[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs Nottingham Forest *** Official Match Thread ***

[Hugo Rune]

People need to remember that if we had a manager that post-Leicester was “good enough for Chelsea”, then of course we weren’t going to get a like for like replacement as those types of managers would be looking at a Chelsea-type vacancy, not a Brighton one.

The way I see it, De Zerbi is a surer bet than Potter was when we hired him (8th place Serie A and Shakthar v Ostersunds and Swansea). I’m actually quite excited by the continuity De Zerbi has managed to get out of the team in terms of how Albion play, as he hasn’t even brought in any of his own players. January could be good.

What a brilliant post.

Potter is our best manager ever (by a margin) and is only equaled or matched by Pep and Klopp. If you can’t recognise that, you really need a lot of help with your football analysis.

But he is gone. He is dead to us.

There is no way in the world that Bloom could have got us a manager on Potter’s level. It’s just not possible. But, what we do have in De Zerbi is astonishing potential. It’s time for the club to back him in the transfer market this winter. We are still stuffed full of players who are wonderful at passing, who have outstanding tactical awareness but can’t hit a barn with a banjo when shooting (March & Lallana etc).

It’s time for the club to invest in some proper goal scorers in January. Yes, I don’t want to spend more than £20m on a player but we simply need to replenish our squad with players who know how to score. Currently, it’s only Trossard who seems to have the ability to get a shot on target. It’s the players fault and this needs to change!

 

[Icy Gull]

What I am struggling to understand is why we fanny about at the back, pretty well it has to be said, and then when the space opens up from it we then fanny about in midfield and on the edge of the box.

I thought the point of fannying about at the back was to break quickly when the space opened up. Instead we spent so long getting to their penalty area that Forest had everyone back behind the ball. Happened against Spurs and Brentford too.

It seems a bit moronic to me, why take risks at the back if you are not going to take advantage when the opportunity to break quick opens up, you might as well get the ball to midfield immediately and start the fannying about there and not risk losing the ball in our penalty area

 

[Farehamseagull]

People need to remember that if we had a manager that post-Leicester was “good enough for Chelsea”, then of course we weren’t going to get a like for like replacement as those types of managers would be looking at a Chelsea-type vacancy, not a Brighton one.

The way I see it, De Zerbi is a surer bet than Potter was when we hired him (8th place Serie A and Shakthar v Ostersunds and Swansea). I’m actually quite excited by the continuity De Zerbi has managed to get out of the team in terms of how Albion play, as he hasn’t even brought in any of his own players. January could be good.

So, we’re back to a problem that we’ve had under CH, GP and now RDZ. CH never figured it out, it took GP two years to figure it out. I’m not ready to write RDZ off after a handful of matches.

Our team are good at football, we’ve dominated the match, we have (as we do) failed to score. I agree with others that RDZ could make changes earlier. (Maybe 2 or 3 changes at a time to unsettle opponents)

We have to stick with the man that Tony’s chosen. He’s got a horrible gig, coz we didn’t want the last guy to go. He’s got to learn the language, get his team in, get everyone settled, get settled himself and he doesn’t get a pre-season to work with the team.

Keep the faith. Tony’s not a mug, we’re going to have to endure more of this before it comes right, but RDZ seems a bright guy who wants to get it right. The boos tonight were understandable out of frustration (I was watching from the sofa - if I’d fought my way out to the Amex midweek I’d be a bit pissed off too) - but the boos are so counterproductive.

We have to bite our tongues a bit and give him the time and space to work things out for himself. The players on the whole haven’t played badly, they deserve our support.

2 excellent posts, couldn’t agree more

 

[OzMike]

Dissapointing result.
I expected to wake up and find we had scored a hat full.
If we can't do it against the worst team in the league then........
We will get nothing from the next 2 games to extend our no win run.
We should have tried to emulate the way we played in earlier games this season.
The new coach should take some of our existing principles on board.
We were winning with them after all.

 

[Weststander]

What I am struggling to understand is why we fanny about at the back, pretty well it has to be said, and then when the space opens up from it we then fanny about in midfield and on the edge of the box.

I thought the point of fannying about at the back was to break quickly when the space opened up. Instead we spent so long getting to their penalty area that Forest had everyone back behind the ball. Happened against Spurs and Brentford too.

It seems a bit moronic to me, why take risks at the back if you are not going to take advantage when the opportunity to break quick opens up, you might as well get the ball to midfield immediately and start the fannying about there and not risk losing the ball in our penalty area

Exactly.

It wasn’t drawing opponents forward, expertly creating space in behind. Forest still left 8 deep in their half.

Potter did exactly the same for the first 12 or 15 months, opponents were nonplussed. Eventually he mixed that up, we became unpredictable.

 

[Mr Banana]

The teams below us now essentially have two games in hand and, on current form, we are unlikely to get anything from Wolves away.

Villa at home could be quite a pressurised game. We are likely to need to average a point a game by then and they may have a new manager.

It was quite funny watching a side we once begged for a pre-season friendly celebrating winning a throw-in against us.

 

[Dibdab]

This is absolute carbon copy of about 50% of Potters last 3 seasons. Any team at home that’s sticks players behind the ball leads to 70% and a hatful of missed chances. We’ve seen it over and over and until to club invest in some personnel that give us more cutting edge In Front of goal nothing will change. We are actually worse off with scoring options than last season.

