[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs Aston Villa *** Official Match Thread ***

[Del Fenner]

We have the key injuries, they don’t.

Nailed on Albion loss.

And in our corner we can only see exhausted first team, no rotation, and an Albion bounceback. Grass is always greener....

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

People blaming the change of tactics down to Dunk being back in the team are so wide of the mark. He actually hit a few brilliant long passes when the opportunity was on. The trouble was, without Welbeck or Rutter alongside Pedro, or Baleba covering ground in midfield, the tactic to go direct and long isn’t viable.

 

[portlock seagull]

Slightly over dramatic

Obviously forecasting, but I think I’ll be closer to how things will pan out than many are currently comfortable with. We shall see.

 

[mile oak]

Why does Estupian come forward so much and fail to get back and leave us exposed? Why does he also run down the touchline on the left 'forcing' MItoma onto his weaker right foot cutting inside this wasnt the 1st time and its gotta stop as it doesnt work. Needed Welbeck on far sooner. Even though he may have average games at time the team play better because we tend to get wider and put crosses into the box and you never know second balls anything can happen. I think the coaching tactics were all wrong tonight. It's not like Villa are any good. A very average team at best.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Just seen the highlights f***ing hell Hooper has a lot to answer for.

 

[OzMike]

Been so busy that I forgot this game was on ! I just read through the commentary and it looks like all their goals were score from the right side, just outside the box. Looks like that area left exposed.

 

[Weststander]

Why does Estupian come forward so much and fail to get back and leave us exposed? Why does he also run down the touchline on the left 'forcing' MItoma onto his weaker right foot cutting inside this wasnt the 1st time and its gotta stop as it doesnt work. Needed Welbeck on far sooner. Even though he may have average games at time the team play better because we tend to get wider and put crosses into the box and you never know second balls anything can happen. I think the coaching tactics were all wrong tonight. It's not like Villa are any good. A very average team at best.

He’s been doing since the West Ham defeat in Aug 23, on repeat. So often our achilles heel. Presumably instructions from RDZ, then FH?

It was fine in 2022/23 when Caicedo covered that.

 

[mile oak]

Exactly

He’s been doing since the West Ham defeat in Aug 23, on repeat. So often our achilles heel. Presumably instructions from RDZ, then FH?

It was fine in 2022/23 when Caicedo covered that.

Exactly we have no deep midfielder playing well in front on CHs Baleba is closest and didnt start

 

[mile oak]

People blaming the change of tactics down to Dunk being back in the team are so wide of the mark. He actually hit a few brilliant long passes when the opportunity was on. The trouble was, without Welbeck or Rutter alongside Pedro, or Baleba covering ground in midfield, the tactic to go direct and long isn’t viable.

Dunk well caught out for their 1st

 

[Weststander]

Exactly

Exactly we have no deep midfielder playing well in front on CHs Baleba is closest and didnt start

Assuming we keep Baleba, I’d love us to find another ‘pivot’ as cover or to dovetail Baleba next season. With defensive qualities.

 

[Easy 10]

TalkSPORT bang on it as usual.

 

[oldboyroy]

Really frustrated tonight… Yes we have injuries but Dunk stepping in for Webster and Pedro for Rutter weren’t bad options to have and so no excuses as far as I’m concerned.
My frustrations are with us reverting to the style of play pre Forest thrashing. After that game I thought we’d learnt our lesson. In the following 7 games we dropped off and conceded possession a little. We played deeper and more compact as a unit and hit teams hard and fast on the counter. The results were outstanding.
Given this success, why have we gone back to playing a high line and trying to play teams off the park in the last 2 games. I’m sorry but you don’t change a winning formula.
Fab has a very bright future but he needs to ditch these old habits again quickly

You know what, you've made great point there.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Disappointing result to wake up to. Really disappointing.

There seem to be a lot of negativity and worrying comments about a return to the bad Brighton performances, weak, wishy washy, poor tactics.

