Match Review: Brighton 0-5 Bournemouth

Back in December, we described Brighton’s victory over Crystal Palace as the greatest night the Amex had seen. It says much about the horrific collapse in form that just four months later, we’ve now been treated to the worst day in the stadium’s history.

That 3-1 triumph over the Eagles seems light years away. Back then, there was fight among the Albion side. There was pride. There was passion. There was tactical acumen from the bench in devising a way to win a game despite playing for over an hour with 10 men.

All of that has been severely lacking in 2019 and against Bournemouth, it was completely non existent. It’s one thing to be hammered by the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal or Chelsea.

You expect that as they are sides packed with some of the best players in the world who, realistically, Brighton are never going to be able to compete with.

It’s a completely different thing to lose 5-0 at home to a Bournemouth side who started the day just five points above us in the table.

The news these days is dominated by the UK’s attempts to leave the EU. This defeat was so catastrophic that the last time we lost this heavily at home, Britain hadn’t even joined.

Brian Clough was the manager that day when Bristol Rovers left the Goldstone with an 8-2 victory. Not even Sami Hyppia, Jeff Wood, Martin Hinshelwood, Micky Adams Version II or the final throes of Mark McGhee oversaw a home defeat by five clear goals.

Chris Hughton said afterwards that he feared it could have been even more, which is pretty bloody damming. Before the game, most rational supporters would have classed anyone who wanted Hughton sacked as being part of a lunatic fringe of extremists.

It was absolutely remarkable how 90 minutes later and even some of the more level headed Albion supporters were beginning to question where the hell we go from here? To affect such a dramatic swing of opinion over the course of two hours is quite the achievement.

Rumours began flying after the game that a delegation of players, led by the sensible voice of Glenn Murray, had approached Hughton in the week and asked if we might try a more attacking approach. Hughton reportedly refused and now he has apparently lost the dressing room.

Whilst you should always take these sort of Chinese whispers with a pinch of salt, there were worrying signs from both on the pitch and off it.

Shane Duffy was seen going absolutely mad at the bench on two occasions. The first was when Hughton made a like-for-like change at 2-0 down and Murray replaced Florin Andone.

Duffy was then seen doing the same when Davy Propper was hauled for Jose Izquierdo. When one of your players is so publicly admonishing and remonstrating with the decisions coming from the bench, that isn’t healthy.

There were also the first signs of rebellion on the terraces. Large sections openly booed Hughton’s decision to swap Andone for Murray, quite rightly wondering why we were taking a striker off when we should surely have been looking to play two up front given we were trailing by two goals?

There were sarcastic cheers when Bernardo finally managed our first effort on target in the 90th minute; the North Stand began going through a repertoire of songs lauding former strikers such as Leonardo Ulloa and Craig Mackail-Smith which is a sure-fire sign they’ve had enough of what’s going on out on the pitch. The fact that there were around 15,000 empty seats by the time the final whistle blew tells its own story.

When a manager starts losing the crowd, then they’re in trouble. And that is what Hughton is in real danger of doing.

For all the brilliant memories of the past four years, the man isn’t beyond criticism and it beggars belief that we are still playing 4-3-3 after just eight points from a possible 36 in 2019.

Quite literally everybody can see that the moment we changed formation correlates with the moment our form fell off a cliff.

Hughton is a clever man. We wouldn’t be in the Premier League if he wasn’t a bloody good manager. So how can he not realise that 4-3-3 isn’t working?

To even pretend that it is and keep persevering with it is either a sign of a stubborn streak bordering on reckless or that he’s actually gone mad.

As Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

The formation wasn’t Hughton’s only failing. We don’t need to tell you that the substitutions were bizarre as Duffy has already done that for us.

Hughton also messed up who he didn’t take off as Anthony Knockaert should have been hauled before he’d had the opportunity to nearly snap Adam Smith into pieces.

As soon as Knockaert gave away possession leading to Bournemouth’s second goal, you could see what was coming. As we prepared to kick off, he stuck out his chest and did his petulant pigeon walk back to his position.

We all know that when things don’t go his way or he makes a mistake, he’ll throw a strop and act like he is a little boy playing for an Under 9’s team rather than a 27-year-old man earning £45,000 a week.

It was a case of when, not if, he’d do something stupid. If Hughton was at the top of his game man-management wise, he’d have realised that and got Knockaert off before he was sent off. As it was, 13 minutes later Knockaert decided to try and break somebody’s leg.

Straight red card and a three game ban for March’s Player of the Month. Just what we need ahead of the biggest game of the season against Cardiff City on Tuesday. It was stupid, it was irresponsible and it was petty. Classic Knockaert, unfortunately.

Duffy’s own response to giving the ball away in similar fashion for Bournemouth’s first half opener was less damaging than Knockaert’s, thank Christ.

The Irish Player of the Year won’t be adding any Best Actor awards from the Oscar’s to his mantelpiece anytime soon if his unconvincing performance of grabbing his hamstring after his pass went awry and hobbling around as the Cherries broke at pace to score is anything to go by.

Whilst Duffy may have been at fault, there were plenty of other opportunities to stop that goal happening. Yves Bissouma and Knockaert simply strolled about as Bournemouth played one touch football around them.

Lewis Dunk then looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights as the ball eventually found its way to Dan Gosling who was free front and centre of the goal and applied a simple finish.

For the second, Knockaert might as well have pulled on a red and black shirt before he gave the ball to Callum Wilson. One dribble forward and one pass later and Ryan Fraser was firing the ball into the top corner.

That was Knockaert’s last action before he was sent for an early bath with Hughton completely blanking Knockaert as he went down the tunnel.

The game was over at that point but Bournemouth weren’t done. Josh King, David Brooks and Fraser danced around the back four to make it three with at least half of the crowd walking out at that point.

Those who did stay were treated to two more goals for the Cherries. Bissouma was the next man to set up a Bournemouth goal, his half-arsed pass giving possession to Nathan Ake. Ake found Fraser who crossed for Wilson with the England striker sidestepping Dale Stephens and firing home.

For number five, Stephens tried a ridiculous little flick in midfield which again set the visitors away and 20 seconds later, Brooks had teed up Junior Stanislas to finish.

Watching back on Match of the Day, it’s shocking how half-arsed the players look. Four of the fives goals came from an Albion player failing to make a basic pass.

Duffy, then Knockaert, then Bissouma and then Stephens were all guilty of it. The lack of effort is inexcusable really and it begs the question, why have they seemingly given up trying?

Because that is what it looks like. If they play like that on Tuesday night against a fired-up Cardiff, then we’ll get turned over again and the drop zone will be just two points away.

The Bluebirds will also be facing winnable games against Fulham and Palace. All of a sudden, the prospect of a Tuesday night in Blackburn is looming ever closer.

We’ve gone from being 12 points clear of the relegation zone in December to praying on Cardiff being shit in their last five games in order to stay up.

From the best game the Amex had ever seen in December to the most shocking, inept performance in decades four months later.

Something clearly isn’t right and the big question is – is Hughton the man to turn around? Suddenly, there are some serious doubts creeping in.

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