[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs AEK Athens *** Official Match Thread ***

[Mr Smggles]

Fati not clicking and missing Dunk. Lallana for Fati perhaps? Or maybe Welbz up top with Pedro dropping to 10. Not working as it stands.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

He was terrible a few posts ago

 

[Soton Seagull]

Missing Dunk influence and organisational skills. We look a little naive 1st half.

May need Lallana and Welbeck in 2nd half for composure, game management and nous.

 

[Soton Seagull]

Missing Dunk influence and organisational skills. We look a little naive 1st half.

May need Lallana and Welbeck in 2nd half for composure, game management and nous.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Not terrible but the Greek league is ranked well below the Scottish one and we know people's to attitudes to that on here.

They have had decent results in Europe, I know they are different teams and different players etc but as someone pointed out they know how to play in it.

 

[London Irish]

You obviously watched that half so I assume you saw Joao Pedro play?!

Igor has been good but JP the best player on the pitch by quite some margin.

Yeh alright keep your hair on

 

[The Fits]

I'd get Welbeck on for Fati and Veltman in for someone.

 

[macbeth]

yes it’s been two bits of shite defending from set pieces, but they’ve won those from catching us out with pace upfront, yes the second goal was from a silly free kick but that was won from us not dealing with the ball in the middle of the park. exactly like west ham/everton in that aspect. our defence has been a really big worry this season. every match we’ve played we’ve conceded at lot of quality chances.

 

[Ike and Tina Burner]

They're experienced in Europe, we are not. We look a bit overwhelmed by the occasion at the moment.

 

[dangull]

they could have had a couple more on the break. Again like a lot of sides it's difficult to unlock a packed defence.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Luke Skywalker has the greeks schooling us in European football. Once we lose the rabbit in the headlights mentality, we'll be back to our usual selves.....as long as we don't f*** it up!

 

[Grizz]

I agree with the majority, we're not actually playing that badly, it just isn't quite clicking and fair play to AEK they're disrupting our passing patterns. You could see once we equalised that the confidence surged back in and AEK were struggling to contain us.

I'm enjoying the experience even though we're losing. Pedro is a joy to watch.

 

[Mustafa II]

Fati not clicking and missing Dunk. Lallana for Fati perhaps? Or maybe Welbz up top with Pedro dropping to 10. Not working as it stands.

Fati has been our best player in the first half. Technically impeccable.

 

[hart's shirt]

Real European baptism of fire that first half.

AEK far more direct and could've scored 4 had it not been for Steele and woeful finishing.

As many others have said, Dunk is a huge loss - he would've called the line for the 2nd goal.

Need to get Solly and Mitoma running at those fullbacks, winning the fouls and getting the ref's card out.

 

[jcdenton08]

Reckon 1-2 is about right for that half. Lucky we have 11 more halves in this group and need to make all of them much better than that one!

This. They’re doing a bit of a number on us to be honest. We’re consistently much better in second halves, but their shape and tactics generally are absolutely perfect for playing us. They’ve done a lot of work on this, and it shows. Too many touches from us.

The main take away from that half though was we desperately miss Dunk. He’s another level to our other options and the heartbeat of the team. Lose Veltman too and we look extremely exposed in defence against a threatening AEK counter attack.

Veltman for Milner at H/T please, Welbeck for Fati, drop Pedro to the number 10 and shore up the midfield to enable us to control the game like we usually do.

The lads look a bit overawed.

 

[The Fits]

yes it’s been two bits of shite defending from set pieces, but they’ve won those from catching us out with pace upfront. exactly like west ham/everton in that aspect. our defence has been a really big worry this season. every match we’ve played we’ve conceded at lot of quality chances.

We can't defend but are mostly immense with the ball and in attack. Over a season, in the league, we will do very well. Cup games- just depends doesn't it? If we have one of those games too often we are going to struggle.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Two terrible bits of defending from set pieces, non existent marking. We’re throwing this game away at the moment. Only played well in patches. Passing has been off today, Van Hecke has given the ball away a few too many times.

Van Hecke been poor defending and distributing all half unfortunately. Even at the end there he had to make a last ditch challenge to make up for his error.

He’s not alone though. Other than Joao Pedro, Igor and Fati at times, the whole team have been off it.

Mitoma came into a bit more at the end so hoping he starts the second half that way.

 

[BN41Albion]

They were silent at 1-1.

There's been times where I've been at games, thought it was great atmosphere, come on here and folk watching on telly moaning that the atmosphere was poor. I'm up north so couldn't go tonight but I can't believe how quiet it's sounded considering it's our first ever European game etc. But then now I'm the one watching on telly and criticising- maybe it's actually half decent at the game?

 

[Surf's Up]

It feels like they’ve done a lot of homework on us and we haven’t done much homework on them!!

 

[Gabbafella]

Veltman in for Milner so we actually have a proper RB on the pitch, Fati has been poor.
We've been too slow, Athens are closing us down quickly.
I hope we wake up a bit as we had moments when we looked like we were going to batter them.