[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs Everton *** Official Match Thread ***

[nwgull]

Both teams had 5 shots on target, they just scored all of theirs !
The Brighton way.

They scored 4 out of their 5 shots on target. I think the 5th would’ve been the one blocked by Dunk’s knee towards the end of he first half.

 

[jimhigham]

Wow! What a horror show.

I’ll be accused of being a bad fan for what I’m about to write so let me preface it by saying I stayed right through to the bitter end and stuck around to applaud the boys (more a less a very disconsolate looking Dunk on his own) off the pitch.

I think Europe is probably a bridge too far for the team now. We’ve lost three of the last six league matches, with the last two of those being increasingly worrying. That frailty doesn’t bode well with fixtures against the top three coming up. Means it’s all the more likely we’ll need something from our last match, away to our bogey side. Sure, it’s still in our hands but I’m not seeing huge grounds for optimism. Perhaps it’s just self preservation on my part and getting my crushing disappointment in early. We’ll see.

The season has still been a thrill ride like no other. I’ve made it to more games than I’ve managed in years and I’m hungry for more. Our overall trajectory remains good. Onwards.

 

[kevo]

View attachment 160701Haven't read the whole thread but a higher xG and losing 5-1...

Clearly the second half onslaught vs them only leaving their half twice (and scoring twice

If you showed someone who didn't know the score the stats, they'd think it was us who'd won 5-1. In many ways, a really strange game.

)

 

[OzMike]

Thank god we only have 1 more bottom table team to play against this season.
Saints are all but gone, but looking at the results against us from the teams around them, they will think they have a chance.
Oh, and forget Europe.
All the best players will go in the summer, which may make RDZ's position difficult and he may defect back to Italy, for which there are already rumours
The season gas been a memorable ine though, plenty of highs as well as lows.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Hats off to RDZ - - changes made necessary - March and Caceido on will make a difference (Even if we somehow pull this back, I still say he has fatigued and recovering players to protect when deciding the starting line up - some people seem to think this is the last game of the season! (We are not privy to match training and physio sessions and why some players may not be fit for a full 90 mins!)

Yep. Lots here who think they know things they don't and that they know better than RDZ when they don't. Maybe the team selection could have been better and maybe not. We'll never know. The main thing we know is that many had bad games as did the team as a whole. It happens even to Manchester City. We move on.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Rubbish, if fit enough for bench, they can start

If you two don't stop fighting I'll turn this thread around and we're all going home so help me God.

I nearly joined in but decided one of them wasn't worth engaging with.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Solly March has pulled up - hamstring

RDZ's fault. Should have played him from the start.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Because RDZ would probably have preferred NOT TO HAVE USED SOLLY AT ALL Solly has now a hamstring. That was my point - RDZ said Solly was not at his best - but no - everyone on here complains that Solly not Buonanotte should have started and ignored the fact Solly has not been at his best this week in training.

Fatigued players = increase risk of injury

Now our future games are at risk with Solly possibly out for the rest of the season.

Bet the know-all still answers back!

 

[Robinjakarta]

Poor result, can’t believe how quickly some are turning on RDZ and some of our players though

Somewhere in Sweden, amongst an avalanche of pizza boxes and draped in the smoke from a massive bifta, Swanny is pointing out to himself how Potter would have handled that so much better.

It's as if he was still here judging from some of the posts on this thread.

 

[BN41Albion]

I think Europe is probably a bridge too far for the team now. We’ve lost three of the last six league matches, with the last two of those being increasingly worrying. That frailty doesn’t bode well with fixtures against the top three coming up. Means it’s all the more likely we’ll need something from our last match, away to our bogey side. Sure, it’s still in our hands but I’m not seeing huge grounds for optimism. Perhaps it’s just self preservation on my part and getting my crushing disappointment in early. We’ll see.

You say that, but then look at Spurs - lost 3 of their last 5. Villa suddenly hit a dodgy patch after flying for what seems like forever. MU only won one of their last 5. Liverpool out of the teams we could realistically finish above have been the only ones suddenly hitting form! Yes we've lost 2 of the last 4 but forest can definitely be excused and the other two we won by smashing wolves and playing excellently v united. Hardly like we're in terrible form.

