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

[Seagull58]

Fair point, he’s only had 5 years as set piece coach

and has exhibited no ability in the role whatsoever.

 

[dazzer6666]

and has exhibited no ability in the role whatsoever.

Spotting sarcasm not your strong point then

 

[ferring seagull]

Next win is next season. The players are on the beach. Fans should find one too and avoid further disappointment.

I am now disabled and cannot realistically attend matches so I try, whenever possible, to follow games/our progress on terrestial TV ( whenever ) OR ( Seagulls TV ).

It does seem that we are not the team we were earlier in the season - is the expectation that RDZ is gone?

Much as I liked his attacking philosophy, I felt that he tended to give a bit too much emphasis to attack at the expense of defence.

What is the general view on the Big Board on any of this please ?

 

[dazzer6666]

I am now disabled and cannot realistically attend matches so I try, whenever possible, to follow games/our progress on terrestial TV ( whenever ) OR ( Seagulls TV ).

It does seem that we are not the team we were earlier in the season - is the expectation that RDZ is gone?

Much as I liked his attacking philosophy, I felt that he tended to give a bit too much emphasis to attack at the expense of defence.

What is the general view on the Big Board on any of this please ?

Our best attacking players are injured

 

[portlock seagull]

I am now disabled and cannot realistically attend matches so I try, whenever possible, to follow games/our progress on terrestial TV ( whenever ) OR ( Seagulls TV ).

It does seem that we are not the team we were earlier in the season - is the expectation that RDZ is gone?

Much as I liked his attacking philosophy, I felt that he tended to give a bit too much emphasis to attack at the expense of defence.

What is the general view on the Big Board on any of this please ?

Squad too small ie injuries
RDZ perhaps not the messiah, just a very naughty boy
Fan expectations got carried away (we are Brighton after all)
Money talks and despite Tony’s hundreds of millions, you need billions today to really compete

 

[Bodian]

Hats off to those that travelled only to be subjected to that load of b0ll0ck$!

The poor Albion souls who travelled.

How many actually bothered?

I was there - and I think it was actually a game that was better to be at, than to be watching on the telly. I would have drifted off into doing other stuff if I had been sat at home watching it - but being there I was able to vent my frustrations, mainly on Hooper - see below.

Burnley defender pulling Adingra's shirt throughout the run on goal

Is Hooper ever going to book that **** who fouls JP every time?

Two things stood out today.

Verbruggen mixed up his distribution with a significant number of longer balls to specific players, not just hoofs up field.

Many times when we had a break building, it was stopped by a foul on Joao Pedro or Wellbeck. Most of their 18 fouls seemed to be on these two, but Hooper wasn’t interested in booking anyone.

If Hooper had given JP and Welbeck any protection at all it would have been a different game. Wrestling a player to the ground or hacking him down is a foul. Hooper does not appear to know that.

I cannot recall a game where there was quite so much blatant pulling back and wrestling going on. Every time Pedro turned his player, he was hauled back or taken down - and only occasionally did we get a free-kick. A few times Hooper waved play-on, when we still had the ball, but not exactly in an advantageous position. Not only did Adingra have to run for about five yards whilst being pulled back all the time, in the second half there was one occasion he was blatantly tugged back in the penalty area.

 

[Weststander]

No but he would do a great job on tiling your bathroom.

I very much grout it.

 

[sant andreu]

I didn't say anything about "reaching proficiency" in a foreign language. I am very aware of "reaching proficiency" of another language.

I said...."I hadn't heard much improvement in his English for the last few months".

Maybe you should learn to read more carefully before replying.

As regards the 'interpreter', you will probably know that if someone beside you is fluent in the language that you need to understand, it is so easy to just rely on them instead of persevering on your own. It happens , as I know from personal experience.

De Zerbi is coach of an English Football Club, where the spoken English is vitally important when wanting your players to cope with the intricate style of football that he demands. I do wonder how many of his coaching assistants are Italian...?

Sorry, didn't mean to come across like a d1ck.
The reason I said it is that, from experience of years living in another country and learning two foreign languages, I would say progress in your language ability is much more noticeable early on in the learning curve. After that, the more you know, the less difference you see with each little bit of new learning, compared to the larger amount you already know.
So while we saw RDZ's English ability progress quite a lot last season, I find it perfectly normal that it'd be hard to notice much progress over the last few months.
That's what I think, but despite some experience, I'm not an expert. So I was asking if you do know much about it, given my interest in languages.

 

[WhingForPresident]

 

[pb21]

I am now disabled and cannot realistically attend matches so I try, whenever possible, to follow games/our progress on terrestial TV ( whenever ) OR ( Seagulls TV ).

It does seem that we are not the team we were earlier in the season - is the expectation that RDZ is gone?

