Brighton - The verdict

Just forget about the first 30 minutes...that can be explained away easily...we were still collectively in the lost confidence trap...its a massive thing to emerge from for any team...some teams/managers just cant get out....Eddies had holes to get out of over the years.....my God we knew that !!!
The fact we beat a team that rolled over us only a few weeks back and threatened to again for half an hour was the big focus point for me!
But now....its build on the performances, push other teams into poor form and climb over them on our way up.
By the time weve taken Arsenal out of the Cup and beat Villa , had the break, we will have more players back from injury.
Thunderbirds are Go!
 
Actually its wrong to say we were poor for the first 30 minutes. We actually started the game brightly and were on the front foot until we got about 10 mins in and our early enthusiasm seem to evaporate as Brighton started to pass between our lines. We were then awful until someone suddenly switched us on. Well deserved win against a Brighton side that are right in the mix. Dunk for England - feck me even Wilson scores against you!!!!!!!
 
Just a point on Rambo;

Is this young bloke real ?
Seriously.....he has something about him...perhaps at some point he ' lost it' and laid into the older guys in the dressing room about ' confidence'.

Id like to think that happened!
 
BillMcgarrycherry said:
Just a point on Rambo;

Is this young bloke real ?
Seriously.....he has something about him...perhaps at some point he ' lost it' and laid into the older guys in the dressing room about ' confidence'.

Id like to think that happened!
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Well this is his third relegation scrap in his young career so he certainly has plenty of relevant experience to fall back on. Maybe he did read them the riot act, he was certainly not too happy after the Norwich game.

Frankly I'm still amazed Eddie was brave enough to start the season with Rambo as our keeper, it seemed most unlike Eddie. All I can say now is thank ( insert relevant deity here ) that he did ! Imagine the doodoo we'd be in if we didn't have a keeper capable of making some of those saves he's made this season. The guy is a massive talent and has extraordinary mental toughness. No wonder they loved him at Wimbledon !
 
DJ said:
Their keeper pulled off an excellent save from a close range header from Philip Billing. So that nudges us over the 3 on target mark...
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The 3 on target are the 1st and 3rd goals, plus the header from Billing.

Shots on target doesn't tell the true story, because if a defender blocks it it's not counted.
 
Silent AFCB said:
The 3 on target are the 1st and 3rd goals, plus the header from Billing.

Shots on target doesn't tell the true story, because if a defender blocks it it's not counted.
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Shots on target measure is crap really. I can think of at least two shots that were blocked by Brighton on the edge of the 6 yard box in that first half that were goalbound. Second half how many times did we have scrambles in their box that somehow and fortuitously ended up with the keeper. Not saying they didn't have similar at times but as a measure its pretty useless. Lets face it hitting the post isn't classified as a shot on target but a tame 20 yarder into the midriff of a keeper is a shot on target.
 
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docmandu said:
I was probably most impressed by Wee man to be honest. I've given him stick I admit for his form and seemingly "don't care attitude" but tonight he was like a possessed achondroplastic. A towering performance if that's possible.

His energy alone was probably worthy of a drugs test.
He pressed, bombed down the wings, linked nicely with Rico and even tried a header in the box surrounded by defenders!!!! Great curling attempt on goal that just fizzed past the post.

His determination showed on our side of the pitch when three rushed to close down a Brighton player and thankfully his herculean lunge missed the player otherwise I feared a red was coming.
Well done to the Scot.
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Yes! Fraser showed up and played as he did of old. They were all generally chasing and harrying opposition. As the second half wore on especially after our 3rd goal, Mooy seemed eventually to start dictating a lot although the scenario had changed by then so it was inevitable..
 
DJ said:
Their keeper pulled off an excellent save from a close range header from Philip Billing. So that nudges us over the 3 on target mark...
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As Eddie said, we could have scored more. I would add, had their keeper not made that save it could have been an even more convincing win for us
 
Regarding the first 30mins, level of pressing we put in etc. Have been saying for weeks, Billing covers a lot of ground, but generally mono pace, looking to stand between player with the ball, and potential recipient. Problem is, player then plays it to someone else, whilst under no pressure, so chance of it being a more accurate increases.
Opposition attacked around the corner of our box on left hand side, Billing followed in usual style, no pressure and Rico found himself out numbered. Was very clear others were not impressed, and for a few minutes he wwmas lectured by a few, Francis and in particular Ake. Wasn't shouting and screaming, or arm raising, but the lesson appeared calm and educational. Was then noticeable he put in a few more sprints and pressed harder, so maybe players are looking out or each other as a team?
 
Kenya Cherrie said:
Only positive was the 3 points, I don't think much else has changed.
They controlled the game as the stats show 66%, 8 shots on goal to our 3
21 goal attempts to our 11.
We really need to change the way we play.
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I'm sure not an option but if you'd seen the game live you would not say that.

It was a massive massive massive step up from our performance and effort of late.
 
