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Brighton (H, FAC) 28/2: Build-Up & Match Thread

Jinky said:
I dunno. I agree with the formation bit - and I’ve said several times that I’m personally willing to give him the benefit of the doubt this season, as we’ve seen with other players (Cunha being the perfect example), that it can take a season or so to adjust properly - but at time of writing, I don’t know exactly what Bellegarde is or what he’s good at.

He’s not particularly quick.
He’s not particularly powerful.
He doesn’t seem to have a very good passing range.
He’s not great in the air.
He’s no better than others at tackling.
He doesn’t seem particularly skilful or creative.
He hasn’t got a great or lethal shot on him.

Yes, I know we’re not playing a formation that potentially brings out the best in him, but currently, he’s offering nothing of note.

I’m sorry if that comes across as a bit harsh - but when we signed him I just expected a bit more. Who knows? Maybe he’ll kick on next season - I haven’t written him off yet, but anyone who says starting him isn’t a downgrade as it stands, is kidding themselves.

Anyway, tonight’s game is apparently on the red button on BBC (in the UK). I didn’t even realise that was a thing!
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Disagree with this (the it I boldened). From the limited bits I have seen, he has good control, and it appears to me his strength is in getting the ball, and running at defenders and creating opportunities. He seems to have pretty good close control.
The difficulty seems to be that his best position doesn't lie in any of the front 3 positions we play and ask our forwards to play, and yet we have consistently asked him to play one of those roles.
 
He's a number 10 who should be playing the through balls for a front three to run onto, not a forward/winger who's particularly good at doing that direct running himself.

Frankly he always felt to me like a bit of a punt - no doubt pulled out of Hobbs' "had our eye on this lad for a while and he looks like he's got potential, and wouldn't be too expensive" filing cabinet - when we were doing our mad trolley dash at the end of the summer trying to bulk up the squad. The real-world (and more complicated, obvs) equivalent of playing FM, searching for any available attackers under £Xm, and then working your way down the list from the top until you can land one.

Doesn't mean he can't adapt, but I don't think we'll see the best of him until/if we switch to a 4-3-3/4-2-1-3.
 
He's very skilful on the ball. He can tie a defender up in knots, just look at his assist for Cunha's goal against Fulham.

He doesn't do a hell of a lot else though.
 
Draw for the next round is before our kick off tonight BTW.

7pm on ITV4. We're ball number 6.
 
Brighton fan here in peace - think as a whole we're a bit apprehensive about this one. I know a lot of sides have struggled a lot with injury this season but it really has been ridiculous for us at points. And as mentioned above, we can't help but still have one eye on the Roma games coming up and the League in general.

Even with injuries we still have decent attacking options in Fati, Buonanotte, Enciso and Adingra, so most of us are more concerned about Billy Gilmour's suspension - he's vital to us and no one else in our squad can quite do the job he does. Gross will be there but his partner will likely either be Baleba (still young and raw) or Moder (not bad but not top level).

Should be a decent game between two good footballing sides. Here's hoping it's slightly more exciting than the 0-0 at ours earlier in the season...
 
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Mellotr0n said:
Brighton fan here in peace - think as a whole we're a bit apprehensive about this one. I know a lot of sides have struggled a lot with injury this season but it really has been ridiculous for us at points. And as mentioned above, we can't help but still have one eye on the Roma games coming up and the League in general.

Even with injuries we still have decent attacking options in Fati, Enciso and Adingra, so most of us are more concerned about Billy Gilmour's suspension - he's vital to us and no one else in our squad can quite do the job he does. Gross will be there but his partner will likely either be Baleba (still young and raw) or Moder (not bad but not top level).

Should be a decent game between two good footballing sides. Here's hoping it's slightly more exciting than the 0-0 at ours earlier in the season...
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How do y'all feel about Fati (aside from that he's a "decent attacking option")? We were linked with him for ages (part of theoretical swap deal involving Neves IIRC).
 
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Alan said:
How do y'all feel about Fati? We were linked with him for ages (part of theoretical swap deal involving Neves IIRC).
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It's a funny one. You see these moments, these glimpses of quite incredible quality, but he also looks like a player who hasn't played much top level football for a while and really needs his confidence building back up. He and Pedro are the main reasons we topped our Europa Group - stood up to be counted in the big games.

At the end of the day we as a fanbase are incredibly happy with our owner and so don't really feel angry if this was a bit of a punt that didn't work out - still worth the punt IMO.

We're also hoping maybe if he enjoys it enough we could get another season on loan out of him, fanciful as it might be.
 
Apologies if I'm missing the obvious here, but is this watchable on TV anywhere tonight?
 
Sniffer said:
What a load of crap that is with a number of ties still to be played. Draw City away before kick off and it could put a real downer on our game.
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There's elements of the FA Cup heritage which have slipped over the years for financial gain - all games at 3pm on a Saturday, the draw at 12.30 on Monday, it's sad but I get it. There is no reason commercially or practically for doing the draw before half of the games have been played. I'm sure ITV4 could have shifted the shit Sly Stallone film from 1986 back 10 minutes they have on afterwards so they could have it after the game.
 
I thought for one moment you were slagging off Tango and Cash and was winding up for a Mason Holgate challenge.

However as it's Cobra then it's fair comment :D

The draw on a Monday lunchtime is one of those weird bits of misty-eyed nostalgia that makes no sense, who wants it happening in the middle of a working day for no reason. "We all used to crowd round the radio", yeah, sounds awesome.
 
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