[Albion] Simplistically, what do you think is our biggest problem?

[Kalimantan Gull]

None of the above. I still think its inexperience amongst many of our team that means consistency and decision making in key moments isn't at the levels these players will eventually reach. Lamptey, White, Connolly show some great moments, and also Webster, Maupay, Bissouma, Trossard, and Potter himself, but expecting it week in week out will take time

 

[Wardy's twin]

Defence is the problem and partly one of our own making moving from 2 solid blockers who defended the keeper well to 3 ball players who are not so good at covering and this has exposed the weakness in the keeper..

That to me says get a new keeper who can dominate the box as i don't see us replacing the back 3. I know Duffy doesn't fit the new style but at least he could head the ball.

A short measure would be to replace Webster with Veltman, I think Webster has too many mistakes in him and his surging runs have disappeared. Also wonder why Dunk is not coming forward or hitting his 50 yard passes....

 

[Marshy]

we are scoring a few more than previous but we are creating way more decent chances. The issue is scoring. Take those chances and it helps at the other end of the pitch too.

 

[neilbard]

Scoring goals and stopping the opposition from scoring goals, simples.

 

[Seasider78]

No. He also doesn't score one in every three chances. By the stats below I make it just under one in six.

https://www.premierleague.com/players/8245/Danny-Ings/stats

He scores more than our strikers and players like that and Ward Prowse are why Southampton are up the table. We have a bottom six squad which is why we are in the bottom six

 

[Algernon]

Fielding championship standard players, expecting premier league performances.

 

[doogie004]

My gut feel from watching our games is that we just don't convert enough of our dominance into good chances, and not enough of our good chances into goals. In short, it feels like our main issue is at the attacking end of the pitch.

Stats, however seem to suggest the absolute opposite.

In the first 11 games of four Premier league seasons, we've never scored more than this season, and also never conceded more.

So, keeping things simple, at which end of the pitch is our main issue currently??

Strikers pure and simple . You get what you pay for until we go to the next level of paying we will struggle at this level and sooner rather than later fall through the trap door


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

Defending set pieces
Missing our own chances

 

[Bold Seagull]

Is Dunk's song now a problem?

 

[martin tyler]

We are actually pretty solid defensively in open play. I think around 50% of the goals conceded are from set plays and penalties which is relatively shocking. That is something that needs addressing either by man to man marking or maybe a split of zonal and man to man the biggest players of the opposition. To easy many a time this season for players to block off the zone and opposition CBs have easy free headers. Similarities between maguires header for the Utd penalty and the equaliser last night very similar and lessons not been learnt. Last night we had 4 CBS on the pitch and not one was within 5 yards of Vestergard

But in addition some of the chances we create we should have had a lot more goals. Decision making at times is poor. The number of 3/4 on 2 overloads that we create that don’t end up with a shot is appalling although when we do shoot we invariably miss

 

[zefarelly]

Scoring goals and stopping the opposition from scoring goals, simples.

It's like we got the ratio the wrong war round.

 

[Muzzy]

Simple, not clinical enough and not defending well.
We create great opportunities but don’t have a Murray type scorer. I don’t think our defenders feel confident with Ryan behind them. The spine of our team is playing without a spine right now.
Biss is our only true prem quality player that is playing with confidence at the moment.

 

[Live by the sea]

We are going to concede a few more goals than under Hughton because of the expansive & much more attractive football we play . However this means we need to take a higher percentage of chances we create . At present we are creating enough but we are terribly wasteful at finishing. Solly & Pascal in particular had very good chances last night and were very wasteful .

That’s the difference between a relegation fight and being comfortably mid table . Ryan also needs to command his area better.

 

[HP Seagull]

We concede so many soft goals, including two more last night (albeit the second had mitigating circumstances).

For me, our two main issues defensively are our goalkeeper and organisation at set pieces. Ryan doesn’t make howlers, but he doesn’t save anything he’s not expected to either. Again, last night is a case in point. He can’t be blamed for the first goal, but the ball looped in from a fair way out and I think a taller/better keeper may well have got to it.

The set pieces issue is entirely of Potter’s making. Zonal marking totally removes accountability from individual players and leads to confusion. Last night is another example of this, but the best I can think of is the United goal that led to the penalty. Ben White was marking space at the back post and was no more than five yards from Maguire when he headed it (Maguire, their biggest aerial threat, was being marked by Maupay). The ball travelled a long way and White HAD to attack it as a centre half. But as he was happy marking the space he’d been assigned, stayed rooted to the spot and allowed Maguire to win the header against Maupay.

We’ve gone from one of the best set piece teams in the league to arguably the worst in 18 months. Admittedly we don’t have Duffy and Murray anymore, but for me it’s far more to do with our organisation.

 

[Pembury]

It’s always the case that if a team doesn’t score enough, it puts more and more pressure on defence. Doesn’t matter how good your defence is as you can’t defend for the full 90 mins and expect to come away with a clean sheet every time.

 

[blue-shifted]

We're a very good team, who are struggling in both boxes

Decent opponents last night

Only minor surgery required

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

So no then.

Have a look at the amount of money we have invested compared to comparable teams, or in fact, any teams, in the last five years. Then tell me it isn’t enough.

As for staying at the top table, that’s exactly what he’s done, isn’t it? 3 seasons in a row now. In what way is he not doing this?

Me and thee and just about everybody else knows full well that we're just about hanging on in there. At current levels of EPL investment, it's only a matter of time til we don't. Then watch the EPL 'fanbase' evaporate overnight

 

[WhingForPresident]

If my calculations are correct, we have only conceded six goals from open play this season... Along with seven set-piece goals and five penalties. Therefore 66% of goals we've conceded came from set plays and penalties. That is obviously the biggest problem defensively.

Ultimately, it's a combination of our woes in front of goal, embarrassing set piece defending and giving away penalties, though preventing the latter is seemingly impossible these days.

 

[Giraffe]

It's two fold for me, yes I know that's not answering the question but bear with me.

1) I voted we need to be scoring more goals as this is clearly the core issue. Never seen a Brighton team create so much and miss so much, not since the days of Terry Connor who seemed to get 5 chances every match and not score 1 a game. Games are more open than a few seasons ago meaning you are more likely to concede so have to score more of the chances we get. Our conversion rate is poor. If you don't score when on top, you don't win football matches. It has ever been thus.

2) We need to defend set pieces better. The stats don't lie, we are the second worst in the division behind Leicester I think? If we had their goal scoring record we wouldn't be so worried, so perhaps that's the answer, 1) is more important to improve.

But buy a tall keeper and 2) might be partly resolved.

 

[The Fits]

Most games this season we could easily have scored 3 by half time. We don't. That is the problem.