[Albion] Luton Town vs Brighton & Hove Albion *** Official Match Thread ***

[Oh_aye]

Credit where its due I thought Luton were excellent.

Lots of teams have tried to press us and got massacred but they worked their socks off, worked as a unit and more importantly did something useful and purposeful with the ball. Reminded me a lot of the Everton game last season.

We did look miles off it and we do have these games every now and then. I wonder if it's mind as well as body. The way we play takes immense concentration and if we have 50% + of players not concentrating/ completely on it we tend to collapse. Almost always precipitated by an early goal which we never look remotely like recovering from.

 

[Clive Walker]

Warning signs were there for the two late first half goals vs shef u on sat.

We did it again in the first 2 mins last night.

 

[Littlemo]

Credit where its due I thought Luton were excellent.

Lots of teams have tried to press us and got massacred but they worked their socks off, worked as a unit and more importantly did something useful and purposeful with the ball. Reminded me a lot of the Everton game last season.

We did look miles off it and we do have these games every now and then. I wonder if it's mind as well as body. The way we play takes immense concentration and if we have 50% + of players not concentrating/ completely on it we tend to collapse. Almost always precipitated by an early goal which we never look remotely like recovering from.

I agree, especially with the bolded part. I think this is probably the reason for it, I think the way we play takes a high level of concentrations and a massive amount of mental energy, maybe it’s hard for the players to be 100 % every game, especially those with a short turn around between games.

I am Scottish and I also remember an interview with Steve Clarke on the difference of international management v club management. He said because of the quick turn around in international games, he had to change the amounts of info and detail he gave players as you couldn’t get it across properly in the time you had between games.

Well the turnaround time between games is the same two or three days for us now and I wonder if the players struggle with taking onboard the details and info for each new team in the time they have between each game.

 

[jackalbion]

Trying not to be too negative but that was truly atrocious all round. That back 3 system is going to be the death of us if we keep on playing it, Pervis and Igor didn't seem to know who was marking who, why Igor decided to stop for no reason on the third goal is a mystery to us all. Steele is going to get a lot of blame, because people are dense, he was poor, but my god some others were worse. I'm reluctant to single out a young player but Buonanotte was diabolical in that first half, genuinely think he completed one pass. De Zerbi should take a lot of the blame for tonight as he played a system which was never going to work, desperately need players back, but I don't think they are forthcoming. Chuck BBB in, if it prevents us playing this completely ineffective 3-4-1-2 System.

Positive note Welbeck played well.

 

[Berty23]

When is Veltman back? If we could have him and estu at right and left back we can start being a bit more sensible with the back four.

Adingra and Mitoma not too far away which will mean teams won’t just force everything down the middle.

I would like to see Baleba given a run in the side. Adds a bit of bite.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Early goal = big defeat

 

[maltaseagull]

Or maybe it was just a really bad day at the office?

I am not sure they were actually at the office.
More like WFH!

 

[Dick Head]

Emphatically correct, Dear Friend

it was a self refilling prophecy

 

[maltaseagull]

Just got home (80 mins vs 180 to get there).

Out-thought, outfought, outmuscled, outplayed. Embarrassing performance all round, even Dunk was schooled.

Good post-match comments from DeZ. Worried about Saturday now

Surely we cannot be that bad 2 games in a row?

 

[portlock seagull]

This says it all...

View attachment 174273

Who said that?!

 

[Withdean11]

It's easy to press us when we have no wide outlets. Teams are able to just play narrow and cut off the supply to our front line in central areas.

Asking our FB's to provide the width in build up can leave us exposed (as we saw) when we lose the ball. We usually see them come inside to support the central area. RDZ's system relies on having wingers, so i sympathise with him, his hands are tied.

We've lost March for the season and not replacing him (so far) is not a good look. The fact that we also lost two ball winners in the summer and didn't replace them certainly doesn't help.

 

[Pete Skinner]

And now it is

Has he left

Has he left yet?

At least I think we’ve enough points to stay up

 

[portslade seagull]

Guess having half a team out injured and 8 extra games can do that

All that tells me is the squad isn't as strong as they had us believe at the start of the season. RDZ knew this hence calls for at least 4 1st team starters and not rookies who need 2/3 seasons to get ready.
RDZ will walk at the end of the season and we will probably sell Mitoma and Ferguson and not replace them subsequently weakening the squad further

 

[dazzer6666]

All that tells me is the squad isn't as strong as they had us believe at the start of the season. RDZ knew this hence calls for at least 4 1st team starters and not rookies who need 2/3 seasons to get ready.
RDZ will walk at the end of the season and we will probably sell Mitoma and Ferguson and not replace them subsequently weakening the squad further

That’s let Tony’s plan out of the bag then

 

[BrickTamland]

All that tells me is the squad isn't as strong as they had us believe at the start of the season. RDZ knew this hence calls for at least 4 1st team starters and not rookies who need 2/3 seasons to get ready.
RDZ will walk at the end of the season and we will probably sell Mitoma and Ferguson and not replace them subsequently weakening the squad further

We don’t have the resources to plan for 5/6/7 key players out at the same time.

No one bar City does

 

[jackalbion]

We don’t have the resources to plan for 5/6/7 key players out at the same time.

No one bar City does

It is a totally insane situation to have 5 wingers unavailable at the same time. Not one anyone other than City could cope with you are right.

 

[Withdean11]

It is a totally insane situation to have 5 wingers unavailable at the same time. Not one anyone other than City could cope with you are right.

Yes, but we don't really have 5 wingers, do we?

We have March, Mitoma & Adingra and we have always known that we would lose 2 of them during the winter. The others are more AM/ST, no more of a winger than Joao Pedro.

 

[jackalbion]

Yes, but we don't really have 5 wingers, do we?

We have March, Mitoma & Adingra and we have always known that we would lose 2 of them during the winter. The others are more AM/ST, no more of a winger than Joao Pedro.

I mean the 5 I would have listed are, March, Mitoma, Adingra, Enciso and Fati. I would say that both Enciso and Fati are more than capable and have played on the wing this season. We knew we'd lose two, but for the other 3 to be unavailable at the same time is incredibly unlucky.

 

[BrickTamland]

I mean the 5 I would have listed are, March, Mitoma, Adingra, Enciso and Fati. I would say that both Enciso and Fati are more than capable and have played on the wing this season. We knew we'd lose two, but for the other 3 to be unavailable at the same time is incredibly unlucky.

This.

I would argue that RDZs style is almost dependant on width.

Look at our games early in the season when we were flying.

It opens up so much space.

One criticism I have is we haven’t been able to find a new system (I never want to see 3 at the back again) but again that has been hindered by lack of personnel.

 

[jackalbion]

This.

I would argue that RDZs style is almost dependant on width.

Look at our games early in the season when we were flying.

It opens up so much space.

One criticism I have is we haven’t been able to find a new system (I never want to see 3 at the back again) but again that has been hindered by lack of personnel.

People talk a lot about what killed us last night, but it was the three at the back, it was monumentally shit. Just left space all over the wide areas, with their pace and our CBs flat footedness, it was recipe for disaster.