| Frustrating on several levels 09:43 - Jan 17 with 2870 views | SomethingBlue |
No word of a lie, when the teamsheets came out my main worry was about how those latter stages would look. The dynamism and power they could bring off their bench really stood out, and ultimately made a massive difference. Elements of the last half hour felt a little like one of our games from last season – just able to bring legs & quality off the bench and run opponents into the ground.
Obviously they had the leg up of a sloppy opening goal directly before that. Really frustrating because we'd done well and limited them to pretty much nothing. Looked the more threatening and perhaps unlucky not to score. Thought Broadhead in particular was great between 20 and 55 min. Much like in the Fulham game, we'd taken a game against a very good side to pretty much where we needed it – but without being able to make it count.
Think we saw again that, at the end of the day, while we have a lot of good players we are relying largely on two great but fairly raw 21 year-old forwards for those moments of attacking inspiration. Omari looked bright for periods but his choices in some really good positions, one stands out in each half, were way off – it's to be expected and we have two weeks to get these guys the help they need, I suspect it may be the difference for us.
Maybe a few issues about what we do with the goalkeeping position. It was fair enough that we sussed Brighton out for 20 min before testing them but a lot of their most possession-heavy spells came after we hadn't found that ball from the back. Love Walton but he's not really the guy to provide it. We defended well for an hour but on the ball were a lot more scrappy back there than we'd want to be and it affects the rest of our patterns.
Can't be devastated about it, there were good elements, the table shows we are in with a proper chance and it probably won't look hugely different in 10 days' time. Hopefully we can bring in what we need before then, McKenna was pretty clear afterwards that we're after one or two more who would start games for us.
Oh, and can I just say one thing. *This is not the reason we lost* and *I don't want anyone to take this personally* and *yes you pay your money you can do what you like* ... but it felt really, really quiet in there last night! I know we didn't start with a bang but we should all know what the deal is this season and what the stakes are. This was a big game and we largely did well in it. It feels to me that, if we're not playing one of the top few teams, we're reverting to expectant "entertain me please". Maybe that'll be OK if we stay up for a couple of years, but it isn't now! We'll need it to be much better for a massive game with Saints in a couple of weeks – no doubt many will want us to be three up by half-time but a cursory analysis of their away results shows nobody is blowing them away. I'll leave it there.
[Post edited 17 Jan 9:52]
|  |
| |  |
| Frustrating on several levels on 11:08 - Jan 17 with 305 views | Earls_Jeans |
| Frustrating on several levels on 10:59 - Jan 17 by RonFearonsHair |
One defeat in their last five away games and mocking their own players for it.
Each to their own. |
Edit: sorry was in response to the OP, not this one!
A really well reasoned post.
I commented late in the game on how flat the atmosphere had been. When you compare it to the Chelsea game, we played in largely the same manner but our defensive astuteness was being roared on and cheered by the crowd at each intervention. Because it's 'just Brighton' that first 25 minutes (which we managed brilliantly, not giving up a single chance btw) seemed to frustrate the fans and kill any atmosphere. We got into the game more as the half went on but (as often seems the case at PR), the first ten minutes of the second half were flat as well even though the game was on a knife-edge.
I do think the support need to do a bit more. It's all well and good making a racket against Man U and Chelsea, but we all need to accept that to stay up we will also have to do a lot of defending and playing in a low block to beat the mid-table (or less glamourous) teams as well.
For me, the game plan was working until a soft goal and then as others have pointed out, we wilted and they grew firmly into the ascendancy. Games like this were always going to happen, we can afford to lose half our remaining matches and still be in with a great shot of survival. I think everyone just needs to be pragmatic about how we are going to have to go about getting those points. [Post edited 17 Jan 11:09]
| | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
