Written by kirsikka
In a match between two teams that like to bicker like a divorcing couple, today’s weather was the third party in the loveless triangle. With Christie out, it was a chance for Adams to stake a claim and prove the system could work with him deeper and Cook further forward.
Spoiler alert: it can’t. At least, not yet.
Let’s get it out early. Overall, the afternoon was a disappointment. And I mean that in terms of the performance rather than the result. I actually thought the blustery conditions might work in our favour with the number of attempts on goal we make but that wasn’t the case at all. One header apart, and the goal, their keeper didn’t really have to make a save.
Lacking a clever player, no final ball, toothless. However you want to couch it, we didn’t hurt them even though we had plenty of openings to do so. For example, at 81 minutes, we’d attempted 21 crosses to their 2, and we overhit a good number in that final ten, so the final tally will be well up on that.
In contrast, their attacking play was incisive. One touch, well weighted and moving as a unit. That’s why they didn’t need to keep coming at us, they took their opportunities to carve us open and then were clinical.
There were so many misplaced, underhit or overhit passes, it felt like the League One days. You can blame it on the weather but I think that’s lazy considering the opposition didn’t have the same problems dealing with the conditions.
In contrast to some previous AI games when we’ve been behind, I never thought we’d make a comeback in that one. We were just off it, especially in the final third.
Compare and contrast their first goal with most of our lumbering attempts. Pacey interplay to create the opening and then a good shot on target forcing the keeper to make a save. He gets down well but can only palm it into the path of a forward who then has an open goal.
On that Kepa save, this is challenging to address. It was a good save, and yet I’ve seen plenty of criticism in the past on here of Travers for the way his saves seem to end up going to attackers. I don’t especially think Kepa should be lambasted for it as I thought he did well, but if we’re holding him to the same standard that we hold Travers then… well, I guess it will depend on where you stand on the debate between the two.
Another note on Kepa is in the commentary they said they thought the reason he’s preferred is because of his distribution. Really? I hope not because it was ****************. Compare it to the distribution of the Brighton keeper and they were worlds apart.
Most of this wouldn’t usually be the big debating point but by making his preference clear, AI has made it into one. As I said after the last game, I hope he proves me wrong in the long term but I’ve not seen anything about Kepa to impress me yet.
Which brings us to the next problem. Ryan Christie. It’s been said before but we simply aren’t the same team without him and nobody has been able to fill that void when he isn’t on the pitch in the AI era. The answer definitely isn’t Cook there and Adams deeper as both positions look weaker. The more I see of Tyler the more it feels like Cook and Adams can only ever be an either/or.
If you look at the stats alone, you might argue that we deserved something from the match but let’s not kid ourselves. They ran out deserved winners and, if it hadn’t been for a dodgy sending-off, I expect they would have probably scored again when we started chasing the game late and leaving more space at the back.
The second yellow that saw their player go off was harsh. I’d be really annoyed if it went against us so I’m not going to defend it just because it went our way.
The only thing I can say is that, given Pedro spent the majority of the afternoon flopping around the pitch in embarrassing attempts to get players booked, maybe the ref was hacked off and decided to screw them over. Is there a less likeable player in the league than him at the moment? He’s the new Zaha. Shame his team didn’t get the result his antics deserved.
The second goal shortly after halftime was a brutal blow – and absolutely nothing Kepa could do about that one – but came from the kind of forward play to which we should be aspiring. Crisp and decisive. Oh, and an exquisite assist from Pedro. Zaha-like in pathetic diving but also Zaha-like in the pass for that one.
Obviously, a man short and with a two-goal lead to defend they went compact and waited for us to try and break them down. I don’t think any of the subs particularly changed things, which just made the 6’4” elephant in the room, or on the bench, even more prominent.
Sure, we got an injury-time goal but was too little too late. Great finish from Brooks and fabulous to see him on the score sheet again. A shame it came in an afternoon in which we were so flat.
Selected Player Watch
—— Adams —–
Eyes on him again and I still don’t see it. As above, he might be an option to replace Cook but the two of them don’t seem to be a good pairing.
—— Kerkez —–
Impressive. Another incredible block to stop a likely goal and a constant thorn in their side getting up and down the pitch. I’m slightly taken aback at how much progress he’s made in the last couple of months. For me, our best player on the pitch.
—— Kluivert —–
He tried but he simply didn’t impact the game positively in an attacking sense. I’m picking him out but I could make similar comments about Tavs. Lots of graft, but not much quality.
—— Semenyo —–
Moments when he looked like he might make something happen but didn’t. I think I said something similar last game, but is this him believing his hype and dropping 2%, which is all the difference at this level? I hope not.
AI and Tactics Watch
So, all of the above will probably make you think I’m saying we were terrible today. We weren’t. We matched one of the in-form sides in the country in many ways apart from the final third.
We did a lot of things right out there but it was so frustrating because we didn’t really give their keeper a working over. Again. And that’s the issue for me. It’s been multiple games this season where we’ve had a prodigious number of attempts on goal or attacking situations, but the opposition goalie’s Mum doesn’t need to break out the Daz Automatic.