The main thing bothering me is RDZ’s lack of substitutions. Undav only getting 7 mins when we are desperate for a goal. Lively midfielders like Gilmour and Sarmiento not getting on the pitch when we are clearly struggling to move the ball quickly. He really needs to be a bit braver.

 

[Justice]

Your the one saying about buying a striker, as if it was so easy, i thought u knew one.

Your the one saying about buying a striker, as if it was so easy, i thought u knew one.

No I didn’t say anything about buying a striker, I replied to the poster who said Liverpool spent £80m on Nunez.

 

[Justice]

This is absolute carbon copy of about 50% of Potters last 3 seasons. Any team at home that’s sticks players behind the ball leads to 70% and a hatful of missed chances. We’ve seen it over and over and until to club invest in some personnel that give us more cutting edge In Front of goal nothing will change. We are actually worse off with scoring options than last season.

The main thing bothering me is RDZ’s lack of substitutions. Undav only getting 7 mins when we are desperate for a goal. Lively midfielders like Gilmour and Sarmiento not getting on the pitch when we are clearly struggling to move the ball quickly. He really needs to be a bit braver.

Why did he move Trossard out wide and March central second half, Trossard was our main threat? He lost me there.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Not a rant at TB, just a realisation that many newer fans will not be so forgiving of the club continuing to ignore the fxxking obvious.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

We should’ve expected to get 4 points from the last 4 games and we got 2. It’s hardly the end of the world.

 

[BadFish]

We can't offer a manager untold millions to spend. What we can offer is patience and time.

it took Potty a long time to solve the goalscoring problem. It maybe take De Zerbi a while too . I for one didn't expect him to carry on where Potter left off. Although looking at many indicators he has done.

Give it time.

Football is in an interesting place if we are booking during the manager's second home game. Frustrating though it was.

 

[BadFish]

Lots of posts about signing a striker and how obvious the solution is.

It must be noted that despite the obviousness of the required move no-one has ventured a name for us to sign.

Perhaps finding a reasonably priced striker not asking for huge wages who is going to score lots of goals is not such and easy or obvious task?

Maybe this is why strikers are so expensive?

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Lots of posts about signing a striker and how obvious the solution is.

It must be noted that despite the obviousness of the required move no-one has ventured a name for us to sign.

Perhaps finding a reasonably priced striker not asking for huge wages who is going to score lots of goals is not such and easy or obvious task?

Maybe this is why strikers are so expensive?

It's also worth noting that our problem is with creating presentable chances for our striker,

Pretty sure most of our xg was attributed to pull backs for our midfileders/centrebacks to blaze over the bar/hit the keeper.

No point having a 50* goal a season striker if he doesn't get the opportunities presented to him.

*Haaland has iincreased the going rate of the fantasy striker.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

So far I like what I see of De Zerbi ball

This is tempered by the fact that we only seem to be playing it in the first half of each game.
We seem to slip back into Potterball during the 2nd half,
Side to side, slow/slow/slow, hope the opposition make a mistake and then shoot.

Hopefully De Zerbi will be able to get his message across better over the next few weeks.
We were pretty good for the first 40minutes tonight.
We were pretty shit for the last 50.

 

[basque seagull]

It was just a frustrating match (could have been worse though, it was my birthday so I’ll take Brighton not losing at least) seems like a lot of the same problems and frankly I don’t blame the fans for being impatient. What was promising to be a fantastic season has been rudely interrupted.

Not sure why Nottingham fans were so gleeful, their team were tremendously shit and fully deserve being second bottom. If I was travelling six hours round trip on a Tuesday evening, waiting nearly an hour at Brighton station, watching Forest showing absolutely zero intent to beat Brighton in poor form, I dont think Id be in a good mood. Just a bunch of weirdos.

Oh yeah, I forgot, f*** Chelsea.

Forest got a much needed point away at a side 7th in the table. What's not to like? They must be pretty desperate.

 

[wehatepalace]

Really.

Yeah, really, did you even watch the game ? It was like watching paint dry, all huff and no puff…..just like under potter last season

 

[maltaseagull]

Did you complain when we spent £20m on a LWB? Welbeck looked woeful tonight and he has zero credible competition for his place.

I don't think that is relevant. I wouldn't and haven't complained about any signings.
I just said that it doesn't guarantee goals.

 

[est.83]

Luckily, just 4 more league games and de Zerbi can have his (almost) full preseason. Besides working better with his tactics book he needs to put more trust in the bench mob. Change and plan B was needed much earlier last night. Hopefully he gets to see what the likes of Gilmour, Enciso offer when MacAllister, Caicedo and Trossard are away. I kind of hope Sarmiento wouldn't go to WC just to see RDZ work his magic with him.

 

[Reddleman]

Ok, can you buy the player we need?

Will your investment allow it?

Goodness me the rant at Tony Bloom, how much should he spend? And what will you contribute?

Comments like this are ridiculous, I’m sure

My point was spending £30 million of Tony's money doesn't guarantee goals.
We have options like Undav and Ferguson but don't give them time on the pitch.

it guarantees more goals than our current strikers have managed. Literally no goals in ten games.