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

[Berty23]

How would city line up if you removed their five equivalent players. This is obviously not perfect but trying to make a point.

Doku - Mitoma
Adingra - grealish
March - Foden (very left footed and cuts in)
Fati - Kev de b
Enciso - Alvarez

So that would leave who? Haaland up top with silva, Bobb and who?

I am probably missing something obvious.

You could do the same with Liverpool or Arsenal as well.

 

[essbee1]

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.

Luton's pitch is incredibly narrow and very different to the Amex.

 

[BrickTamland]

Luton's pitch is incredibly narrow and very different to the Amex.

Yes. And?

 

[Frutos]

Yesterday was my 40th birthday - thanks Albion.

 

[Littlemo]

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.

Not even City really. They went on a bad run just cause they lost Rodri

 

[Berty23]

Yesterday was my 40th birthday - thanks Albion.

If it is any consolation. I had a birthday ruined by David seaman going for a walkabout and going under a cross/shot vs Brazil in a World Cup I am still convinced we would have won.

 

[seagullwedgee]

I meant arrogance, as in, we failed to take into account any of the unique factors about the start of this match, and arrogantly assumed we could just impose our usual silky thing.

unique factors like: the added emotion in the players and the crowd after the Lockyer thing; the fact it was obvious that Edwards would go first 5 minutes murder ball; the fact that the pitch is 10% narrower, which means there is less space to play short passes, and opposing players will close 10% quicker; the bobbly pitch, I noticed no groundspeople forking down the divots as they normally do before kick off, all left sticking up to cause a bobble and a failure in passing out; the low level blinding floodlights, a new factor.

All this stuff, honestly, not a single BHA coach, assistant, or player paid a blind bit of notice to any of these, and if we had, one thing is for certain, we would not have been two down after 170 seconds.

 

[maltaseagull]

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

I am not sure any PL team would want to pay for Ferguson on current form.
He needs something, either a run in the side might work as we cannot lose him now with Pedro maybe injured.

 

[jackalbion]

I meant arrogance, as in, we failed to take into account any of the unique factors about the start of this match, and arrogantly assumed we could just impose our usual silky thing.

unique factors like: the added emotion in the players and the crowd after the Lockyer thing; the fact it was obvious that Edwards would go first 5 minutes murder ball; the fact that the pitch is 10% narrower, which means there is less space to play short passes, and opposing players will close 10% quicker; the bobbly pitch, I noticed no groundspeople forking down the divots as they normally do before kick off, all left sticking up to cause a bobble and a failure in passing out; the low level blinding floodlights, a new factor.

All this stuff, honestly, not a single BHA coach, assistant, or player paid a blind bit of notice to any of these, and if we had, one thing is for certain, we would not have been two down after 170 seconds.

I did note this to a mate tbf. Of course we'd be the game where they parade their Talisman captain around the pitch minutes before kick off with My Hero by Foo Fighters blasting over the tannoy, just felt it in the air last night it wasn't going to be our night.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Yesterday was my 40th birthday - thanks Albion.

Happy birthday and welcome to the 40 club.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Yesterday was my 40th birthday - thanks Albion.

4-0 the perfect tribute

 

[Littlemo]

I meant arrogance, as in, we failed to take into account any of the unique factors about the start of this match, and arrogantly assumed we could just impose our usual silky thing.

unique factors like: the added emotion in the players and the crowd after the Lockyer thing; the fact it was obvious that Edwards would go first 5 minutes murder ball; the fact that the pitch is 10% narrower, which means there is less space to play short passes, and opposing players will close 10% quicker; the bobbly pitch, I noticed no groundspeople forking down the divots as they normally do before kick off, all left sticking up to cause a bobble and a failure in passing out; the low level blinding floodlights, a new factor.

All this stuff, honestly, not a single BHA coach, assistant, or player paid a blind bit of notice to any of these, and if we had, one thing is for certain, we would not have been two down after 170 seconds.

You don’t know that at all. All of this is baseless speculation, there can be loads of reasons that it went so badly wrong tonight, some that when we aren’t playing at the top level we probably can’t even imagine, but fans always resort to thinking stuff like “they didn’t care enough” or “they were arrogant” or “they underestimated the opposition”.

We play the same style of football against everyone, it’s not like we specially change things for some games over others. Our teams this season have largely been picked on the basis of who’s best from those fit enough and where they might be able to do a job.

It doesn’t help that it’s a complicated and risky style we play. When it’s good it’s amazing, when it’s bad it’s Luton last night, or Villa, or Everton last season.

 

[seagullwedgee]

You don’t know that at all. All of this is baseless speculation, there can be loads of reasons that it went so badly wrong tonight, some that when we aren’t playing at the top level we probably can’t even imagine, but fans always resort to thinking stuff like “they didn’t care enough” or “they were arrogant” or “they underestimated the opposition”.

