Three glaringly obvious things last night for me – Lack of communication, lack of intelligence and a perceived lack of confidence (or taking a harsher view was an abundance of laziness).
A section of play which summed it up for me: 35th minute. Iorfa is booked near the half way line for taking down Skalak on the right. The free kick is punted towards the box with no swerve whatsoever and it stays right of the 6 yard box towards Batth, who has no one within 10 yards of him. No call from Ikeme to leave it or indicate he has time, so it’s a hurried header out to Costa on the left wing, who has a man on him by the time it drops. With no space to move he holds him off well and plays it back to Iorfa who is his only option. With no movement off the ball to support in any way other than to casually jog back to the half way line, Iorfa has a player running in and he punts it up the pitch. Straight back to a Brighton player.
Every goal kick Ikeme dithered and took his time to go long, yet nearly every free kick, we looked to play it as quickly as possible to the nearest man, regardless of their position and how they could progress with it, which resulted in us getting swamped in midfield on numerous occasions and giving the ball away. No one wanted the ball - no one in the middle wanted to put in the effort to get in space and we ultimately got what we deserved. The possession stats are hugely misleading for me as the majority of our possession was just knocking it around the back 4: Just like watching England.
The majority of the time our build up play was very slow and unsurprisingly every time we got to the final third we were overrun and lost the ball. On the odd occasion where we played with some zip, Brighton didn’t seem to really have an answer but we either lacked end product or gave them enough time to regroup.
The irony for me is we were lucky to be down by just 1 at half time. There would have been no argument had it been 2 or 3 based on the balance of things as we offered no threat of any note. Only moment which comes to mind was a Costa shot which was tipped over, though had that have gone in it would have been considered an absolute howler. Yet, we were only 1 down due to, in my opinion, a glaring ‘keeper error.
Second half we came out flying and Bod probably should have scored but the defence did enough to make him blast over and give him a bit of a knock for his efforts. Again, we were lethargic and didn’t think about the next passage of play; just how we could get rid of the ball ASAP. Brighton seemed contented with the lead and barring a few chances didn’t take the game by the scruff of the neck like they could have given our play.
Stoppage time was tense. After 91 minutes we finally turned up and Brighton were clinging on for dear life! A flurry of corners and chances but unable to steal an undeserved point. The stats may say different, but the lack of endeavor from so many for so long was hugely disappointing.
As for big Walt, in my opinion he was the wrong appointment at the time and I still hold that opinion. Given his career which is littered with more failure than success he has no business being at a club at this level. With that said, as with Saunders of whom I held the same opinion, all the time he is in charge I genuinely hope he is able to find the answer to turn around what has been a disappointing season to date.
