Maty Ryan voted WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for November 2019
November 2019 was a pretty grim month for the Albion. Aside from a routine win over Norwich City in the opening game, there were three defeats against three of the Premier Division’s leading clubs in Liverpool, Leicester City and Manchester United.
The history books will show that we only lost by two goals against United and the Foxes and by just one away at Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League champions-in-waiting.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. In reality, the only reason that Brighton weren’t hammered in any of those games was because of the efforts of Maty Ryan.
As a result, Ryan is the most convincing winner of a WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month award of the 2019-20 season so far.
The Australian took 54.34% of the vote, easily seeing off the challenges of Lewis Dunk and Davy Propper who finished second and third respectively.
Without Ryan, the Albion could have been four down at Anfield going into half time. Leicester could have racked up a similar score line and he was one of the only players to emerge with any credit from the trip to Old Trafford as the Seagulls failed to fire against Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s strugglers.
It seems remarkable that some Brighton fans continue to question whether Ryan should be number one. For us, he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and should certainly be a shoe in for our WAB Team of the Decade which is currently being voted for.
Another player who is certain to get voted into the Albion’s best XI of the 2010’s is Dunk, who managed to secure 21.46% to finish as runner up despite missing the Leicester game through suspension.
The Albion captain impressed at both ends during November, defending stoutly and even popping up with goals against both United and Liverpool.
With a little more composure, Dunk might have even had a hat-trick at Anfield. If he continues in this vein, then Gareth Southgate surely can’t ignore him for much longer ahead of Euro 2020.
One player who will definitely be representing his country next summer barring injury striking is Propper. During November’s international break, no lesser judge than Dutch legend Marco van Basten described Propper as being as good as Barcelona’s €75m man Frenkie de Jong.
While van Basten may have been getting slightly carried away, Propper was clearly buoyed by his words as he put in a string of classy performances in the middle of the park, particularly away at Liverpool where he created countless opportunities and was only denied a rare goal by an excellent save from Allison.
Maty Ryan – 54.34%
Lewis Dunk – 21.46
Davy Propper – 12.79
Leandro Trossard – 5.48%
Shane Duffy – 5.02%
Martin Montoya – 0.91%
