my original point - that that first half goal was coming. It was no surprise.
Certainly not going by the possession stats, but going by several past experiences at the Amex.
PS Potter era was good. But incredibly frustrating.

 

[Machiavelli]

The Potter era was a good one (despite regularly failing to convert chances)



But our overall play in the first half was still better than theirs.

If they didn't get their lucky goal, and we'd converted one of our chances, everyone here would be saying at half time 'not at our best, but too good for Burnley'. But they scored, so we're shit.

We were crap in the first half. The fact that we weren't much better than one of the PL's most awful sides in years who were playing away from home is neither here nor there.
We were much better in the second half but, ultimately, didn't take our chances.

 

[London Irish]

So frustrating. RDZ definitely did not get the best out of his players today. It was the kind of performance that does make you feel qualifying for Europe again could be beyond us this season - enjoy these Thursdays while we have them

 

[Triggaaar]

100% agree that we dominated that first half.
But come on, you’ve been watching Albion since God was a boy.

I'm old, but not that old.

You know , in those kind of games when we don’t score , we tend to concede.

It feels like that because it's so bloody frustrating. It definitely happens, but is it that regular?

So I stand by my original point - that that first half goal was coming. It was no surprise.

How many of us were surprised - not many. But 'it was coming'? Nah. I imagine Burnley fans were surprised.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

But we didn't. And starting sluggishly and giving the opponents a foothold seems to be becoming a bit of a pattern.

That casually stroking the ball around at the back without any sense of urgency sometimes backfires badly and encourages inferior opponents to take the game to us

 

[chickens]

Well, I’m never the best fan (am very rarely there) but I surpassed myself today.

Sat down to listen to the match and woke up just in time to hear Johnny saying something along the lines of, “…so there we have it, Brighton have run out of time to get the winner.”

Am a bit annoyed that I missed the entire match, but on the plus side I clearly really did need some sleep.

 

[oldboyroy]

Watching Villa v Arsenal who are 1 up and Emery fielding same team as last 2. They're in europe too.

This tinkerman stuff, injury/suspension aside, may have some advantage but also disadvantages.

Villa have better players than us?

 

[Triggaaar]

We were the better team, without doubt. But we didn't take our chances, which I don't think is being unlucky.

But you'd agree their deflected goal was lucky? So if we weren't unlucky, we'd have won 1-0.

I struggle to know how to summarise a situation where one side makes tons of chances but fails to score (well, more than one as in our case today). Are we good for creating the chances through skilful build-up play? Or bad/unlucky for not converting them? You can argue both cases.

Yes, fair. But we know that luck does exist. If you have a load of shots that don't quite find the corner, you can partly say a better striker (Kane) would have found the corner, but you also know your strikers would find the corner once in every 3 or 4 efforts (for example) and if they have 12 shots and don't find the corner, there's a bit of bad luck there.

What was the XG for the game? I'm sure that'll tell a bit of the story.

 

[Seagull58]

Good point. Biiiiig match coming up Thursday. Let's get behind the boys and make a right old racket.

Poor point. We cannot keep giving 2 points to relegation-fodder teams. It's a bad, bad trend

 

[London Irish]

I understand RDZ's desire to rotate to save legs, but what frustrates me is why he doesn't put his strongest XI out at the beginning of the game with the aim of making a strong start, securing the game with, say, a 2 goal lead and THEN swapping out Mitoma, Gilmour etc. for Milner, Buonanotte... to keep the lead shored up. I dislike the idea of putting out a weaker team against the lower sides in the vague hope of beating them and sparing the better players. Time and again we've seen that strategy fail by handing the initiative to weaker opposition, and giving them unexpected confidence - forcing Roberto to make sweeping changes later in the game in a desperate attempt to claw something back. I'd like him to put out his best possible team every game, then take it from there.

I don’t mind rotation but it’s December and we are still trying new formations and players in roles they’ve not played before. Absolutely meat and drink to well drilled if limited sides like Burnley. Did Baleba work at centre back? Was Gross effective at RB? Did Pedro look comfortable with the defensive chores out on the wing? It looked a total mess to me at times and gave Burnley a foothold in this the game we should not have gifted them. This is the real difference between us and a side like Villa at the moment - they look ruthless in what they do and we look like ambitious dreamers who think we can put out a different team in a different formation every game