[Albion] Did anyone who watched the Manchester City game...

[AmexRuislip]

We held them back for long periods, undone twice by several more experienced gears, that's all.

 

[studio150]

I was there, and for the all the moaners there needs to be a little context. City at home including yesterdays game in the the PL, the last 22 W20 D1 L1 so the opportunity to gain anything from the game was minimal.
I thought that defensively we were well set up. disciplined and restricted City to few changes. In fact just prior to the opening goal Ryan had little to do other than a few routine saves. The plan of staying in the game for as long as possible and then releasing more pace from the bench towards the end of the game almost worked.

There were good performances from many of the team, and I thought Kayal was edging back close to his best.

While we secured zero points from the away games at Liverpool and Manchester City to come away with only a negative goal difference of minus 3 from these two games is a big plus, given the mauling that Huddersfield received.

We now need to turn these good performances against top 6 sides, into wins against the rest of the division

 

[Juan Albion]

City's average score this season is 3-0.4. We did better than average. Can't complain about that against the Champions and first-placed team.

 

[perseus]

No, I didn't think it was a great performance. We did what we are good at, hold the space, 6-3-1 formation, restrict their chances but I don't think we held onto the ball as well as we could have. In particular I notice how we love doing these little one-touch passes on the flanks when we try and push forward from the back, which are great when we're playing a pressing game like we do at home, because if we lose the ball we get it back quickly, but when we're standing off them like we did today it is frustrating when those flicks don't come off and we lose possession so easily.

Its also a slight concern that Man City's first goal happened on the very first occasion we committed men forward and allowed them to hit us on the break, which was also the very first time we'd done that since Spurs' second. So that's two consecutive attacks on the break against us, two goals conceded. I like to argue that we should be a little braver, commit a couple of men further forward because we've got great defenders and we should put more faith in them to stop teams without needing the whole midfield helping out all the time, but the evidence of those two attacks on the break rather negates my argument. We're not good at defending breaks so we have to defend in numbers.

I think there are new tactical implications we might have to adapt to against gegenpressing sides. e.g. because it is easier to press full backs, there is a greater option for both (one at a time) our central defenders to advance with the ball instead of playing long balls or sideways passes, albeit risky as well.

NB: Man City seem to press much more than Liverpool and cause Brighton far more trouble. It is not just getting out of the press but having the composure to find the pass when faced with the opposition closing you down. I would have found a place for Bruno, as an extra defender or in midfield.

Substitutes were much too late, as usual (PS: Sturridge came on at 85 mins for Liverpool though). My bet with beer money at 30/1 for a Brighton wind looked only possible for about 15 minutes. I was a bit worried then as I expected a breakaway.

Man City are so far ahead they are in a different league.

No injuries or suspensions. Not a crisis.

 

[Prettyboyshaw]

Yep accuited ourselves well as blue and white training cones. They hardly got out of first gear and didn't really need to.

I didn't expect to win obviously but can't see why the same shit tactics that has produced a pathetic points tally in the premiership are used every away game. Let's not fall into the bullshit trap about well it wasn't a spanking, the odd 3 points are far better than the plus or minus goals column.

 

[NooBHA]

It was a great performance. We don't have the personnel to be able to live with that type of opposition. When your offensive players are pushed back like that you just have to hold your hands up and say '' On that form very few can live with you'' but Bissouma in your team is as good and better than what you already have. If he didn't need to defend and was in your team you would have won about 6-0

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

The commitment, effort and discipline cannot be faulted.

The first half, at least up to the opening goal, was positive. The second half was dire. Again the commitment etc couldn't be faulted but we did nothing. Nothing. We got into City's half about half a dozen times. Other than that we just packed the box and defended. I realise it's a difficult job for the midfield to get on the ball and create when they're being pushed back so deep but still. The few times we had the ball we gave it away immediately.

The positives are we've got our two hardest games out of the way for minimal damage, the organisation, work rate and desire are all strong, Izquierdo is back and we now move onto a series of games against teams of our/similar level.

 

[pearl]

I listened on the radio. I thought we defended well under the circumstances

 

[stss30]

I thought we were quality for the opening period of the first half, thereafter I thought we defended manfully but we really need to learn to keep the ball better against a press. Obviously Man City are in a different galaxy to us but we still look really quite abject against pressing teams in my opinion (Watford earlier this season, Huddersfield away last few seasons) which is something we really need to adjust to if we have ambitions of staying in this division.

 

[father_and_son]

Against the side we played, defensively I thought we did well. Had our back line not been throwing themselves at every cross and shot the way they did then we would have had an absolute trouncing.

Attacking (and in their half generally) we were muted. Locadia didn't seem interested in giving the player with the ball any problems, he wasn't closing them down or trying to harass a mistake out of them. GM played that role a lot better when he came on.

I feel we gave a ressonable account of ourselves, it could have been so much worse.

What I would take from that result against that opposition is that we ARE a premier league side now, not just lucky to be there but deserving of our place. We aren't a very good premier league side though. We are still in awe of the really big clubs and give too much space and respect.

I expected to lose by 2 or more. I was hoping for a goal, just to show we could. I wasn't entirely disappointed. Its done now... it's clearly a game all teams dread. We can move on and get a 7+ point october now.

