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

[Robinjakarta]

Poor result, can’t believe how quickly some are turning on RDZ and some of our players though

Somewhere in Sweden, amongst an avalanche of pizza boxes and draped in the smoke from a massive bifta, Swanny is pointing out to himself how Potter would have handled that so much better.

It's as if he was still here judging from some of the posts on this thread.

 

[BN41Albion]

I think Europe is probably a bridge too far for the team now. We’ve lost three of the last six league matches, with the last two of those being increasingly worrying. That frailty doesn’t bode well with fixtures against the top three coming up. Means it’s all the more likely we’ll need something from our last match, away to our bogey side. Sure, it’s still in our hands but I’m not seeing huge grounds for optimism. Perhaps it’s just self preservation on my part and getting my crushing disappointment in early. We’ll see.

You say that, but then look at Spurs - lost 3 of their last 5. Villa suddenly hit a dodgy patch after flying for what seems like forever. MU only won one of their last 5. Liverpool out of the teams we could realistically finish above have been the only ones suddenly hitting form! Yes we've lost 2 of the last 4 but forest can definitely be excused and the other two we won by smashing wolves and playing excellently v united. Hardly like we're in terrible form.

As amazing as the season has been, I'm not going to lie if we don't have Europe for the first time in our history at the end of it I'd be really disappointed. Who knows when we may have such a fantastic opportunity again!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

stats don't lie , they showed we had plenty of the ball , just didn't do much with it.

78% of statistics are wrong, though.

 

[chickens]

Then what can we say? He got today horribly wrong and if he can be praised as highly as he is then he can be examined negatively also. He was woeful today and showed arrogance

I don’t think you’ll find anyone claiming that yesterday was a triumph.

However, it’s obvious to any half-interested spectator that the way we set up is high-risk and relies on us retaining possession as we pass through the press. If we have an off day (as we did at Forest and again last night) then we’ll give the opposition chances.

That doesn’t invalidate RDZ’s style of play, which has brought us many victories and is a joy to watch, nor does it mean we should turn on our players, who will already be painfully aware that yesterday was not their best.

RDZ was trying to rotate a pretty compact squad he’s inherited. He came in with the season already started, and he’s worked miracles.

The downside of his style is that when it goes wrong, it’s really obvious it’s gone wrong. It’s easy with hindsight to tell that how we set up didn’t work, but RDZ will have acted thinking of the whole squad to get us through the run-in. He made significant changes that improved us in the second half, but we’ve paid the price by losing Solly, who he was obviously trying to protect.

We’re going to have this happen to us a few times a season, and this is the price for the way we play when we’re winning. On to the next match, wishing the best to the whole team, and a speedy recovery to Solly.

 

[Seagull58]

It was no smash and grab. Everton totally deserved it. We lost it in the first 35 seconds.

The stats indicate it was a smash and grab. We had 78% possession, 23 shots,, 5 on target and one goal. They had 5 shots with 5 on target and 5 goals. If we'd swapped the keepers we would probably have won.

 

[Normandy seagull]

It was a joke.. and I was born in Brighton and I'm still here, unlike you..

Fair enough- bad timing pal. I hope you are still as pissed off about yesterdays match as me

 

[Seagull58]

They scored 4 out of their 5 shots on target. I think the 5th would’ve been the one blocked by Dunk’s knee towards the end of he first half.

Yes, the cross that Steele kneed into his own goal was not a shot on target. In contrast, we hit the bar twice, hit the post (deflected onto it by Prickford) and had at least 3 other good shots saved. Jordan(Tony Schumacher) Prickford should have had a red card for assaulting Ali Mac.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Fair enough- bad timing pal. I hope you are still as pissed off about yesterdays match as me

Yesterday was a bad day at the office, today alot of people will have one of those.