On the sidelines, AI was sporting a rather fetching-looking Sandbanks coat. I wonder where he got that? Sartorial comments aside, I think he lost the tactical battle today. Sure, goals change things and conceding early in both halves messes carefully constructed plans up but that’s the game. I still can’t help but feel they were mostly comfortable and nothing he tried really changed that.
Yes, it was a battle and we put the hard yards in so no criticism on the effort front but I think we let ourselves down on the ball skills front, which is so disappointing since we all know we do them in our locker.
I think there’s a stubbornness on the Billing front, maybe similar to the Travers one. It’s the second game running we’ve been desperate for someone to score and yet he’s stayed seated. Sure, I understand he isn’t a classic AI player but in the chaos of windy weather and with them down to ten, a guy who can strike a sweet shot and whose height will have them concerned (even if he doesn’t like heading) was the obvious choice.
AI isn’t alone in this approach. We’ve all seen managers lose faith in a player and that can be the end of their time at a club. However, it feels immensely frustrating that today we swapped out our RB and CD but left a goal threat kicking his heels.
Given that Billing seems unlikely to get on, even when we’re short of CMs and desperately in need of a goal both of which he offers, let’s find him a new home in Jan. Then we can try and recruit someone to be that Christie alternative. It’s such a glaring hole in our squad.
So yes, I think he got that wrong. And I don’t mean that because we lost. I mean that because they were the better team on the day going forward, we weren’t causing them problems but AI decided to overlook PB. Managers make mistakes, but it does feel like that’s the same mistake two games running.
I’m left not angry, just disappointed. Lots to work on in training sorting out our attack after that.
That’s how it goes sometimes. On to the next game where we will be missing Semenyo. Hopefully, the others can step up to fill that void.
Your say…
Neil Dawson said…
I think this game showed the lack of quality in our squad and the work the new recruitment team have to do to clear the deadwood and start again.
How, when Lerma went on a free, we replaced him with £50m on Adams and Scott is a mystery. Adams is one of those midfielders who isn’t really a ball winner, isn’t a flair player, can’t ping a pass – I’m not really sure what he does? £25m for an injury prone make up the numbers player that is easily dominated…. wow.
£13m Unal, £8m Aarons, £22m Dango – to look like lower-end championship players again when they came on. Before we even get to the splurge of £43m on paper legs Sinisterra and Hamed Traore. Our biggest threat off the bench was a guy who has been here for years that we loaned to the championship last year.
There is only so much a manager can do – he’s cleaned up more turds than a sewerage attendant with a long service award. How people are criticising the manager is beyond me. Its clear what the problem is. The misuse of 150m of Bill’s money. – To join this conversation, click here.
Man of the match against BrightonBrooks
Semenyo
Huijsen
Adams
O. Dango
Kerkez
Unal
Someone else
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DangerousDave added…
What we witnessed today was the limitations of Andoni Iraola. Just as we praise him for the good, it’s only right that we say it how it is when the pendulum swings.
Any young coach out there who wants to educate their team on how not to play against ten men at home only needs to show them a video of what we just watched. No movement, no urgency, no tempo, and lots of sideways passes playing right into Brighton’s hands.
We are not a team that wants to dominate the ball, and when we are placed in a situation in which we end up doing so, we have very little idea what to do with it. We want the opponent to have the ball so we can win it from them and hit them when they are vulnerable, when we aren’t able to do that we really do look quite poor. Iraola needs to come up with a solution to this problem.
Can’t remember the last time I felt so frustrated by a defeat. Brighton were okay, nothing special. They were there for the taking today. We had what seemed like an endless amount of the ball in their final third but our final ball, the important bit, could hardly have been any poorer. Some of the attempted crosses and efforts at goal were frankly laughable.
I think we need to be very careful. It is easy to think that we will be fine because of the Arsenal and City wins but in we have been poor as often as we have been good this season.
Red_till_im_ded posted…
Brighton’s first goal was very good. Quick one-touch passing, a decent shot and a quick follow-up. We were half asleep. Their second was a fine defence-splitting pass and a good finish. For them that was it. For us, a very tight VAR offside decision but how Kluivert didn’t stay onside in that situation beggars belief. Evanilson side-footed wide from 6 yards and then headed straight at their keeper who fumbled and just kept it out on the line. As mentioned already we had the chances to win the match but it never felt like we would. Too many players were off it today and it showed. We missed Christie desperately as always and saw that Adams is just not good enough at this level. He was woeful. ( Druss can remind me of that in 5 years time) This resulted in Cook having to play as two men which then affected Semenyo and possibly Tavernier but certainly Kluivert. Christie is such an important player but we don’t have an adequate replacement for when he’s missing. It seemed like we lacked self-belief today and I put that down to AI to a large extent. We high pressed and they played it quickly through us. We kept looking for the long pass into the corners but the weather didn’t suit it. The ball skidded out or changed direction in the wind. Brighton kept the ball on the ground whilst we continued to aim long and heads visibly dropped. Semenyo especially and his body language showed it. For me Kerkez was outstanding and MOM yet got substituted whilst one of our worst performers, Tavs, stayed on for the whole match. We had a wonderful mini run against Arsenal, Villa and Citeh, games where it’s easy to lift your game but defeats to Brentford and today show our limitations. Tough game at Wolves next week without Semenyo. – To join this conversation, click here.