 

[Quinney]

It was a good result as far as goal difference goes, but for about the 4th time already this season, I’m struggling to remember a shot on target. All very well defending and keeping our shape but at some point surely we need to have some attacking intent.


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[Bold Seagull]

It was a good result as far as goal difference goes, but for about the 4th time already this season, I’m struggling to remember a shot on target. All very well defending and keeping our shape but at some point surely we need to have some attacking intent.


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There’s only 3 games we’ve not scored in. Was there a shot off target that got deflected in I missed?

 

[neilbard]

"If this were Le Golf National, Brighton would have been resigned to conceding before the kick-off." The Sunday Times

"There was much to admire about Brighton’s discipline and organisation, for the first 29 minutes at least" The Sunday Times

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It was a great performance. We don't have the personnel to be able to live with that type of opposition. When your offensive players are pushed back like that you just have to hold your hands up and say '' On that form very few can live with you'' but Bissouma in your team is as good and better than what you already have. If he didn't need to defend and was in your team you would have won about 6-0

We are also without Stephens & Groß who are vital to our game.

 

[Bladders]

I’m not sure how I feel about watching my team not play any football during a match


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[Icy Gull]

Lee Mason we definitely weren’t going to get the pen

My observations from yesterday, the ref was a complete homer (although he did miss what looked like a handball and nailed on penalty in the first half, haven’t seen the game on tv so I could be wrong). It wasn’t a dirty game but it seemed every strong challenge was followed by a yellow card as a City player went down and stayed down like he’d been shot. The ref gave us absolutely nothing.

We started well and had a couple of half chances which came to nothing, once they went ahead it was damage limitation, although I’m not sure City got out of second gear.

Seeing as we always struggle against teams that press us and with the quality and work rate City have we had absolutely no chance of sneaking anything from the game. They hardly made a bad pass until they were 2-0 up and when we did get the ball they closed us down in numbers and we weren’t good enough to cope with it.

When we can out for the second half the body language was one of a beaten team BUT although we looked shell shocked at times we never gave up and heads did not drop. We were pulled all over the place and did really well to keep our shape. The second goal was pure quality from Aguero wriggling past three defenders and laying off and receiving the ball back to slot away easily.

Maty Ryan was an absolute star, the string of saves quickly followed by a world class save in the space of a few seconds was amazing.

Duffy was also magnificent and helped keep the score down.

No shame in that result, we were completely outclassed but kept ourselves from being embarrased by a great team effort.

The very loud and long rendition of “We want you to stay, we want you to stay, Jose Mourhino we want you to stay” brought a smile to a game in which we were lambs to the slaughter.

Thank feck we have that game out of the way.

Having said all the above I was proud of the Albion players and look forward to us playing teams that don’t have the sheer quality of City for a while now.

 

[Giraffe]

We did better than last season in my view, as we did at Liverpool. But it’s such an uneven contest as to almost be pointless really, in every sense.

It’s how we do against the other 13 teams away that is important and so far Watford and Southampton have been pretty dreadful. Need to improve at Newcastle and Cardiff.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Nil points is nil points.

As mentioned, we need to pick up points against the 'lesser' sides or our splendid efforts at losing 2 - 0 count for zip.

 

[Justice]

My observations from yesterday, the ref was a complete homer (although he did miss what looked like a handball and nailed on penalty in the first half, haven’t seen the game on tv so I could be wrong). It wasn’t a dirty game but it seemed every strong challenge was followed by a yellow card as a City player went down and stayed down like he’d been shot. The ref gave us absolutely nothing.

We started well and had a couple of half chances which came to nothing, once they went ahead it was damage limitation, although I’m not sure City got out of second gear.

Seeing as we always struggle against teams that press us and with the quality and work rate City have we had absolutely no chance of sneaking anything from the game. They hardly made a bad pass until they were 2-0 up and when we did get the ball they closed us down in numbers and we weren’t good enough to cope with it.

When we can out for the second half the body language was one of a beaten team BUT although we looked shell shocked at times we never gave up and heads did not drop. We were pulled all over the place and did really well to keep our shape. The second goal was pure quality from Aguero wriggling past three defenders and laying off and receiving the ball back to slot away easily.

Maty Ryan was an absolute star, the string of saves quickly followed by a world class save in the space of a few seconds was amazing.

Duffy was also magnificent and helped keep the score down.

No shame in that result, we were completely outclassed but kept ourselves from being embarrased by a great team effort.

The very loud and long rendition of “We want you to stay, we want you to stay, Jose Mourhino we want you to stay” brought a smile to a game in which we were lambs to the slaughter.

Thank feck we have that game out of the way.

Having said all the above I was proud of the Albion players and look forward to us playing teams that don’t have the sheer quality of City for a while now.

Thanks for the insight, personally think VAR should be introduced into the PL, I don’t mind losing fairly and find it a disgrace the way the top six get all the questionable decisions in their favour. Huddersfield should of had a pen in the first half yesterday, the Spurs pen like last week was very soft it’s becoming a farce. We are playing 12 men every week.

 

[Surrey Phil]

I think some need to be realistic. The league is at times brutal and we don’t have anywhere near the budget of the big boys so have to build carefully. We don’t yet have the players to go out and attack the Man City’s etc and if you don’t have ball players to hold the ball & create, you’ll just get picked off. So at the moment, CH has no option but to be defensive against the big teams.