[Albion] Were we more niggly on Saturday?

[Stato]

Interesting ten minute discussion of us on The Totally Football Show (from about 50 mins) https://play.acast.com/s/totallyfootballshow/8308aab2-8035-11ec-8c40-1b851dff3670, which in part suggests that we are starting to get a bit more grit to what we do. I had read some similar complaints when enjoying a bit of schadenfreude browsing of Tottenham's match thread https://thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/threads/brighton-h-saturday-16th-april-12-30.44992/, but they were easier to dismiss as sour grapes.

I've watched the game a couple of times and although I'd agree that Cucu is probably a very annoying opponent, and that the game was a bit stop start, I didn't notice us fouling or going down and staying down any more than Spurs did. I did notice that we didn't surround Pawson and try to referee the game as they did. Its good to see determined, battling performances in all areas of the pitch and I wouldn't be particularly averse to a bit more of us giving as good as we get. However, I didn't notice it and wonder whether that is just because of my bias.

What do others think? Are we getting more street wise / cynical? If so, is that a good thing?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

“ Are we getting more street wise / cynical?”

No. We press and hassle opponents fairly.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

We were against Arsenal for sure.

Against Tottenham? Not so much. Certainly no worse than them. It's sour grapes from Spurs who thought they only had to turn up to win.

 

[BBassic]

Spurs mate of mine said we were going to ground to stop the flow of the game.

Which I thought was, what's the word?...bollocks.

 

[doogie004]

Personally it’s about bloody time we do .Everyone else does it none more so than spurs . Put in decent tackles and hassle the ref start sticking up for ourselves. Definitely noticed it more on the last two game long may it continue


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[WATFORD zero]

Spurs mate of mine said we were going to ground to stop the flow of the game.

Which I thought was, what's the word?...bollocks.

Well if we were, the only 'flow' in the game we were stopping was our own, since Spurs couldn't even muster a shot on target

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

No we weren’t at all. This nonsense narrative has come purely out of sour grapes from Spurs fans and Spurs fan writers in the media.

I haven’t listened to that episode yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if that chat was inspired by a piece written by Charlie Eccleshare in The Athletic which said the same thing and I totally disagreed with. Eccleshare is, lo and behold, a Spurs fan.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The elbow was the most Continental incident of the whole weekend. Should have been a nailed on red but wasn't because of Cucurella's overreaction to try and get the card (IMO).

We also wasted a bit of time - certainly Sanchez did - but all away teams generally do when they're on a result.

As for the rest of the game we pressed and tackled, mostly fairly, sometimes mis-timed but we certainly didn't kick Spurs who, as usual, tried to influence the ref and got upset when they couldn't.

 

[Icy Gull]

I didn’t see us as niggly, we just stood our ground and refused to be bullied. Kane trying to run though Dunk and Kane on Sanchez with an unnecessary barge on him which left Kane hobbling, being good examples. We were not niggly and we weren’t cheating imo

 

[brighton_tom]

Well the stats from game say we made 10 fouls to Spurs 14... so i would ignore that as sour grapes. Its just the home fans conveniently forgetting all of their fouls and highlighting ours. Much as Conte did when in post match interview saying Mwepu deserved a second yellow, but then when asked about a possible red for Kulusevski he claimed he didnt see it.

 

[Dancin Ninja BHA]

Personally it’s about bloody time we do .Everyone else does it none more so than spurs . Put in decent tackles and hassle the ref start sticking up for ourselves. Definitely noticed it more on the last two game long may it continue

Said exactly the same outside the ground whilst talking to friends who were Spurs fans and had been to the match

EVERYONE else does it when they come to the Amex, even the very best of teams. Niggly fouls to slow down any promising moves we have, going down like they've been shot by the 'man of the grassy knoll' when tackled by our players, taking an age to come off as a substitute, etc, etc.

About bloody time we join this particular party, fed up with being a soft touch and been taken for a rise most games, the last few notwithstanding

 

[Me and my Monkey]

The elbow was the most Continental incident of the whole weekend. Should have been a nailed on red but wasn't because of Cucurella's overreaction to try and get the card (IMO).

Hang on, I thought it was his UNDERreaction was the reason they didn’t get the red card? Could have made much more of a song and dance about it in my opinion. Otherwise, I thought we were pleasingly ****ish at times, all good stuff.

 

[Icy Gull]

Hang on, I thought it was his UNDERreaction was the reason they didn’t get the red card? Could have made much more of a song and dance about it in my opinion. Otherwise, I thought we were pleasingly ****ish at times, all good stuff.

Yep, with you on that, he could easily have gone down rather than just look pissed off and gesture to the ref

 

[studio150]

The only time I thought we were more streetwise, was when Gross went down with 'cramp' late in the game. I thought at last we have learnt how to slow the game down in the closing stages to ensure the defence are not put under early pressure, and everyone can have a breather.

Obviously the cramp may have been genuine, but only Gross knows for sure.

 

[WATFORD zero]

The only time I thought we were more streetwise, was when Gross went down with 'cramp' late in the game. I thought at last we have learnt how to slow the game down in the closing stages to ensure the defence are not put under early pressure, and everyone can have a breather.

Obviously the cramp may have been genuine, but only Gross knows for sure.

You callin' me a liar ? You want some ?

 

[Stato]

Pascal cramped up because he hadn't done a single slow mo Cruyff turn in the whole game. It's his yoga.

 

[Arkwright]

Love it when opposition fans boo us, means we are doing something right and frustrating both the opposition and fans alike.

Thoroughly professional performance with a bit of gamesmanship thrown in, lovely.

 

[Jim in the West]

I didn't go, but watched the whole match on BT Sport this morning. Nothing particularly niggly about our performance. Mwepu mis-timed a few tackles which looked a little nasty in slo-mo, and obviously the ref had just about had enough by half time. The "niggliest" performance by a long way was Hjobjerg, The thing we did fantastically on Saturday was close them down - there was more energy than I can remember in a long time. I think Potter said it was our best performance this season. It wasn't particularly enthralling for the neutral, but for a tactical student it was fascinating (and Conte pretty much admitted he had been out-thought by Potter).

We do have a lot of "quiet" players (Sanchez, Gross, Trossard, Lamptey, Moder, etc). So we definitely need a few with a bit more "bite" eg: the likes of Veltman, Cucurella, Dunk, Mwepu, Maupay. And good to see a youngster like Caicedo taking his time when being substituted!

 

[GT49er]

We've also added Mwepu and Caicedo to the team. Both of them - how shall we put it? - like a tackle!

There's a lot that goes on in CONMEBOL and the AFCON that they'll have learned!

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

The elbow was the most Continental incident of the whole weekend. Should have been a nailed on red but wasn't because of Cucurella's overreaction to try and get the card (IMO).

We also wasted a bit of time - certainly Sanchez did - but all away teams generally do when they're on a result.

As for the rest of the game we pressed and tackled, mostly fairly, sometimes mis-timed but we certainly didn't kick Spurs who, as usual, tried to influence the ref and got upset when they couldn't.

We are getting better though at ensuring we have one or two of our players around the ref if anything contentious is going on, in the past I think we’ve been quite passive compared to most teams.

It’s just a game within a game, and we’re beginning to get to grips with it.

I would also argue that some of our players go down easily and disturb the rhythm of an opponent, that doesn’t worry me either.