Is this just heat of the moment/knee jerk reactions? I've only seen the 3 minute sky highlights so it's hard to take anything from that. I'm hoping that it is.

I think we need 62 points to have a decent shot at Europe. Thats either five wins from 8 or 4 wins and three draws. It feels like it'd be a huge missed opportunity if we don't make Europe this year so I'm hoping the scoreline doesn't reflect the performance and that we'll be right back bang at it against palace.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Why does Estupian come forward so much and fail to get back and leave us exposed? Why does he also run down the touchline on the left 'forcing' MItoma onto his weaker right foot cutting inside this wasnt the 1st time and its gotta stop as it doesnt work. Needed Welbeck on far sooner. Even though he may have average games at time the team play better because we tend to get wider and put crosses into the box and you never know second balls anything can happen. I think the coaching tactics were all wrong tonight. It's not like Villa are any good. A very average team at best.

Mitoma is right footed…

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Really frustrated tonight… Yes we have injuries but Dunk stepping in for Webster and Pedro for Rutter weren’t bad options to have and so no excuses as far as I’m concerned.
My frustrations are with us reverting to the style of play pre Forest thrashing. After that game I thought we’d learnt our lesson. In the following 7 games we dropped off and conceded possession a little. We played deeper and more compact as a unit and hit teams hard and fast on the counter. The results were outstanding.
Given this success, why have we gone back to playing a high line and trying to play teams off the park in the last 2 games. I’m sorry but you don’t change a winning formula.
Fab has a very bright future but he needs to ditch these old habits again quickly

I purposefully haven’t gone in on him after last night as I’m trying to see the recent positive changes. But, at best, his selection was arrogant last night, and at worst it was down right stupid.

I’ve no idea why we resorted to playing like that again but it played right into Villa’s hands and they really didn’t have to work that hard to beat us.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Come on mate. He's just not very good.

He played very well in that spell before the Africa cup so there is something there.
Not to say all underperforming young players eventually blossom but Remember Gyokeres? Useless at Brighton.

 

[Flounce]

Really frustrated tonight… Yes we have injuries but Dunk stepping in for Webster and Pedro for Rutter weren’t bad options to have and so no excuses as far as I’m concerned.
My frustrations are with us reverting to the style of play pre Forest thrashing. After that game I thought we’d learnt our lesson. In the following 7 games we dropped off and conceded possession a little. We played deeper and more compact as a unit and hit teams hard and fast on the counter. The results were outstanding.
Given this success, why have we gone back to playing a high line and trying to play teams off the park in the last 2 games. I’m sorry but you don’t change a winning formula.
Fab has a very bright future but he needs to ditch these old habits again quickly

Agreed and if we play the same way against Palace we’ll end up on the end of another bad result. The Forest and Villa game tactics need to be binned for this one. Genuinely worried that we could be in for another 5-0 stuffing playing like we did tonight. I will be more than happy with an ugly backs to the wall defensive display and hope for a breakaway ourselves. We are playing into Palace’s hands if we try and take the game to them with the current fit squad.

 

[El Turi]

Not for the first time, an international break has ruined us.

 

[Flounce]

O'Riley coming on for Gruda

and his contribution was to run around fouling players on what I saw.

 

[Han Solo]

Disappointing result to wake up to. Really disappointing.

There seem to be a lot of negativity and worrying comments about a return to the bad Brighton performances, weak, wishy washy, poor tactics.

Is this just heat of the moment/knee jerk reactions? I've only seen the 3 minute sky highlights so it's hard to take anything from that. I'm hoping that it is.

I think we need 62 points to have a decent shot at Europe. Thats either five wins from 8 or 4 wins and three draws. It feels like it'd be a huge missed opportunity if we don't make Europe this year so I'm hoping the scoreline doesn't reflect the performance and that we'll be right back bang at it against palace.

Yes.

In the 0-0 against the top team that is Nottingham, some players had individually bad days but tactics and hard work saw us good a good result.

Yesterday was a great performance and if we get the first goal from one of our several good chances, I think the 3 points would be in the bag.