Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Newcastle United (02/09/23)

[Mikky]

2 minutes ago, madras said:

Or we've changed pattern even within the 433 to try and be more possession based, with new personnel and its not working. That's not to say it won't, but at the minute it's not.

It’s just the lack of tactical thinking that I think we are all frustrated with - we can see it - play with a 3 - but don’t flatten the 3 - it will not work against the better teams this season - it’s stifling us

[Wullie]

One thing that's really annoying me is how reluctant we are to pull the trigger and shoot when we get the opportunity, doubt it's an instruction from the manager, feel like it betrays a real lack of confidence.

 

One thing about Brighton is they absolutely love shooting, shooting, shooting rather than trying to walk it in.

[Cronky]

Last season, I couldn't work out how such a weak looking back four was conceding so few goals. Well Botman was probably a big factor in that. Trippier, Burn and Targett all looked very vulnerable.

 

Another factor last year was that our midfield was playing with a lot of confidence and energy, and that probably compensated. That was almost entirely absent today, and we saw the result.

[Conjo]

11 minutes ago, Mikky said:

I said all pre season we were short of a DM - we weren’t stacked with midfielders - we have 5 - Bruno - Tonali - Willock - Joe and Longstaff 

 

Miley is a kid and Anderson is a wide forward 

 

 

So what you're saying is that we have 7 players for 3 positions, and thus in fact are fairly stacked?

[duo]

5 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

I agree. That at least is a combination that we know can work. 

 

Overall, I didn't think Tonali had a good game today. He looked okay in flashes, but most of the time, he didn't seem to know what he was doing, and seemed tentative. His failure to even attempt to close down Gilmour for the first goal was just awful and would have been noticed by his team-mates.

 

 

Tonali on paper seemed like a perfect fit as he was known for his pressing.  But we don't seem to be on the press like we were. 

[Mikky]

I’d make 2 personnel changes 

 

Hall and Murphy for Burn and Miggy (assumption Botman is fit)

 

Tonali as the single pivot with Joe and Bruno either side 

[madras]

Just now, Mikky said:

It’s just the lack of tactical thinking that I think we are all frustrated with - we can see it - play with a 3 - but don’t flatten the 3 - it will not work against the better teams this season - it’s stifling us

I don't even know what the tactics are. Joe seems to stay leftish while Bruno and Tonali attempt to dovetail and its not working. Joe seems very out of sorts doesn't help so none of that middle 3 seem to be firing and none of them get forward.

[Tsunami]

Don’t think we’re getting the run of the Green at the moment but, there’s some bedding in to be done. We’re nowhere near as fluid as we were last season. 
 

We look like we might be missing Willock’s runs and Bruno/ Jo and Tonali need work on the training pitch. It’s not quite there.

[Mikky]

2 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

So what you're saying is that we have 7 players for 3 positions, and thus in fact are fairly stacked?

No I am saying we have 5 

 

Miley is ready and Anderson isn’t a midfielder - he’s a wide forward 

 

So we are 1 short - a proper DM

[Beren]

25 minutes ago, timnufc22 said:

Joelinton didn't train much this week apparently and is off-form. It has seemed like he's always picked to start regardless of form or fitness. I know he's been very good the last 18 months and I'm not taking that away from him, but I dont like this aura of players being undroppable. Longstaff was also very good last season and is seemingly fully fit, yet to have a crack this season. I don't understand why you wouldn't start hum over Joelinton today, considering the circumstances. Its no major slight on Joelinton, we're all human, but we need a more solid midfield at the moment and I think Longstaff would provide a better chance of that with his workrate and I'd say more sensible play as a more all-round midfielder. 

 

When we bought Tonali I thought it was with a view of releasing Bruno further up, especially after the second half of last season where we were less solid defensively. Again I've been surprised to instead see him playing higher up rather than Bruno, who gets caught out sitting deep quite a bit. He had a better set up with Shelvey sitting deeper behind him, I thought this was the idea with Tonali, granted there's always going to be some rotation during the game.

 

Similar with Barnes signing & Gordon, as great as Almiron has done last season I thought there'd be more rotation with Gordon, with Barnes slotting straight in on the left giving us more cutting edge in the final third.

 

I thought we had a great window with all this in mind but it seems the signings were made with other plans in mind. 

 

This is all within context; it is so important than inside the ground, the players & Howe get unconditional support & encouragement and we live up to 'we'll support you ever more'.

 

Good post.

[stozo]

A bad night at the office but not going to get too concerned just yet. Brighton are a very good side and we just couldn’t find our rhythm tonight. If we’d closed out the 1-0 against Liverpool last week I think there would be a much fairer reaction to this performance.

 

The entire problem of the match (in my humble view) is Brighton forced our defensive players into playing difficult balls to the forwards because they’d shut out the midfield options, this saw us turnover the ball a lot and then Brighton were very good with it. Of course, that’s then also compounded by some sloppiness from our midfielders in the limited occasions they did get on the ball. 

 

There are probably six teams in the league ( City, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Brighton and Spurs) who have the capability to shut our midfielders down like Brighton did tonight. We’ll play the 13 other teams with very different challenges (i.e. breaking a low block). And against the other six we’ll have some games where we figure things out (like Brighton and Man U at home last season) and some games where unfortunately we’ll get a result like tonight. 
 

We’re still a very good side and we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. 

