Centre mid

[Albion Dan]

It makes all the difference, we barely had possession of the ball and City barely ever kicked the ball long so there were very few second balls to win. When we're playing the likes of Stoke and West Brom who hoof it long we will see if we can mix it.

Take the blinkers off. Our defence were immense and were badly let down by an uncompetitive midfield. No fifty fifties won at all. Delusion.

 

[dwayne]

Sidwell will be back next week - needed for away games

Ohhh goody even less attacking than today. Maybe we can scrape a 0-0. I think I might miss the championship.

 

[West Upper Seagull]

I fear Stephens ain't premier quality. Very early days....

Careful - I suggested this at the end of last season and got slated for it by many !!! I'll reserve judgement for a few more games yet but he was pretty invisible today, is prone to giving away cheap free kicks in dangerous positions and was at fault for the first goal today.

 

[Technohead]

Can't agree with that to be honest.
We have 9 more games against teams of similar quality. We need to judge what went well and what must be improved.

Our defence was great.
Wingers very good.
Strikers got little service or enough time to judge fairly.
Centre midfield was poor at best.

Overall, the biggest criticism of that game was 90+ minutes of giving the ball straight back to City.
This needs to be the first improvement in my opinion.

Of course we were up against the favourites for the title, but there are clear improvements that we need to make to survive.

I think I was watching a different game to Patrick Surlis of Sky Sports. He's rated our highest player as Propper (7) and gave March a rating of 5 - http://www.skysports.com/football/brighton-vs-man-city/373098. I thought our centre midfield pairing were poor today, and were the worst culprits for giving the ball away cheaply, Both looked uncomposed and nervous, but probably unsurprising considering the short time they have had to work together. With hindsight probably would have been better starting with the experienced head of Sidders.

 

[Mellotron]

Proper better adapt fast or he's gonna go down as a very expensive mistake on that display.

Fortunately I'm pretty sure Hughton will know it would be ridiculous to judge him on that display.

 

[Colossal Squid]

Why on Earth did Sidwell not feature? The one player in our squad with an abundance of Premier League experience and a lynchpin in our promotion campaign.

Sheer lunacy not including him

 

[BensGrandad]

I think that the one lesson from today is that we will not be given time on the ball as in the championship. I am sure that CH will have noted that and that Stephens and Propper will v ery quickly realize that they have to be quicker in action and thought with the ball. A Man City fan on the train home said that one thing Pepe has installed in the team is to not allow any players time on the ball and they all try to achieve that.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Mummy mummy Someone is saying bad things. Make him stop. Fanny wipes cost a quid btw.

Wise words from the bedwetting king.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I think it was obviously that Hemed lacked the pace and ability to take on the City defence. He had done an amazing job over the last few seasons but based on that performance l fear the premiership may be a level too high. Hope lm wrong as l like him as a player, but there were a few times he got seriously outpaced. If we are going to defend deep and play counter attacking football then we need players that will counter with speed and unfortunately with all of his assets, speed is not his forte!

100% agree.

 

[trueblue]

Wake up. Palace stayed up by beating teams that are champs league quality. Your attitude will get us relegated already.

Hahahahahahahahaha. And now it's my fault we lost! Priceless.

 

[London Irish]

Middlesbrough were hard to break down as you put it. Means nothing

I don't think it was even that hard. Man C barely out of first gear and they strolled to a regulation win. How many of us genuinely thought we would hold out til full time with that weight of possession against us? They didn't really even need their bench in the end

 

[Eeyore]

Midfield were ok they just had no outlet up top, nobody to put the ball too when they won it.

Which is why Propper was visibly irritated with March because he wasn't getting forward at the first opportunity.

 

[Nixonator]

Some poor passes from Propper early on and a critical error by Stephens for the first goal. Aside from that I don't think either did much wrong, it was a couple of raking passes by both culprits, Stephens and Dunk, that produced some of the best chances. The culprit could just as easily (and should) have been Duffy just a few minutes earlier.

Everyone on here is so critical of our players in our first PL game, a baptism of fire, and fail to just recognise a fitter and better team than us, assembled accross many seasons with hundreds and hundreds of million £.

They gave us no time on the ball, none. Our midfield rarely had an outball, ever. They will adapt and learn from the mistakes made, as will our manager.

The only negative thing to take from today, and I know it is just one game, but Hemed worries me as a lone striker. He could have latched onto a couple of loose passes/bounces if he was paying attention and the ones he was paying attention for he was utterly embarassed for pace. He didn't provide any kind of outlet aside from a couple of casual flick-ons to city players. We need someone to take the pressure off us and Muzza does a much better job at it.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Yesterday showed that we desperately need a pacey striker to give us an outlet. Murray and Hemed aren't the answer other than off the bench

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Some poor passes from Propper early on and a critical error by Stephens for the first goal. Aside from that I don't think either did much wrong, it was a couple of raking passes by both culprits, Stephens and Dunk, that produced some of the best chances. The culprit could just as easily (and should) have been Duffy just a few minutes earlier.

Everyone on here is so critical of our players in our first PL game, a baptism of fire, and fail to just recognise a fitter and better team than us, assembled accross many seasons with hundreds and hundreds of million £.

They gave us no time on the ball, none. Our midfield rarely had an outball, ever. They will adapt and learn from the mistakes made, as will our manager.

The only negative thing to take from today, and I know it is just one game, but Hemed worries me as a lone striker. He could have latched onto a couple of loose passes/bounces if he was paying attention and the ones he was paying attention for he was utterly embarassed for pace. He didn't provide any kind of outlet aside from a couple of casual flick-ons to city players. We need someone to take the pressure off us and Muzza does a much better job at it.

This.

The shape we held was exceptional in the main, awful error by Stephens and given Propper's limited time with the team, personally I would have started Sidwell.

If we play 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1, the wingers and Gross need to support the lone striker, but we were so preoccupied with City we didn't.
Hemed hardly held the ball up at all, which didn't help.


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[HastingsSeagull]

Think Sidwell would have suited that game better tbh and bring Propper in after a week of training. Both him and Stephens had shockers but there are 37 more games and doubt they'll have many worse games or many tougher opponents.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Honestly think we won't come across another team as good as City. That said ya right defence good, midfield need more. They never created the outlet to the frontline hence as attacking we were min existent

This. They were a different class yesterday, we won't see that quality every week.

 

[Captain Sensible]

I thought we didn't pick anything up from goal kicks either. Our challenging was poor in the Center mid. That said, Ryan's distribution is nowhere near as good as Stockdales.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

We've arguably* just faced the 3rd or 4th best group of players in the world.

Im ok with how we did. I agree that in that sort of game you need an outlet and you can go one of two ways. A VERY strong centre forward who you know the ball will stick to or a runner in the channels.

As said before, today was a COMPLETE free hit. No shame but certainly things to work on.


*no doubt this will be argued

 

[Honky Tonx]

No understanding between Dale and Davy. Can't expect much in such a short time. Davy only turned up a few days ago. Need to lean quickly.