Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester City *** Official Match Thread ***

[sydney]

....not been there , bit of a drive for me.

 

[Seasider78]

Brighton & Hove Albion vs Manchester City *** Official Match Thread ***

Taking the game to City with the forwards we have available would have meant an absolute thrashing would have been the likely outcome. We are so not ready for this league with our current strike force that until we do sign Izquierda and a pacy forward we are going to be defending with 11 men behind the ball imo.

Exactly and imagine if we had gone for it and got thrashed. Not great for the confidence of a team who are all making a huge step up and will be building confidence and understanding at this level. Hughton set us up to protect ourselves yesterday and whilst not pretty was completely the right thing to do.

There are a lot of positives the team can take from yesterday which will help us in the games where the gulf in quality is not quite so vast.

 

[theboybilly]

I missed the last 5 minutes of the half due to queuing for a pint but Propper has been propper pants but it can't be easy for a debut game. March has been amazing though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Did you leave after the 2nd goal?

 

[Acker79]

Could have something to do with the fact that they are so creative so don't even have to think about hitting teams on the break.. They will expect to score from open play. Only one team had that luxury yesterday so why not defend in depth when you only have to do it about four times in the game? Same tactic completely different thinking behind it I suggest. We set up for a point and completely understandably so, but more often than not that tactic will not work at this level imo.

True. But the guy at the fans forum wasn't thinking specifically about yesterday, his question was based on his frustration of watching us defending with 11 men last season when often times we were the team that didn't have to think about hitting teams on the break, that only had to defend four times a game sometimes. Yes, this season we will have a different reason for defending with 11 men, but that's not where the criticism of Hughton's use of this tactic started.

If defending Hughton's use of the tactic is something one is into, it might be something to keep an eye out in other Man City games when they play other top teams and have to defend more. I suspect it's a preference, like zonal v man marking, defenders on the posts at corners, etc. Positives and negatives, but it appears to be a preference shared by pep and chris.

 

[Icy Gull]

True. But the guy at the fans forum wasn't thinking specifically about yesterday, his question was based on his frustration of watching us defending with 11 men last season when often times we were the team that didn't have to think about hitting teams on the break, that only had to defend four times a game sometimes. Yes, this season we will have a different reason for defending with 11 men, but that's not where the criticism of Hughton's use of this tactic started.

If defending Hughton's use of the tactic is something one is into, it might be something to keep an eye out in other Man City games when they play other top teams and have to defend more. I suspect it's a preference, like zonal v man marking, defenders on the posts at corners, etc. Positives and negatives, but it appears to be a preference shared by pep and chris.

Fair comments. It does however, imo, take away an attacking option when you don't have many. I would also assume if a player is left on the halfway line the opposition might throw one less player in to the box.

But in truth WTF do I know, I accept this

 

[Spicy]

If you like, now run along.

Bit condescending love!

 

[perseus]

On reflection the whole day went pretty much as expected. I was a bit disappointed that we could not string more than three passes together The Izzy Brown injury mucked up our game plan a bit. I hoped we would score first and get a 1-1 draw but failing that I thought we might lose 0-3 conceding a free kick goal on the edge of the box.

Our left side in defence looks much weaker than our right.

 

[Clive Walker]

How pedantic can you be?

Just stating facts

 

[Megazone]

We needed someone like Jack Wilshere in our team.......

 

[Dick Head]

Just stating facts

 

[Triggaaar]

I watched the re run of Arsenal v Leicester, we should have had a go like the foxes did instead of hiding.

I wasn't pleased with the lack of attack either, but Arsenal vs Leicester isn't a good comparison. City are better than Arsenal, and Leicester are won the title just over a year ago and aren't nervous about just joining the PL.

We have a new team who aren't used to playing with each other, we're new to the PL, we were nervous, lacked confidence, and made lots of mistakes (like Propper giving the ball away), which meant we sat back more and couldn't push forward in the numbers required. March protected Bruno, and we tried to attack with pace down the left against Kyle Walker - that didn't go well.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

Players and managers often say they're just taking it one match at a time...not looking beyond the next game etc.

That's a load of bollox - at least from the coach's perspective. CH was planning his entire season, not just the Citeh game, and played the system he felt best suited the cattle at his disposal against that particular enemy.

From that perspective I think BHA seriously did have a go. They had their best chance of the game when it was still 0 - 0 and on another day that shot (with the keeper stranded) doesn't go wide.

Would've been truly amazing if BHA scored first in the second half, but the point is, CH is setting the team he has up for survival in a remorselessly mathematical results based business.

This is where real football management seriously differs from FF management.