[UnrelatedPsuedo]

But whats the point in "outplaying" teams if we dont score, finish them off and defeat them?

The point? Well we could have scored and won.

It was a really close game, we played some good stuff in patches. Right back suddenly looks sorted, Casemiro looked far better, other players showed more and we looked cohesive for large parts of the game.

Had we won 2-1 narrowly we’d be pulling positives from the game. It’s fine to do that after a narrow loss too in my opinion.

 

[Marwood]

But whats the point in "outplaying" teams if we dont score, finish them off and defeat them?

Because outplaying a team is always the starting point. That's your base and from there you add goals.

 

[Ekeke]

Seen a lot of people blaming all kinds of players for the 2nd goal but I think a lot of them are quite wrong and dont understand how the team was set up and the responsibilities from the corner. So to go through it :

Enciso was taking the corner. It was an outswinger with his right foot.

The important part here is the set up because Brighton get a 2nd phase after the first ball in, so the set up never has time to change.

1) McTominay isnt quite on the front post to Enciso's corner but he's in that zone nd will get on it if he needs to from the corner

2) Casemiro is the next man close to McTominay closer to the 6 yard box and in the vicinity of 2 front post Brighton players. Thats his zone.

3) Garnacho is the man closest to the corner kick taker making sure there isnt a short corner. He's in the leftback area

So those are the players in our LCB and LB traditional areas. So where are our LCB and LB?

Dalot is the furthest deepest man closest to the back post and closest to the right back area. Lisandro Martinez is one of several of our players just inside our area with the task of competing with players making a run into the box for the corner. He's closest to number 20 Baleba who jumps under the ball and doesnt get it.

The ball comes in outswinging and nobody gets on it. It goes right through to 24 Adingra on the left side just entering the box. Antony is the first man to press and puts in a challenge but the ball rebounds off and over Lisandro's foot, who is the 2nd man to press. It falls to a retreating Van Hecke who can pass out to Ayari and now Lisandro is closest so he comes out to press and Ayari passes to his left in front of him to Adingra.

Adingra now has 2 players jockeying. Dalot is in position if he drives towards the byline and tries to use his left foot to cross. And Mazaraoui is positioned so he cant come inside on his right foot. He takes a slight touch backwards and inside to shift the ball and Mazaraoui isnt close enough to make a challenge. Both he and Mainoo try to block the cross but it easily goes between them.

So now the ball has gone over to the side where 1) McTominay, 2) Casemiro and 3) Garnacho were.

Only its not the same as it was on the original cross. Garnacho ran out as soon as the initial corner was taken. He's nowhere to be seen despite 3 Brighton players overloaded on that side of the pitch. Mctominay got sucked into the middle and trying to compete with players there on the cross and got caught underneath the deep cross with a lack of awareness of several Brighton players at the back post. Casemiro had stayed until the ball was passed out to Ayari outside the box and now he's 10 yards to the left of Lisandro with a view to pressing players on the edge of the box.

So the 3 players who were given the left side to mark on the corner have all drifted from their positions despite Brighton always having control of the ball and having a 2nd phase of the attack to cross the ball in. At no point was there a time to reset positions. Dalot and Lisandro were not tasked with the LB and LCB areas. Lisandro was a bit unlucky with Antony's attempted tackle bouncing the ball over him as he was pressing, cant do much about that and then he did what he was supposed to do pressing the player who received the ball outside the box.

Dalot was positioned to stop Adingra if he went down the line but he was the first man to confront him. He could maybe have done better but Mazaroui has no need to hold his position due to Dalot being in position to go down the line. So he could have advanced to try to win the ball or get closer to stop the cross. He's in position to block a shot to that corner but not stop a cross.

So a challenge from Antony that doesnt win the ball, a poor attempt to stop the cross from Mazaraoui and McTominay, Casemiro and Garnacho not doing their diligence on the side that was their responsibility cost us that goal.

 

[redmanx]

Because outplaying a team is always the starting point. That's your base and from there you add goals.

But we dont "add goals" and more often than not concede more goals! Yes of course we should be outplaying the opposition but we have to get the basics right and stop the mistakes and get our players to concentrate for the entire match. Taking Fernandes off was a big mistake and ETH must has to take the blame for that and for the way we played from then on in damage limitation mode almost.

 

[redmanx]

The point? Well we could have scored and won.

It was a really close game, we played some good stuff in patches. Right back suddenly looks sorted, Casemiro looked far better, other players showed more and we looked cohesive for large parts of the game.

Had we won 2-1 narrowly we’d be pulling positives from the game. It’s fine to do that after a narrow loss too in my opinion.

We could have done but we didnt; why are we playing Bruno as a "false 9" instead of going with Zirkzee from the start? Zirkzee knows where the goal is and scoring goals is something we dont do enough of, whether we outplay a team or not.

 

[Marwood]

But we dont "add goals" and more often than not concede more goals! Yes of course we should be outplaying the opposition but we have to get the basics right and stop the mistakes and get our players to concentrate for the entire match. Taking Fernandes off was a big mistake and ETH must has to take the blame for that and for the way we played from then on in damage limitation mode almost.

Sure but controlling the game is the basics. You can't start anywhere else. Won't work. Not long term anyway as we saw with Ole.

Obviously the tricky bit is making that control count with goals. LvG couldn't do it, ETH is struggling to do it.

 

[Ghirahim]

3 unmarked Brighton players at the back post in the 95th minute. Have can you be that bad at defending?

Another simple cross field ball leading to a tap in for Welbeck.

We can’t keep defending like amateurs. Maguire will get flack but Martinez is just as inept at defending. Was no where to be seen in the first goal.

Yeah the defence is worrying. They must improve for the Liverpool game.

 

[Escobar]

How can anyone claim we outplayed them? We clearly didnt

 

[tenpoless]

Ten Hag's weakness is a pigeon.... and Brighton has a pigeon on their logo. I'm not superstatious but...

 

[Stadjer]

How can anyone claim we outplayed them? We clearly didnt

During the game there were periods that we did outplay them. Amad himself could have had 2 goals and 2 assists.

There were also periods where Brighton were the better team. The period where Wellbeck hit the bar.

Overall i think it was harsh for us to lose. Although when we cant score and Maguire once and corner organisation once basically give away the goals then you cant say Brighton didnt deserve to get something out of the game.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

How can anyone claim we outplayed them? We clearly didnt

I thought it was fairly tight with us edging it till the disallowed goal and with the better team you’d think we would go on to with such an encounter but we collapsed after that and it felt like their superior xG was a result of our terrible display after that turning point. But I could be wrong.