Much as I liked his attacking philosophy, I felt that he tended to give a bit too much emphasis to attack at the expense of defence.

What is the general view on the Big Board on any of this please ?

IMO, we are primarily lacking intensity compared to last season. Last season we were playing on the edge, but our intensity gave us an edge, which in many cases payed dividends.

Lack of intensity is probably due to fatigue, which has resulted in injuries, which exacerbates fatigue, and once the goal is out of reach mental fatigue becomes more apparent.

This is a game of fine margins though and we are still a good team, playing very good football, but not with the same end result.

 

[Pliny the Gull]

18 weeks since we beat Marseille to top our group in the Europa league. 4 past Palace and 5 past Sheffield United. 4 past Spurs after. Lots of fight and commitment from other games. Decent Fa Cup run. Despite injury pile up, not a bad half a season. You don't become a crisis overnight.
The difference now is teams that last season feared us and stood off, realise we only play one way, so high press us and we struggle.
Difficult for RDZ with constantly having to deal with injuries and integrating the likes of Dahoud, Baleba, Fati, and returns from injuries, Estipinan, Encisco etc etc etc back into the side. Looking forward to next season, and have enjoyed this one.

 

[theboybilly]

What a stinking season this is becoming.

I can't believe you really think that.

 

[um bongo molongo]

No manager will replicate last years achievements without that midfield, it’s gone from world class to a raw kid, last seasons third choice (who’s injured) Gross and Moder who tends to play further forward.

Potter had Mac, Biss, Caciedo, Mwepu and achieved a mid table finish we are currently in mid table.

This is the thing. Recruitment, Pedro apart, has not gone well this season. Fati and Dahoud a disaster. Milner contributed very little (and mostly played out of position at FB where he’s been woeful due to the lack of options which most of us called out pre season. Baleba and Barco might become great players but aren’t ready yet. Igor Ok, but he’s no Colwill. The loss of so many recruitment staff may have been more impactful than we like to think

 

[B-right-on]

18 weeks since we beat Marseille to top our group in the Europa league. 4 past Palace and 5 past Sheffield United. 4 past Spurs after. Lots of fight and commitment from other games. Decent Fa Cup run. Despite injury pile up, not a bad half a season. You don't become a crisis overnight.

Since we put 5 past Sheffield, we've scored 4 goals (+1 OG) in the subsequent 10 games. No you don't become a crises club overnight, but it's now 10 weeks since Sheffield which is enough time to become very worried, especially when we've let in 17 goals in that time and only won 6 in the last 26 PL games. Anyone who doesn't think we have a problem is delusional IMO.

 

[B-right-on]

You're just trying to wind me up.
I'm staggered though.
Does anyone here think our set pieces are remotely good enough?
12 years.

I've noticed how bloody awful our set pieces are recently. At least 3 of our corners today went straight into the hands of their goalies.

Vs the Arse last week, all 3 of our second half corners in front of us in the NW corner didn't even beat the first man (can't remember the others tbh). To say Pascal's off the boil is putting it mildly and the set piece coach is not doing his job and sorting it out.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Would be happy to, but I can’t see ho

Alphabetty spaghetti is your friend in this scenario.

 

[Swegulls]

No games in 10-11 days, that must be demoralizing. Hope the weather will be fine at least.

 

[London Irish]

He won't deviate from his style which I think he may need to a little to get through this rough patch.

I think it's more than just wanting to sack him. He's been grumpy as f$*k since Jan and I worry that is affecting the players, his tactics have lost us games (Roma, Luton, Fulham, Villa) because we don't have the plan that if we go a goal or two down we should just calm things and wait, we seem to keep going gung ho. I know we have a mad injury list but that 11 that started today is better than Burnley's 11 and we've not beaten them this season. I don't want him sacked but I think it's more complex than what Chelsea or Man U would do. If he goes one way or another I won't be that bothered and thats very odd to say after last season.

Surely he has tempered his style somewhat? We are kicking far more from the back now, particularly without Steele in goal

 

[London Irish]

RDZ has proved himself give him a decent squad and he will achieve things. No one was complaining with a top six finish and an FA cup semi final.
I presume they trained last season under him without an injury pile up?
It’s as plain as day the midfield is weak this season patched up Baleba has more assists for the opposition than his own team.

The amount we paid for Baleba you’d have hoped he would be more first team ready, but it’s a growth curve at the moment and really that’s been the case for all the young players Bart, Facu, maybe a bit less so for Hinsh but even Enciso looks a little lost at the moment like Fergie. Carlos could be very good for us in future but too much too soon now - the tragedy is senior players like Dahoud Milner now Gilmour haven’t been there to take up the slack

 

[Justice]

Fati looked out most dangerous player yesterday why this kid hasn’t been given a run in the side is pissing me off. If Barco had come on for ten minutes and had that performance people would be slapping £80m on his head.