We play the same style of football against everyone, it’s not like we specially change things for some games over others. Our teams this season have largely been picked on the basis of who’s best from those fit enough and where they might be able to do a job.

It doesn’t help that it’s a complicated and risky style we play. When it’s good it’s amazing, when it’s bad it’s Luton last night, or Villa, or Everton last season.

I wasn’t trying to criticise anyone, I’m simply pointing out there were some unique contributory factors to our downfall last night, which we failed to anticipate, calculate or guard against. Probably the most telling of which is the narrowness of the pitch, meaning players close so incredibly quickly in relatively cramped areas, and that is where we failed in the first few minutes. It is arrogant to NOT take account of obvious unique circumstantial factors.

 

[Kosh]

I've reflected on last night and it felt like a bit of a perfect storm...

Wrong selection and shape, perhaps... but so many of our players are half fit, out of form and position... I don't think Roberto had much choice but to try and pack the midfield and it back fired... I do think we lack a plan b however and I can't support the endless changing of GK... and relying on players who lack pace to stop through ball counters that aim to play in fast forwards in the channels.

The narrow pitch congested the game and meant we were all at sea when trying to construct our tactical disposition Roberto goes on about.

Two early goals and certain players allowed heads to drop, and shoulders to slope.

Possibly a bit of turnaround fatigue, Saturday was far from perfect but we got the job done... this smacked of simply not being anywhere near as ready and/or up for it as the opposition. To elaborate on this, I not sure certain mindsets were right or fancied a cold night at Luton in an antiquated stadium in front of passionate support... just a hunch.

They're playing well, we're inconsistent over 20 min period's, never mind 90... That is in part down to personnel or lack thereof.

The thing that worries me is that I doubt we'll actively learn from this, and if we were playing at Luton next time out we'd go again... Roberto's DNA thing, and we'd probably see a similar result... that is worrying... At home this weekend we will improve, but mostly because the Amex pitch affords us more space and (yes) we can't be as lacklustre as we were last night.

I am finding myself at odds with some of Roberto's selections and calling out players, whether that be asking Pedro to improve after scoring a hattrick or freezing Mo out after such a short period, and conversely constantly claiming some of our players can be world beaters... Facundo for example, yes he's improving but for me he's very similar in levels to a young Solly March... I'm yet to be convinced he has the potential to be the second coming of Messi...

However, when you look at it, on balance we've got a decent upper mid-table squad and that looks like where we might end up this year.

Roberto hmmmmmmmmm he's got some special qualities and some interesting ways of working... but if I step back a little, I question if he's as good as the hype... ? he's a good coach, a bit maverick... but is he any better (albeit tactically different) to a Marco Silva for example? Are we kidding ourselves, along with the media, that we've struck absolute gold ? I really don't know, but taking our results/performances in isolation we're doing no better than Fulham, and although we're special to us... in the cold light of day we're doing okay and nothing more. I realise we've had a car crash with injuries, but I'm not convinced Fati et al would prevent shipping too many goals...

Hey ho, bring on Palace.

 

[raymondo]

I really don’t have a problem with that. There is no point qualifying for Europe if you don’t try to win it. I would rather we concentrate on trying to win a trophy than the league. If we win a trophy then we get into Europe anyway.

To be honest i would not mind winning a trophy and being relegated that much. I just want to see us win a top level trophy at some point in my life. All those titles and promotions and relegations 20 years ago were great fun. If our aim becomes to be top 7 every year and play the reserves in the cups then what is the point? Yes we will make money but that isn’t exciting.

But you know that we'd lose on pens in the Europa league final...as we got relegated ...we are Brighton

 

[Bodian]

Am I missing something with this pitch width discussion. Accoring to this site, it's only a couple of metres? I guess it's because we're not used to playing on different sized pitches like we used to be before they all became homogenised and boring?

Premier League Pitch Sizes [2023/24 Full List]

Discover a full breakdown of Premier League pitch sizes, including which teams have the biggest and smallest pitches in the league.

sqaf.club

 

[London Irish]

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.

I think he played our biggest 3 centre-backs as a unit to counter the physical threat of the big Luton lads up front. Sadly he wasn't to know our midfield wouldn't tackle or keep the ball for longer than 2 seconds. I'm loath to single out a particular part of the pitch given no one distinguished themselves but we were always going to get a hiding if we didn't compete here

 

[Diablo]

After that drubbing surely we will be up for a rebound win on Saturday !! lets hope so !!!

 

[raymondo]

Basically the team is not physically strong enough
we don’t have anyone Especially in midfield up for a battle
our defence got battered physically
does not matter what level of football you play if you get out fought you will lose

And Dunk, JPVH should not really get battered

 

[Berty23]

But you know that we'd lose on pens in the Europa league final...as we got relegated ...we are Brighton

Undoubtedly but it would be one hell of a ride wouldn’t it. Better than losing 2-1 on New Year’s Day freezing my nuts off at plainmoor in 1997.