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Brighton Pre-Match Thread

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41 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

We only managed to take 1 point from rock bottom Norwich, who also beat Man City. Watford beat liverpool. Anomalies happen in football. 

We're currently all deserving of our places at the top of the table. We do need to pick up points to maintain it though. 

We are but the demise of our form before lock down etc was quite worrying. We remain where we are largely on early season form and the poor form of others. The latter though have started to creep up considerably. 

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3 hours ago, Bert said:

Comfortable win for us. I’d start Gray and Pérez ahead of Barnes and Albrighton.

Definitely the two positions we can most afford to rotate. Barnes didn't really offer much at all while it just wasn't Albrighton's sort of game the other day despite hitting the post. Gray was good, especially for his assist. We need to utilise the squad and extra subs options.

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2 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...We have had this eleven (without Justin and Gray) playing since December and it hasn't worked!!!

  Any team which comes to us and "sits" gains the upper hand as we are unable to move the ball quickly and end up playing the ball around the back four. As the game progresses the opposition becomes more confident and they then start to press us. We are then vulnerable on the ball and there are weaknesses which are targeted by the opposition.

  We have become one trick wonders and having been sussed are unable to magic up a new trick to give us a new option.

  We start.out positively and attempt to take the game away from our opponents, moving the ball quickly and looking dangerous. If we do not score within 10 minutes, the intensity drops and we go into our shell.

  I am not sure why we seem to believe Brighton will be an easy three points, there is a blue print to beat us and they have been studying it for three months!!!


Completely wrong. Have a look at the history.

We lost vs City and Liverpool. 2 tough games, fair enough. We then win 2 away games and get back on track.

Then Southampton At home, YT not in team, we lost at home. Away at Burnley next, stupid line up..again no YT. Lose again.

West Ham Home next, YT back in, Ndidi back in for mendy injury and we win convincingly.

Chelsea H next and then Wolves away. Both times we draw, rotating a bit due to Ndidi injury and tough games so it’s hampering the consistency but YT was in and we remain unbeaten when he starts.

We then have City at home, played well, Vardy hit post and we were bit unlucky to not at least draw, silly goal to concede. City is a tough game though, no Shame losing.

So then Norwich away YT not starting(No Vardy or Ndidi too) we lose again to a poor team bottom and run over by an average Southampton team.


Its quite clear to me that when YT don’t start we have been shocking most of the time, as when he plays we usually do well and rarely lose.

in fact when he’s started we have not lost to anyone other than City, Utd or Liverpool. Burnley away, Southampton at H and away at Norwich - our 3 worse games as there losses to teams on paper we should beat. Coincidence  he was on bench all 3 of these games?

 

Ill repeat my initial message, we must play that spine

back 5

YT(the key) Ndidi(also crucial)

Maddison
Vardy

9/11 pick themselves.

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42 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:


Completely wrong. Have a look at the history.

We lost vs City and Liverpool. 2 tough games, fair enough. We then win 2 away games and get back on track.

Then Southampton At home, YT not in team, we lost at home. Away at Burnley next, stupid line up..again no YT. Lose again.

West Ham Home next, YT back in, Ndidi back in for mendy injury and we win convincingly.

Chelsea H next and then Wolves away. Both times we draw, rotating a bit due to Ndidi injury and tough games so it’s hampering the consistency but YT was in and we remain unbeaten when he starts.

We then have City at home, played well, Vardy hit post and we were bit unlucky to not at least draw, silly goal to concede. City is a tough game though, no Shame losing.

So then Norwich away YT not starting(No Vardy or Ndidi too) we lose again to a poor team bottom and run over by an average Southampton team.


Its quite clear to me that when YT don’t start we have been shocking most of the time, as when he plays we usually do well and rarely lose.

in fact when he’s started we have not lost to anyone other than City, Utd or Liverpool. Burnley away, Southampton at H and away at Norwich - our 3 worse games as there losses to teams on paper we should beat. Coincidence  he was on bench all 3 of these games?

 

Ill repeat my initial message, we must play that spine

back 5

YT(the key) Ndidi(also crucial)

Maddison
Vardy

9/11 pick themselves.

We've won two and lost three without Tielemans starting, I don't really think that's particularly conclusive or indicative of anything.

