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

[goldstone]

We were excellent first half - really played well. Fulham’s tactics then helped to disrupt our flow which is annoying and the ref played a huge part in it too by buying it. Did us no favours today. We are slightly off the high pace of last season due to losing players, rotation and injuries. It’s not quite as consistent and not quite clicking yet.

Loads of positives to take but 2 points dropped imo.

Excellent first half? Really? I thought it was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I've watched in a long time. We spent all our time passing the ball around at the back and in midfield with no sense of urgency to get the ball up the field. Embarrassingly poor performance in my opinion. Second half got even worse. Fulham were there for the taking and we screwed up.

 

[worthingweird]

There’s a reason why Steele spent most of his career at Championship or lower and had never made a Premier League appearance until his early 30s: most managers prioritise the shot-stopping and box-dominating side of a keeper’s game.

However, his footballing skills fit RDZ’s preferred style of play like a glove. If he believes that that offsets the weaker side of his game, then fair enough; he knows far more about the game than me. I’m realistic enough to accept that we can never expect any outstanding saves though - the sort that are worth a goal. He just doesn’t have it in his locker.

He should really have got to that...

 

[Sheebo]

Excellent first half? Really? I thought it was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I've watched in a long time. We spent all our time passing the ball around at the back and in midfield with no sense of urgency to get the ball up the field. Embarrassingly poor performance in my opinion. Second half got even worse. Fulham were there for the taking and we screwed up.

Yeh I thought it was one of our best halves of the season. Crisp quick passing and dominating completely. If that’s embarrassingly poor for you god knows what you used to think. We were decent today overall.

 

[zamora the merrier]

He looked good when he came in on Thursday night.

All about opinions! I thought he was shocking

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Also, players frequently get knocks which hurt like hell and physically prevent you from running/staying on their feet, then the pain subsides and you’re able to continue. Not fake, very real, and unavoidable

Today none of their players needed attention even the one who was attended to for 4 minutes for a non injured head. They cheated, the ref bought it but they cheated. When a player goes down and the game is stopped he should be made to go off irrelevant if he receives treatment or not. Don't buy this rubbish currently. If the player gets up as soon as the game stops he should get booked. VAR should look at head injuries and advise accordingly. Clutching of the head when touched on the chest should be an instant red. It's cheating.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Excellent first half? Really? I thought it was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I've watched in a long time. We spent all our time passing the ball around at the back and in midfield with no sense of urgency to get the ball up the field. Embarrassingly poor performance in my opinion. Second half got even worse. Fulham were there for the taking and we screwed up.

All about opinions isn"t it?

I felt we were in total control in the first half.
4 shots on target and 1 goal.
The 3 centrebacks gave us far more control and i could only see one winner at half time.

Lost our way in The 2nd half.
Silva clearly told his players to disrupt our rhythm.claiming head injuries every time we won the ball back.

Over all we are getting much better.
Annoying result but much stronger performance.

 

[jimhigham]

The answer is SO simple and has been for ages - physio is allowed on whilst the play continues. They'd jump back up like a jack in the box.

There you go.

Even as I got in my car, I thought my own suggestion was daft and driven by the red mist, as it will also inevitably punish those teams with genuine injuries. I like this suggestion, although having physios running across while play is ongoing would also be problematic.

I expect the Fulham physios would just start feigning injury too.

 

[Justice]

All about opinions isn"t it?

I felt we were in total control in the first half.
4 shots on target and 1 goal.
The 3 centrebacks gave us far more control and i could only see one winner at half time.

Lost our way in The 2nd half.
Silva clearly told his players to disrupt our rhythm.claiming head injuries every time we won the ball back.

Over all we are getting much better.
Annoying result but much stronger performance.

They pressed us further up the pitch second half Steele made his usual central dumb pass when we are getting pressed and that cost us two points. Imo

 

[Diablo]

They weren`t very good but don`t really think we can say we deserved to win.
Mitoma very threatening in first half..not much in second. Fati did well when he came on....Why didn`t Pedro start ? Happy with first half ...we def bossed it but should have put the game to bed with at least two goals...... Second half either Fulham woke up and/or we slowed down.

 

[BN41Albion]

Excellent first half? Really? I thought it was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I've watched in a long time. We spent all our time passing the ball around at the back and in midfield with no sense of urgency to get the ball up the field. Embarrassingly poor performance in my opinion. Second half got even worse. Fulham were there for the taking and we screwed up.

