Brighton Player Ratings

[Daggers]

I don't understand why everyone is giving Cleverley a 6/7

Everyone isn't.

[Alf Bentley]

I agree with you, but people always see the game differently.

Partly relates to how you view a "mixed" performance, I think.

On the plus side, Cleverley played some incisive passes, showed good mobility and penetrated their 9-man defence with some good runs.

On the minus side, he played some poor passes and gave the ball away a number of times.

Particularly for a player new to the team and particularly in an "attack v. defence" game like this one, the pluses outweigh the minuses, so he's worth a "7/10". much more than a player who didn't give the ball away much but didn't look like breaching their defence (e.g. King, Oakley).

He looked one of the players most likely to create a breakthrough. Once he's got used to the team, hopefully he'll lose the ball less and be a very good player for us.

[Thracian]

Partly relates to how you view a "mixed" performance, I think.

On the plus side, Cleverley played some incisive passes, showed good mobility and penetrated their 9-man defence with some good runs.

On the minus side, he played some poor passes and gave the ball away a number of times.

Particularly for a player new to the team and particularly in an "attack v. defence" game like this one, the pluses outweigh the minuses, so he's worth a "7/10". much more than a player who didn't give the ball away much but didn't look like breaching their defence (e.g. King, Oakley).

He looked one of the players most likely to create a breakthrough. Once he's got used to the team, hopefully he'll lose the ball less and be a very good player for us.

King was actually nearest to breaching their defence with his on-target shot which was deflected onto a post.