 

[nwgull]

Thank god we only have 1 more bottom table team to play against this season.
Saints are all but gone, but looking at the results against us from the teams around them, they will think they have a chance.
Oh, and forget Europe.
All the best players will go in the summer, which may make RDZ's position difficult and he may defect back to Italy, for which there are already rumours
The season gas been a memorable ine though, plenty of highs as well as lows.

We are still odds on to finish in the top 6, never mind the top 7.

And we won't be selling all the best players in the summer. We might accept very big offers for one or two, but we're in a position of financial strength after the last 2 seasons. This isn't some sort of relegation scenario where we can no longer sustain wages of our first-choice players.

 

[bazbha]

Only tiny crumb of comfort is that it increases the likelihood of dirty Leeds going down.

 

[BLOCK F]

I don't think we will, that was a baptism of fire for RDZ against the Dyche, who was probably targeting this game.

Fair play to him.

I went for a quick pint before the game, not at all confident at all. Didn't quite expect it to go like that, but knew it would he hard.

At our level playing sexy football, we are always going to get undone every now and then against a manager like Dyche.

Doesn't get the credit he deserves.

I hope you are right and I am wrong.

 

[Monkey Man]

I feel less angsty about this defeat than I have done about narrow defeats in games we should have won.

We were tonked at home and never in the game. Outfought and outmanoeuvred. The score line didn’t flatter Everton but it may have slightly flattered us. In short, we deserved to lose.

So we take our medicine, we hopefully learn some lessons, and we try to come back stronger.

For us fans: maybe it’s a slight reality check. We’re very good, but perhaps not yet quite as good as we were starting to believe.

 

[willalbion]

The stats indicate it was a smash and grab. We had 78% possession, 23 shots,, 5 on target and one goal. They had 5 shots with 5 on target and 5 goals. If we'd swapped the keepers we would probably have won.

Totally disagree, it’s all about opinions. They utterly owned us in the first half. We competed second,they had a plan and carried it out to perfection. They scored 5. Hardly a last minute fluke. Sometimes you get done by a better team in the day.

 

[Mellotron]

Think you're still operating in a Potter world. In the RDZ world, we score goals.

Yeah about that...

 

[Mellotron]

For us fans: maybe it’s a slight reality check. We’re very good, but perhaps not yet quite as good as we were starting to believe.

I think it's the point RDZ is making a lot at the moment - we're an excellent side on our day with everything set up right, but not a side ready yet for 2/3 big games a week. That's where we want to get to, and that's about mentality as much as squad depth.

 

[Mellotron]

Totally disagree, it’s all about opinions. They utterly owned us in the first half. We competed second,they had a plan and carried it out to perfection. They scored 5. Hardly a last minute fluke. Sometimes you get done by a better team in the day.

Yup. They absolutely nailed their game plan and got the game won in the first half. Just got to hold your hands up sometimes and acknowledge it.

Hopefully RDZ will see Dyche coming next season and have something better in place, we looked very naive first half.

 

[Springal]

I think it's the point RDZ is making a lot at the moment - we're an excellent side, but not a side ready yet for 2/3 big games a week. That's where we want to get to, and that's about mentality as much as squad depth.

I do wonder what came with more pressure for Dunk for example - Championship promotion season or this season. Less games, but busy end and of course Europe is big, but was it bigger than getting promotion ?

I’m not sure RDZ realises about the football league schedule of Saturday / Tuesday etc

 

[willalbion]

I do wonder what came with more pressure for Dunk for example - Championship promotion season or this season. Less games, but busy end and of course Europe is big, but was it bigger than getting promotion ?

I’m not sure RDZ realises about the football league schedule of Saturday / Tuesday etc

I see your point, but the quality of teams is obviously way higher, if we’re off by 1-5% we get beaten. We looked knackered.

 

[trueblue]

I've been steering clear until now because I hate the inquests. Sean Dyche did a job on us, we were slightly off it, their finishing was ridiculously good and totally out of step with the season. Onwards and upwards to a 6th place finish.

 

[sydney]

oh for f*** sake ....i think most of you need to watch a porno and have a wank.