Post Match report for the Everton game - Saturday, 11th January 2020
PREMIER LEAGUE: Everton v Brighton - 11/1/20, P22.
ALBION RE-RUN NEGATIVE OUTCOMES FROM PREVIOUS TRIPS UP NORTH
VENUE: Goodison Park, Liverpool - eleventh away match of twenty-two fixtures to date.
RESULT: 1-0 . (h-t 1-0) . SHAPE: 3-4-3 .
REF: has had more difficult days in shorts.
PRE-KICKOFF: Brighton fans were back in the northwest for beginning of 2020, where historically results recorded a winless series.
At some later time real progress of this club at elite level could be measured finitely as points gained from the wider region compared to tallies registered elsewhere.
GATE: 38.772 . WEATHER: cloudy & bleak.
GRAHAM POTTER perused the open January transfer window info daily but supposedly filed it all under pending rather than any selective in or out categories.
A revised regular Prem line up resumed - following disappointment after the Amex display by a BHA seconds eleven in the FA Cup defeat last week.
Murray returned among substitutes and was joined by fit again March. However Burn & Mooy were now injured. Connolly was also omitted.
TEAM . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Ryan
. . . . . . 15 Webster, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk
. 22 Montoya, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 30 Bernardo
. 16 Jahanbakhsh, 7 Maupay, 11 Trossard
BENCH: 27 Button, 21 Schelotto, 46 Alzate (61), 8 Bissouma, 13 Gross (61), 20 March, 17 Murray (73).
GOALS: 38 - 1-0. An unforced error in midfield immediately handed initiative to Toffees and left Albion to chew on it.
INCIDENTS: 4 - VAR investigates an early home penalty shout which is declined. 53 - Trossard hits the bar.
77 - VAR rules out a second home score for handball.
YELLOWS: Duffy uses an elbow.
SUBS: 61 - Montoya & Jahanbakhsh were pulled about the hour mark for Alzate & Gross. 73 - Murray replaces Stephens.
All changes were reactive, if not desperate - almost appeared like moving deckchairs on the flooded Titanic.
SYNOPSIS: visitors were faced with a mix of inter-passing and route one which suggested hosts would exploit counterattacks as required. Seagulls three man rearguard could effectively deal with the aerial bombardment but needed to be on the ball with threats coming thru from midfield.
Most of the opening forty-five minutes saw travellers back peddling and relying on sporadic forays up field with usual pedestrian forward motion observed on the road. Locals led at the interval, so once more the away outfit had a mountain to climb following mistakes of their own undoing.
Potter altered formation on turnaround, shifting personnel around while refiguring more like 4321 - thus trying to regain advantage in midfield and getting numbers ahead as a compact unit.
Inexperience as a team moving into the final third was never more evident and lack of strength and determination in forming and executing attacks stood out yet again as the primary failing.
Albion were unable to play beyond basic pro football, where each group of two or three on flanks or centrally could link to final effect. They seemed more like a loose set of individuals than a side with desire actually going places to win a game.
Potter must accept criticism for treating it like a game of chess where he can somehow finesse an advantage. Once again he was checkmated during an orthodox, average straight head to head contest.
MoM - Ryan, kept Seagulls in the game.
NUMBERS: poss 53%-47%, on target 6-2, off target 8-7, corners 4-3, fouls 7-7, yellows 2-1, subs 3-3.
FS