Alan Navarro

[Lady Whistledown]

Those who are calling Navarro shit clearly have little appreciation of the less glamorous jobs in football. The likes of Dicker get the plaudits for spraying glorious passes around, and Crofts gets his share of goals, but someone has to sit back deeper, and be available to the defence or wide players to pass to.

I thought Navarro had a really good game tonight. He was always looking for the ball, held his position well to help the defence out, and looked to support the front men. Yes, he made one mistake. But FFS, players who never make mistakes aren't playing in League One for Brighton & Hove Albion are they?

Give the lad a break and who knows, he might just surprise you.

Personally I'd have given Murray MoM: aside from his goal and all round effort up front, I lost count of how many clearing headers he won in our own box. Calderon had a good game, Navarro, Elphick, Dicker and Crofts, but personally I thought Murray earned the award just for his overall performance across the whole pitch.

 

[Rookie]

He has been playing well for a while, has a range of passes and stops the opposition playing by being in the right place. Poyet loves him and can't see why it has taken people so long to realise that he is in fact a good player

 

[Perkino]

Since we have been playing the 4-5-1 formation all 3 of the central midfielders have been dropping a lot deeper, it appears that they are all breaking up the play.

I'm not convinced that Navarro was exceptional last night, as previously stated he is the easiest player in our team to go around but his best attribute is that he follows the player that has gone past him and harrasses them until they pass it on.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

He does simple things fairly well but defensively he is perhaps a little too pedestrian.

I think he has vastly improved in recent weeks BUT Brentford did play pretty defensively last night, leaving Navarro a good 20 yards to play in whenever he got the ball.

Did well but lets not go over the top.

 

[The Wizard]

He does simple things fairly well but defensively he is perhaps a little too pedestrian.

I think he has vastly improved in recent weeks BUT Brentford did play pretty defensively last night, leaving Navarro a good 20 yards to play in whenever he got the ball.

Did well but lets not go over the top.

If it was Glenn Murray OR Jimmy Mac you would be creaming your pants if they played like Navarro did last night.

 

[Iamapen15]

Neither agree nor disagree with any/all of the above.

On Saturday I don't think he completed a pass, so on that basis he clearly had a better game last night. But best player on the pitch? Really? I don't even think he was the best player in our midfield and certainly not even in top 3 players last night. IMO.

As our defensive midfielder, exactly how many second balls do we, as a team, actually win? Its rhetorical. We win very little. Also he has a tendency to pick the most difficult passes at times, when a simply ball is on and then play a simply pass when we have an opportunity to break quickly/ get one the wingers/strikers away.

That said I don't dislike him, but I'm sure there is a reason why he hasn't played at a higher level that league 1.

 

[Harold]

Average player technically IMHO. Greater influence last night than Saturday though, had more space to work in and did well. Only criticism being the number of overly complex through balls he tried to play.

I think (like El-Abd) you always get the effort with Navarro. Poyet (for the job at hand right now) seems to favour players like that who work hard and can be relied upon to follow simple instruction.

I personally thought that Dicker was the player who was getting tied up in knots a little bit last night.

Still, can't have it all.