As amazing as the season has been, I'm not going to lie if we don't have Europe for the first time in our history at the end of it I'd be really disappointed. Who knows when we may have such a fantastic opportunity again!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

stats don't lie , they showed we had plenty of the ball , just didn't do much with it.

78% of statistics are wrong, though.

 

[chickens]

Then what can we say? He got today horribly wrong and if he can be praised as highly as he is then he can be examined negatively also. He was woeful today and showed arrogance

I don’t think you’ll find anyone claiming that yesterday was a triumph.

However, it’s obvious to any half-interested spectator that the way we set up is high-risk and relies on us retaining possession as we pass through the press. If we have an off day (as we did at Forest and again last night) then we’ll give the opposition chances.

That doesn’t invalidate RDZ’s style of play, which has brought us many victories and is a joy to watch, nor does it mean we should turn on our players, who will already be painfully aware that yesterday was not their best.

RDZ was trying to rotate a pretty compact squad he’s inherited. He came in with the season already started, and he’s worked miracles.

The downside of his style is that when it goes wrong, it’s really obvious it’s gone wrong. It’s easy with hindsight to tell that how we set up didn’t work, but RDZ will have acted thinking of the whole squad to get us through the run-in. He made significant changes that improved us in the second half, but we’ve paid the price by losing Solly, who he was obviously trying to protect.

We’re going to have this happen to us a few times a season, and this is the price for the way we play when we’re winning. On to the next match, wishing the best to the whole team, and a speedy recovery to Solly.

 

[Seagull58]

It was no smash and grab. Everton totally deserved it. We lost it in the first 35 seconds.

The stats indicate it was a smash and grab. We had 78% possession, 23 shots,, 5 on target and one goal. They had 5 shots with 5 on target and 5 goals. If we'd swapped the keepers we would probably have won.

 

[Normandy seagull]

It was a joke.. and I was born in Brighton and I'm still here, unlike you..

Fair enough- bad timing pal. I hope you are still as pissed off about yesterdays match as me

 

[Seagull58]

They scored 4 out of their 5 shots on target. I think the 5th would’ve been the one blocked by Dunk’s knee towards the end of he first half.

Yes, the cross that Steele kneed into his own goal was not a shot on target. In contrast, we hit the bar twice, hit the post (deflected onto it by Prickford) and had at least 3 other good shots saved. Jordan(Tony Schumacher) Prickford should have had a red card for assaulting Ali Mac.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Fair enough- bad timing pal. I hope you are still as pissed off about yesterdays match as me

Yesterday was a bad day at the office, today alot of people will have one of those.

 

[nwgull]

Thank god we only have 1 more bottom table team to play against this season.
Saints are all but gone, but looking at the results against us from the teams around them, they will think they have a chance.
Oh, and forget Europe.
All the best players will go in the summer, which may make RDZ's position difficult and he may defect back to Italy, for which there are already rumours
The season gas been a memorable ine though, plenty of highs as well as lows.

We are still odds on to finish in the top 6, never mind the top 7.

And we won't be selling all the best players in the summer. We might accept very big offers for one or two, but we're in a position of financial strength after the last 2 seasons. This isn't some sort of relegation scenario where we can no longer sustain wages of our first-choice players.

 

[bazbha]

Only tiny crumb of comfort is that it increases the likelihood of dirty Leeds going down.

 

[BLOCK F]

I don't think we will, that was a baptism of fire for RDZ against the Dyche, who was probably targeting this game.

Fair play to him.

I went for a quick pint before the game, not at all confident at all. Didn't quite expect it to go like that, but knew it would he hard.

At our level playing sexy football, we are always going to get undone every now and then against a manager like Dyche.

Doesn't get the credit he deserves.

I hope you are right and I am wrong.

 

[Monkey Man]

I feel less angsty about this defeat than I have done about narrow defeats in games we should have won.

We were tonked at home and never in the game. Outfought and outmanoeuvred. The score line didn’t flatter Everton but it may have slightly flattered us. In short, we deserved to lose.

So we take our medicine, we hopefully learn some lessons, and we try to come back stronger.

For us fans: maybe it’s a slight reality check. We’re very good, but perhaps not yet quite as good as we were starting to believe.