Kenya Cherrie said:
Only positive was the 3 points, I don't think much else has changed.
They controlled the game as the stats show 66%, 8 shots on goal to our 3
21 goal attempts to our 11.
We really need to change the way we play.
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People have short memories. They forgot all those games, in the early part of our PL experience, when we had more possession but still got beat.

The TV - even if you see the whole game unedited - misrepresents the true picture of what happens on the pitch. You don't see many of the runs off the ball or the shape of the team in different situations.

If you were at DC last night, you'd had seen thirty minutes of Brighton passing the ball back and forth across their defence. I wouldn't surprised if Dunk touched the ball more than any other player in that first half hour.

We moan like **************** when Bournemouth do that but when BHA do it they're 'controlling the game' :hmmm:

Yes, I was getting a little frustrated but the sides looked equal at that stage.

Anyway, there were two stand out features for me last night.

The first was how once we scored our football improved ten-fold and the quick passing and moving gave me (good) flashbacks. Our confidence soared and they were like different players.

The second stand out feature was how the Brighton defence just crumbled. Yes, Rammo was needed at the other end but any team on a better run than us would have scored bundles against that lot. Their defence was all over the shop.


EDITED TO ADD: A third stand out feature was that we stopped doing that stupid goal kick nonsense, where we pass it three yards to a defender and eventually get trapped against the goal line. Rammo kicked long and the Seaweed defence struggled with that.
 
Some observations:
1. Our pressing was fantastic. The most intense it's been all season. I was particularly impressed with H Wilson; never seen him work so hard defensively. Fraser was completely on fire. One time early in the game he sprinted as if his live were on the line -- he wasn't able to intercept the pass, but he knocked it out for a throw in the Brighton half. That kind of effort galvanizes the team and energizes the crowd. Even when Brighton played it long, they were harried and forced to make bad passes for Billing/Lerma to intercept.
2. If we stay up, it will be largely thanks to Ramsdale. Incredible keeper. The best teams need players like this to set themselves apart from the other top teams (cf. Allison v Karius at Liverpool). We've got one. Now everyone else just needs to start playing like this every week.
3. Solanke worked really hard. Easily his best game. If he keeps playing like this he'll be hard to drop.
4. We played from the back with pace in attack!
 
'The' 30 minute opener seems to have generated a lot of mixed thoughts on here... I too thought the first 5-10 minus we started quite bright... Fraser set the tone for the rest of his night and we looked like we had arrived at the party, at last... However, BHA grew into the game and had a spell of about 20 mins controlled possession, and we quite simply were crap... at everything again.

However, there is a great article on The Athletic that analyses our game plan this season and how we set up so compact and narrow, to make ourselves hard to play through... make teams play around us, give them possession, and the idea being, we intercept play and break (which incidentally we're close to the top of the PL for interceptions)... We all know this hasn't really worked too well this season and teams are still able to play through us and we don't break in number or with pace...

Last night for around 50 minutes in the middle of the game, this all changed though... I think it started with the NS and surrounding areas becoming quite vocal at Billing and Franno for wanting the ball inside the box from Ramsdale, but not really doing anything with it... We ended up going long... Rico hit the side netting, which followed by a few quick shots at goal... The crowd got up, and then Harry's goal went in... I don't think we f*cked around with it from the GK at all after that... Better!!!!

That spell saw us press, hustle, pass with confidence, chase everything, shoot, SCORE, and just generally look like a team that shouldn't be where we're at... It was good to see and the crowd played a massive part in that...

However, The BHA goal showed just how on a knife edge our confidence is... We went from being at the top of our game, full of confidence to almost seeing us go back into our shells again for the last 7 or 8 mins... Sinking deeper and deeper and beginning to think... "surely we can't through away a 3 goal lead". The defining moment was BHA's failure to do anything with a free kick into the box on about 87 minutes... Had they got something from that, I reckon we'd have drawn 3-3 in the end... But it didn't, and we won...

Onto Arsenal which for me is a free hit... Lets be as strong as poss and keep this ride rolling...

Great performance on and off the field... Haven't seen DC so behind the team in a long time...
 
We’ve won 6 games this season. This was our possession in each:-

Villa (A) 1-2 37%
Everton (H) 40%
Southampton (A) 35%
Man Utd (H) 43%
Chelsea (A) 33%
Brighton (H) 34%

Now before we leap to the conclusion that we should avoid possession at all costs, we need to bear in mind we’ve had a similar lack of the ball in some of our defeats. We also need to realise that there’s a difference between conceding possession through tactical choice or from not being good enough to keep it.

The thing is, this isn’t new. We know we are a better team when teams leave space in behind and we can break quickly. The challenge is how to approach games against sides who will let us have the ball via their tactical choice.

Fortunately for us, the only fixture where a team will likely do that is Newcastle at home. We also have Burnley coming up soon but I suspect they will play on the front foot at Turf Moor.

There is definitely a template there where we can pick up something in all but 2 of our remaining fixtures. To do this we need to tighten up defensively but also press selectively and aggressively when the ball is there to be won like last night.
 
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