Match Review: Fulham 4-2 Brighton

Well, as far as spectacular cock ups go, that was up there with the best of them. Brighton and Hove Albion came in 2-0 up at half time at Fulham and cruising against the club second bottom in the Premier League. 45 snowy minutes later and the Albion were trudging off having thrown the game away to lose 4-2.

There is only one way to describe what happened at Craven Cottage and that is that the Albion bottled it. And for those looking for a scapegoat, the bad news is there is no point in signalling out one individual either.

On social media, there have been laughable calls for Chris Hughton to resign, Gaetan Bong to be shot and Dale Stephens to be sent for 10 years had labour in the gulag. The fact is, every single one of the 13 players involved and Hughton himself was culpable for a disgraceful second half performance.

The last time a Brighton side threw away a two-goal lead to lose was 16-and-a-half years ago, when the Albion led Sheffield United 2-0 in Steve Coppell’s first game in charge but ended up going down to a 4-2 defeat at Withdean.

We ended that campaign being relegated and for anyone who thinks there is no chance that will happen this season, a cursory look over our shoulders at the sides below will see an improving Newcastle United and an improving Burnley.

We should be too good to go down, but we then again we should be winning games in which we take a two-goal against the second worst team in the division.

It had all started so well. Within 17 minutes of kick off, the Albion were 2-0 ahead as Glenn Murray showed a welcome return to form. The veteran striker hadn’t scored since the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, a run stretching back nine games. That represented his longest drought since returning to the club in 2016, but he righted that with a brilliant brace.

Martin Montoya set up the first with a fantastic low cross which Murray met with an equally impressive flicked finish with just three minutes played. A quarter of an hour later and it was 2-0, Solly March’s cross causing chaos and confusion in the box with Pascal Gross producing an overhead kick somewhere in the melee which Murray nodded past Sergio Rico to double the lead.

We were seeing just why Fulham are considered to have the worst defence in the Premier League by some distance as the Albion should have been out of sight before the break. Murray headed a Gross cross wide when he really should’ve hit the target, he then fired straight at Rico when well placed and Davy Propper rattled the crossbar with an absolute thunderbastard of a shot.

The Cottagers may have a reputation for being pony at the back, but they’re also known for being a dangerous side coming forward. Perhaps somebody should have pointed that out to the Albion players, who began the second half as though they thought the game was already won.

And that attitude is one reason for the absolute shit show that followed. There are, of course, many more – so let’s start with the left hand side and the much-maligned figure of Bong.

The reason the Cameroon left back has looked so shaky in recent weeks is because of Hughton’s change to 4-3-3. With 4-4-1-1, Bong always had an added layer of protection in front of him in March or Jose Izquierdo, which meant he wasn’t left so exposed.

4-3-3 removes that and while March does his best to get back and help out Montoya on the right, Jurgen Locadia on the left simply doesn’t. He was lazy and ineffective at Craven Cottage, a stark reminder for those who were naively hailing him as the next Lionel Messi after he managed to score a grand total of two goals that one swallow does not a summer make.

Locadia offers as much protection defensive wise as a condom with a hole in it, and that’s why so much of Fulham’s pressure came down our left hand side. At the Amex, you can get away with having a left sided player who doesn’t want to defend as opponents aren’t likely to put you under so much pressure. Away from home, with a team as sprightly in attack as Fulham are, you need all hands at the pump. Locadia refused to even walk to the pump, let alone operate it.

That takes us nicely onto the role that Hughton played in the collapse. Anybody who thinks that the Albion boss should go needs their head examined, but at the same time he isn’t immune criticism and there is plenty coming his way here.

Firstly, the substitutions. From the first whistle, Fulham battered us in the second half, so why did he wait 25 minutes to try and adjust things tactically? 4-3-3 was clearly playing right into the Claudio Rainieri’s hands, yet it was almost as though Hughton was too scared to change anything.

A more pro-active manager would have spotted the problems that were occurring all over the pitch and done something to try and alleviate them, such as hauling Locadia earlier for Anthony Knockaert and switching to a 4-5-1.

Hughton gets a lot of stick for throwing on Beram Kayal at times when we’re chasing a game, but here the Israeli could’ve made a real difference. Kayal’s best performance in the Premier League to date was in last season’s 1-1 draw with Spurs, when he man-marked Christian Eriksen out of the game.

With Tom Cairney pulling more strings than Jimi Hendrix, Kayal’s introduction could have tempered Cairney’s influence on the game, which might have blunted Fulham’s attacking threat. Kayal would also have been able put a tackle in, something that Stephens couldn’t risk after his first half yellow card. With Propper and Gross hardly known for their tackling ability, it meant we played the whole of that dire second 45 without one central midfielder to put a boot in. No wonder Fulham were so dominant.

For all the joy that surrounded Hughton’s move to 4-3-3 away from home, in terms of results it hasn’t made any difference. We’ve got just one win to show for it, the 2-1 success away at Huddersfield, which isn’t much of an achievement given that they are easily the worst team in the league and played for over half that game with 10 men.

Other than that, it’s resulted in defeats at Bournemouth and Manchester United and throwing away two-goal leads at West Ham United and in this shambles. We’re certainly scoring more goals away from home, but defensive wise we seem to have lost all of that solidity that survival last season was based on. 4-3-3 at home yes, but it should be back to the drawing board for away tactics.

Speaking of defensive solidity, this was the second time that Duffy and Lewis Dunk have come up against Aleksandar Mitrović and it’s the second time they’ve struggled. Mitrović owned both of them in the second half and a worrying theme seems to be developing here as they also struggled against West Ham’s Marko Arnautović, a similar type of target man forward.

For all the praise that rightly comes the defensive duos way, the last month has highlighted a possible weakness against strikers who they can’t easily dominate in an aerial duel. Maty Ryan also had an uncharacteristically poor game, attempting to gather a cross which he really didn’t need to, allowing Mitrović to head home Fulham’s equaliser.

Instead of finding a way to deal with Mitrović, Dunk and Duffy repeatedly resorted to appealing to the referee for fouls. This reached it’s nadir when Mitrović added his second and the Cottagers’ third, Dunk having a right fit over the fact he’d been beaten to Joe Bryan’s cross by the Serbian striker. There was nothing wrong with the challenge at all.

The one good thing about there being so many aspects of a performance that were glaringly wrong is that it should be relatively easy to fix. Christ, if we can point all this out after watching the game through the prism of eight pints of San Miguel, then Hughton and his highly paid team of footballing experts should have no trouble highlighting what went wrong and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.

That has to start on Saturday against Watford. We’re not in relegation trouble yet, but any more performances like this one and it won’t be long until we are.