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4 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...We have had this eleven (without Justin and Gray) playing since December and it hasn't worked!!!

  Any team which comes to us and "sits" gains the upper hand as we are unable to move the ball quickly and end up playing the ball around the back four. As the game progresses the opposition becomes more confident and they then start to press us. We are then vulnerable on the ball and there are weaknesses which are targeted by the opposition.

  We have become one trick wonders and having been sussed are unable to magic up a new trick to give us a new option.

  We start.out positively and attempt to take the game away from our opponents, moving the ball quickly and looking dangerous. If we do not score within 10 minutes, the intensity drops and we go into our shell.

  I am not sure why we seem to believe Brighton will be an easy three points, there is a blue print to beat us and they have been studying it for three months!!!

 

This is for sure a good analysis of the Watford game.

 

We seem to have 3 clear problems right now.

 

1 - If we are given time on the ball, we cant get forward with any urgency, there is too much messing around passing it between defenders and midfield.  This as you said can make other teams become more confident as we not keeping them on the back foot.

2 - If we are pressed, we struggle excessively, we just cannot handle it.

3 - We cannot defend when we adopting a defensive posture, but if we have a positive mind set, we are much more composed though, playing it out the back etc.

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18 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

I don't get some of the negative vibes, Watford away was a real banana skin against a team fighting for there lives, I think it a decent point.

 

I just don't see any team in this strange end to season, stringing together 6 or so wins out of the last 8 games!  If we take 10 points from our remaining games some is going to have 6 or 7 games to pip us at the post. 

 

The problem is that is the attitude for a bottom half team, we have a lot of tough games on paper, we could draw them all and say "we did well jack" but then we will also not make the top 4.  We got to where we are by exceeding expectations earlier in the season, we need to be exceeding them again now.

 

I was ready to accept the 0-0 as I felt we werent that much better than watford, and pearson knows how to set up his teams.  But when you take the lead at 89th minute, anything but a win isnt acceptable.

Edited by Chrysalis
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A big plus Point of possession and moving the ball around is to tire out the opponent and see spaces open up as the game progresses

 

however, as pointed out a couple weeks ago, the new rule of five subs will allow the opposition to refresh more and negate that possession advantage somewhat.  Be interesting to see how this plays out next few weeks.   

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2 hours ago, Chrysalis said:

 

The problem is that is the attitude for a bottom half team, we have a lot of tough games on paper, we could draw them all and say "we did well jack" but then we will also not make the top 4.  We got to where we are by exceeding expectations earlier in the season, we need to be exceeding them again now.

 

I was ready to accept the 0-0 as I felt we werent that much better than watford, and pearson knows how to set up his teams.  But when you take the lead at 89th minute, anything but a win isnt acceptable.

Things happen, especially when you are under cooked. We could probably draw the last 7 and still finish in the top 4, that would give us 7 + are 8 point lead = 15pts, in the last 7 games only Liverpool have taken more the 15 points with 16 points, no one else has managed more the 12. 

 

Its about realism not attitude, you can have whatever exceptions you like but it doesn't alway work out, just ask Liverpool, Man U and Wolves. They all expected to beat Watford away, but all lost.

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2 hours ago, Chrysalis said:

 

This is for sure a good analysis of the Watford game.

 

We seem to have 3 clear problems right now.

 

1 - If we are given time on the ball, we cant get forward with any urgency, there is too much messing around passing it between defenders and midfield.  This as you said can make other teams become more confident as we not keeping them on the back foot.

2 - If we are pressed, we struggle excessively, we just cannot handle it.

3 - We cannot defend when we adopting a defensive posture, but if we have a positive mind set, we are much more composed though, playing it out the back etc.

With regards to your first point, this is why Maddison is so important. Him and maybe Barnes are the only two that have an instinct of urgency when they get the ball, looking immediately to see if they can pass forwards. Against Watford, Maddison was always involved whenever our tempo increased and we got closer to their box. Most of our other players are more cautious (I discount Vardy because he doesn't really have much of a role in the build up).

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8 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

Eight points clear (effectively nine unless GD takes a big hit) of fifth and below with eight games to go.

We'd have taken this scenario.

