I feel like he also has the Hojbjerg habit of drifting out of passing lanes and disappearing behind defenders. Was super frustrated with him and Werner, especially with Brighton having dribblers seeing everywhere
Yeah can't help but think that would've been the answer but for now I'm voting to abolish the international break because it's getting to a point where my superstition that we always lose either side of it gets validated every time
Brighton (A) - FT
I didn’t the game changed at HT, I think it changed before then and HT was a chance to react to the momentum shift. The late changes (once again) left us with too much to do. Ange seemed to blame mentality - then why not send a message with a couple of subs?
Moore looked like Bryan out there against PL men, sadly, and Luka just came off a similarly unimpressive showing. I’d have brought Spence on but no one our bench today looked like a match winner. Hopefully Sonny and Richi are fit after this break.
The defensive errors were very poor (especially Romero ball watching on third goal) but think they probably come from inviting constant pressure and allowing the tide to turn so quickly.
Just rewatched the start of the second half & Brighton's man-oriented press stopped our build-up & their first goal came through us *not* pressing them up to their goalkeeper &, therefore, them being allowed settled possession. The second came from our (bad) corner finding its way to their keeper.
The third came from a throw-in. As @nathanaclark.bsky.social has repeatedly pointed out, we're oddly extremely bad at defending throw-ins. But, as I said above, Romero's ball-watching on this goal is inexplicable. I can only think to put it down to mental fatigue from the schedule. 3 games/9 days.
The bounce for that assist is so weird though, very very hard to predict that pass coming in like that. The first and third goals were very unlucky on the whole.
Defending for all our goals was pitiful I’m afraid. Udogie at the core of all of them. Romero not much better. No responsibility taken where all Brighton opportunities were avoidable. All we had to do was keep them at bay for 10/15 mins in the second half. Instead we shipped 3 in 18 minutes.
Catalogue of errors on third. Udogie gets nutmegged far too easily in a bad area. Bentancur covers and instead of dealing with it, tries to shield the ball miserably and fails. In the meantime Porro and Romero are sleeping in the six yard box as they seem to think ball is out of play.
Put a lot of effort and energy into the first half and therefore Second half could partly be blamed on tiring. But a concern that in a few games already this season when the oppositions tails are up we have crumbled.
Comments
I didn’t the game changed at HT, I think it changed before then and HT was a chance to react to the momentum shift. The late changes (once again) left us with too much to do. Ange seemed to blame mentality - then why not send a message with a couple of subs?
In: Bissouma, Spence
Out: Bentancur, Udogie