[GavMcEl]

Was at the seaside today with the wife and kid so didn't watch it thank fuck 

When the fixture list came out at the start of the season I had us on 3 points after 4 games, I thought we'd draw way villa, Liverpool and Brighton and loose to city lol... I do think last season got people a bit silly tbh, when it comes to expectations, people are entitled to get excited and dream big, of course.... the confidence going into  the city and Liverpool game did shock me and then the negativity after the games where a bit OTT.... I know we did throw the Liverpool game away, but tbh where no where near them yet in reality, im aware we finished above Liverpool  last season but there still miles ahead of us..... I think we'll be OK in all honesty, in fact  I think we'll be better  than OK I am certain we will finish in the top 6....

The international break is coming at the right  time for us, howe will have a whole week to go back to the drawing board and try and sort it out, plus the next 6 league fixtures after the break are all very winnable... so try and stay positive please, and any one questioning eddies future needs to get a grip ?

[TRon]

47 minutes ago, KingArthur said:

Yes, of course we could. I just think we will get this sorted, and tbh we were unlucky against Liverpool and 6/12 would have been a good start.

 

We weren't really unlucky though. We missed our chances, fair enough that can happen to any team, but we also got caught flat footed at the back the same as we did last season, except this time we managed to do it against 10 men.

[Kid Icarus]

8 minutes ago, stozo said:

If we’d closed out the 1-0 against Liverpool last week I think there would be a much fairer reaction to this performance.

 

[Holloway]

You got to watch out for system teams, they' ll have ya if you're not careful 

[Holloway]

10 minutes ago, GavMcEl said:

Was at the seaside today with the wife and kid so didn't watch it thank fuck 

When the fixture list came out at the start of the season I had us on 3 points after 4 games, I thought we'd draw way villa, Liverpool and Brighton and loose to city lol... I do think last season got people a bit silly tbh, when it comes to expectations, people are entitled to get excited and dream big, of course.... the confidence going into  the city and Liverpool game did shock me and then the negativity after the games where a bit OTT.... I know we did throw the Liverpool game away, but tbh where no where near them yet in reality, im aware we finished above Liverpool  last season but there still miles ahead of us..... I think we'll be OK in all honesty, in fact  I think we'll be better  than OK I am certain we will finish in the top 6....

The international break is coming at the right  time for us, howe will have a whole week to go back to the drawing board and try and sort it out, plus the next 6 league fixtures after the break are all very winnable... so try and stay positive please, and any one questioning eddies future needs to get a grip ?

Aye but you were feeding the seagulls, we were getting shat on by them 

[KingArthur]

9 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

We weren't really unlucky though. We missed our chances, fair enough that can happen to any team, but we also got caught flat footed at the back the same as we did last season, except this time we managed to do it against 10 men.

Their first goal came to Nunez from Botman's ass and heel man..

[Scotty66]

Don't think there's much wrong with our midfield 3 tbh. It ran the show Vs Villa, did ok and was quite compact away to Man City, fell apart but only when Tonali came off against Liverpool and obviously was poor today.

 

Brighton are one of the best counter attacking teams in the league and literally stand still with the ball inviting you to press them. Our gameplay is to press so in some ways I would have been more pissed off if we did that today as it would have been suicide. We tried to hold off but they still cut through us. It happens. They're a very good team and capable of beating everyone in the league at that ground bar maybe Man City.

 

Shit result but so glad those games are out of the way now. International break then we reset v Brentford and get some confidence back.

[RS]

District drop-off in levels of effort compared to last season. Positioning is awful. Passing is awful.  Big changes needed. 

[J88H]

1 hour ago, Mikky said:

it’s the gap between the defence and mid - it’s killing us - backline getting no protection - when we lose the ball we get exposed in that area

 

you play with a single or double pivot and sort this out 

 

If you do play with a pivot - you then need a progressive full back on the left which is where I would play Hall 

Basically what I said 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

8 minutes ago, Scotty66 said:

Don't think there's much wrong with our midfield 3 tbh. It ran the show Vs Villa, did ok and was quite compact away to Man City, fell apart but only when Tonali came off against Liverpool and obviously was poor today.

 

Brighton are one of the best counter attacking teams in the league and literally stand still with the ball inviting you to press them. Our gameplay is to press so in some ways I would have been more pissed off if we did that today as it would have been suicide. We tried to hold off but they still cut through us. It happens. They're a very good team and capable of beating everyone in the league at that ground bar maybe Man City.

 

Shit result but so glad those games are out of the way now. International break then we reset v Brentford and get some confidence back.

Yep, the answer is to train them and coach them rather than change them. Bringing in Longstaff would solve nothing. 
 

When Willock comes back it’s more interesting, but that won’t be for quite a while. 

[Billy Warthog]

Just watched it back anyway... Faded after 20 mins into something awful. Three losses in a row is horrible. But we were great in the first game v Villa, so lots to ponder. 

 

International break coming up, will Eddie whisk them off to the desert again for some bloody hard training? 

 

Still think we will bounce back, but a repeat of a top four finish this season looks remote on this offering. I'd be happy with any European competition this time next year. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

It’s very early to write off top 4 based on playing such a hard group of fixtures from a standing start. 

[TRon]

18 minutes ago, KingArthur said:

Their first goal came to Nunez from Botman's ass and heel man..

 

Nunez still found himself with a run on the last man regardless of the luck of the bounce, then it happened again a few minutes later. Like I said, same happened last season as well, but this time we were 1-0 up against ten men and had no need to leave that sort of space available to a player like Nunez.

[Scotty66]

Will be interesting to see the results of our exact games for teams like Spurs,Man Utd,Arsenal and Chelsea.

It's just looks worse for us as we've had them all back to back.