Post Match report for the West Ham game - Saturday, 17th August 2019
PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton v West Ham - 17/8/19 P2
ALBION TRADE BLOWS WITH HAMMERS
VENUE; the Amex, Falmer - first home match of two fixtures to date.
RESULT: 1-1 ~ Trossard . (h-t 0-0) . SHAPE: 3-4-3 . REF: let stuff go until eventually producing a card in later phases.
PREAMBLE; Brighton fans turned up to begin the third elite campaign suitably recuperated from previous domestic disasters at the community stadium during a winter of discontent.
Optimism to remain above eighteenth place was once more engendered from innocence of predicting future events.
GATE: 30,459 . WEATHER: breezy with sunny intervals.
GRAHAM POTTER took his seat for the Prem experience having put his stamp on proceedings. He resisted urges to tweak the winning eleven from opening day bar debut for Trossard.
A new formation served modus operandi on home turf intended to take Albion up at least a notch.
TEAM: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ryan
. . . . . . . . . . . 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 33 Burn
. 22 Montoya, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March
. . . . . . . . . 13 Gross, 17 Murray, 11 Trossard
BENCH: 27 Button, 30 Bernardo, 15 Webster, 18 Mooy (85), 9 Locadia, 7 Maupay (67), 10 Andone (74).
GOALS: 61 - 0-1. Albion lost the ball out wide with the rearguard already pushed up. Opposition stubbed a short pass between defenders to set the striker off 1 on 1 in a counterattack. Ryan came out, got a hand on it but to no avail.
65 - 1-1. Gross chipped ahead from out right and Murray chased onwards centrally. The ball lost momentum, falling to TROSSARD who selected the bottom corner across goalies dive.
INCIDENTS: 28 - VAR, no goal! The deep f-k by Gross sailed over Duffy who appeared impeded. Burn took up the ball, centred and Trossard volleyed a strike into the net. Apparently decided marginally offside at the original set piece.
YELLOWS: none for locals in a disciplined performance. Travellers incurred wrath of Ref twice.
SUBS: 67 - immediately after levelling, Maupay replaced Gross. 74 - Andone came on for Murray. 85 - Mooy went on when Trossard came off.
These changes had little tactical impact to up the ante, in the sense of altering the result.
ANALYSIS: Albion have relied on set pieces to produce scoring attempts in recent terms and if their first minute header had gone in it might have been even more a cut & thrust contest. As it was, good shape held initial attacks from visitors until midfield began to get a grip of possession going forward.
The setbacks caused by VAR delays and next going a goal behind were shrugged off with a positive response. Hosts were unlikely to concede quite so easily again but odds were on scoring another from open play following the equaliser.
The Prem is also a division of fine margins between those teams of fairly equal mid-table ability prepared to play football. What suggests that Seagulls may profit from higher tempo and use of wingbacks, is from numbers thus getting forward in support of the striker. Lack of physicality by runners in channels is negated by pace (given subs introduced are also quick) but offers a direct and continual threat in the final third.
MoM; Burn - started the season well and set a benchmark for any in the back three.
HOME FAN; from an aesthetics viewpoint, it is a pleasure to watch lately compared to the previous two dour campaigns.
AWAY FAN; we deserved a point after disappointment of last week up at ours. The game was open and could have gone either way.
NEUTRAL VIEW; how Brighton could not win it is probably down to the number of missed opportunities in front of goal.
FS