Don't panic!

I keep telling this to myself and it's true but the nagging concern of 2 wins in 9 games both against the absolute pits of the division in West Ham and Villa. In fact we've only won 4 of our last 13 games and all 4 wins were against dross, we have been punch drunk for a long while and need to snap out of it. Vardy and Ndidi are now back which were a big loss to us pre-pandemic but we now have Ricardo missing who has often been the real star man for us at breaking the lines and making us sparkle.

 

This is a huge game and we simply must win it, it will give us that bit of confidence that things are still more than good and that we press on and secure top 4 which will be a huge achievement if we do it. I think we will win tomorrow and that things will settle down a bit for us all but it is a bit unnerving that we're scrabbling around for points and performances and waiting to be picked off by the chasing pack.

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10 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

Eight points clear (effectively nine unless GD takes a big hit) of fifth and below with eight games to go.

We'd have taken this scenario.

Don't panic!

When you put it like that, you do wonder why I and many others keep worrying. Yes, our form has been a bit patchy since the turn of the year but we really have put ourselves in a good position. 

 

Hopefully we win tomorrow, Man City do us a favour against Chelsea and Man U and Sheff U draw, I do worry about Wolves though. They are a good side and have Bournemouth and Villa next (two games which I see them winning). In addition, the new structure for European football means they can put all their attention to the league. Its going to be a horrible/enjoyable few weeks - squeeky bum time. 

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8 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

We've won two and lost three without Tielemans starting, I don't really think that's particularly conclusive or indicative of anything.

 

I think it is as that's the kinda ratio that proves an average to lower team. YT starting we are a top 4 team so it is very conclusive...hes our most important player.

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14 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

 

I think it is as that's the kinda ratio that proves an average to lower team. YT starting we are a top 4 team so it is very conclusive...hes our most important player.

That sample size is tiny though, you can't extrapolate from it like that very well.

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Just now, Nicolo Barella said:

That sample size is tiny though, you can't extrapolate from it like that very well.

Its very conclusive to me. We are a completely different animal with him in the team. Its a bit like man Utd with fenandes. These players with a little extra are key to edging out average teams.

I remember seeing he wernt playing Vs Southampton at home and was really worried we wouldn't win - we didn't. I didn't watch it live though so thought Id reserve judgement.

Next week I saw the Burnley game and he wernt in and I thought 'here we go again lets see' and we lost again. he even came on and we looked more of a threat in his cameo chasing the game than the entire game before!

When he was back in the side vs West Ham I was expecting us to win and when we did , ever since its gone how I expected. We drew some tough games Vs Chelsea and wolves and lose to city..the next real sign was very Norwich, I was expecting a win and then hes not in the line up again..Suddenly I was certain we'd lose. Low and behold we lost again, but not only lost, we deserved to lost and looked absolutely toothless against the worst side in the division.

Its as simple as this, he is the reason we are top 3 and not 10-15th. Hes the first name on the teamsheet for me.

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39 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

When you put it like that, you do wonder why I and many others keep worrying. Yes, our form has been a bit patchy since the turn of the year but we really have put ourselves in a good position. 

 

Hopefully we win tomorrow, Man City do us a favour against Chelsea and Man U and Sheff U draw, I do worry about Wolves though. They are a good side and have Bournemouth and Villa next (two games which I see them winning). In addition, the new structure for European football means they can put all their attention to the league. Its going to be a horrible/enjoyable few weeks - squeeky bum time. 

I worry more about Wolves than I do United, without European football to distract them, they're a force.

 

I think we've just got to hope that the other teams going for the top 4 just take points off each other, enough so that we can just scrape 2 wins and a couple of draws and that'll see us through. Hopefully Saturday was just a bit of rust and we'll come out playing good stuff tomorrow night.

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Guest An Sionnach
9 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

as simple as this, he is the reason we are top 3 and not 10-15th. Hes the first name on the teamsheet for me.

Goals, Assists?? So what is the reason?

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7 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

Goals, Assists?? So what is the reason?

There is more to football than goals and assists..its about dominating the games by creating chances. We can pass the ball sideways and build possession stats all we like, it means nothing. Its about breaking down defences and having someone who has the ability to do that

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