Christ almighty why do you bother?

 

[drew]

Also, players frequently get knocks which hurt like hell and physically prevent you from running/staying on their feet, then the pain subsides and you’re able to continue. Not fake, very real, and unavoidable

But that is not worthy of stopping the game.

 

[jessiejames]

Prove it.

VAR

 

[portslade seagull]

Excellent first half? Really? I thought it was one of the most boring 45 minutes of football I've watched in a long time. We spent all our time passing the ball around at the back and in midfield with no sense of urgency to get the ball up the field. Embarrassingly poor performance in my opinion. Second half got even worse. Fulham were there for the taking and we screwed up.

Much how I saw it. Once again we gifted a goal with a misplaced pass from the back. At least we didn't fall for a sucker punch 2nd. Trouble is we look far far weaker this season

 

[amexer]

Because was a lot of goal mouth activity game was not bad to watch However overall a very poor performance in a game that was there for taking

 

[tedebear]

Well that was a very very hard watch. Palhinha's challenge was red all day and we were on the other side of the pitch! It got redder the more the ref stopped the game for subsequent similar injuries which Fulham feigned. Having watched the Rugby World Cup final last night, where the official (and 4th official) were clear, consise, and heard by everyone (and all the spectators) and the ref was respected by everyone on the pitch, todays officiating and Fulhams behaviour was embarrassingly disgraceful in comparison. The PGMOL are incompetent, and unable to field officals both on and off the pitch to the standard needed. Frankly they should be disbanded and we need to start again with an officiating organisation who can provide consistent and competent officiating like the rugby (can't believe I just said that). Officials need to be on speaker, and players must be unable to talk back, and sent off if they do, and sent off when they cheat. That now has to be in the rules, as its clear there are sportspeople who cannot respect the rules of the game or the officials. Even the 4th offical at the Rugby would have at least called Palhinha back for a foul, although it was red all day. In the second half, we fell apart as Fulham feigned injury and fell over each and every time we got a head of steam up and looked dangerous. Eventually we couldn't hack it and played like 12 year old school kids. Teams have found our style of play out now, and just push us back up the pitch, which we seem to want them to do, but can't go any further with the play, we seem to flounder about in mid field for a while, we try a few attacks down the middle, but then get stuck and waffle about. We need to be careful we are not one trick wonders with this style of play. Baleba looked good, and Adingra too, don't know what we would do without Dunk sometimes. Finally to the dickheads who didn't keep their ticket to get their umbrellas back, you are also an embarrassment. Berating a young woman working there who wouldn't let you just take any umbrella as you'd lost your ticket is just pathetic. She is someones daughter, working a Sunday so you can watch your beloved sport. Fools and wankers walk amongst us.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

We must win these matches if we want to finish in those European spots again, otherwise it is going to be mid-table. At least we have other cups to compete in, but we really should be doing much more - honestly this a downgrade from last season.

What like we did last season against Fulham?

 

[The Colonel]

First half was very good, possibly the best I've seen us this season. Total control, some lovely interplay and the first time this season I'd say our midfield was as dominant as we had last season. But we didn't go all out for a second goal that would have killed off Fulham at that time. Fulham stepped up their intensity in the second half but didn't have much more than effort. We're clearly a far superior team but looked to me like we couldn't match that intensity (probably because of the Thursday-Sunday schedule) and Fulham deservedly equalised at a point where the momentum of the game had clearly shifted in their favour. Overall, a frustrating result and one we didn't really deserve, but if you only play for parts of matches you have to make them count with more than one goal and we didn't do that.

 

[Jaxie]

All about opinions! I thought he was shocking

Fair enough

 

[eastterracemike]

They pressed us further up the pitch second half Steele made his usual central dumb pass when we are getting pressed and that cost us two points. Imo

This.

 

[Sheebo]

All about opinions isn"t it?

I felt we were in total control in the first half.
4 shots on target and 1 goal.
The 3 centrebacks gave us far more control and i could only see one winner at half time.

Lost our way in The 2nd half.
Silva clearly told his players to disrupt our rhythm.claiming head injuries every time we won the ball back.

Over all we are getting much better.
Annoying result but much stronger performance.

How I saw it too - and thankfully RDZ too. One thing, after a poor mini 10 min spell where they got into it we went on the front foot again. How @goldstone can call that performance embarrassing is beyond me - or does he mean Fulham as that makes sense…!!