Match Review – West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Brighton
17 goals from set pieces. If Brighton and Hove Albion are to see their Premier League adventure curtailed after just one season, then it will be an inability to defend from dead ball situations that will be responsible for it.
If we don’t concede from two corners at West Brom, two corners at home to Bournemouth, a corner at Manchester United, a free kick leading to a penalty at home to Everton and a corner and free kick at Huddersfield, we would have seven more points than the 23 we currently do. 30 points would be enough to sit ninth in the table, 10 clear of relegation and needing only three more wins from 15 games to all but guarantee survival.
For all the talk about the mythical striker making the difference, the goals of Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross would actually be enough to keep us up if we could actually defend. Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy have been lavished with praise this season but in all honesty they’ve been poor since the November international break when our real fear of crosses began – lest we forget, it isn’t just set pieces we can’t defend but general balls into the box as well.
What’s the answer? Harsh as it maybe, perhaps it is time to take Dunk and Duffy out of the firing line. Nobody expects us to get anything out of this Saturday’s game against Chelsea, so why not use it to see if Connor Goldson and Uwe Hunemeir can make a better fist of stopping goals from crosses? If they don’t, we’ve lost a game we weren’t likely to win anyway. If they do, then they keep the shirts. It also shows Dunk and Duffy they aren’t undroppable, which might be the kick up the arse they need to do basic things like mark people and track runners.
Based on what we saw at the Hawthorns, you could probably make a case for dropping nine of the other starters as well. Only Glenn Murray looked vaguely interested while West Brom ran, chased and fought for every ball bayed on by the best home support we’ve seen in the Premier League so far this season.
Anthony Knockaert was particularly poor, combining a pass completion percentage that was lower than the alcoholic content of the Becks Blue we drank on the way to the game (dry January, innit) with the petulant attitude to throwing his arms in the air every time something he tried didn’t come off. Which was every five minutes.
Contrary to their song which looks more and more like FAKE NEWS FROM THE FAILING BRIGHTON FANS! SAD!, Dale Stephens and Davy Propper constantly gave the ball away and Jose Izquierdo was hauled at half time in favour of Solly March.
March at least appeared to be bothered and Sam Baldock injected some pace to what was otherwise a very ponderous performance. Baldock is benefiting from the Brighton Supporters Phenomenon of a good player being turned into Cristiano Ronaldo the longer he is out of the team. There is more chance of Diane Abbott winning a Nobel Price for Mathematics than there is of Chris Hughton abandoning 4-4-1-1 which is a shame as it means Baldock will largely be confined to the bench when he offers something different to our other forwards, especially at home where we need to start winning.
Jonny Evans scored West Brom’s first inside of five minutes with a free header at the back post after Jay Rodriguez flicked on a Matt Phillips delivery and Craig Dawson added the second 10 minutes into the second half after beating Gaetan Bong to Chris Brunt’s out-swinger. Two different corners but two same end results.
Just to compound a thoroughly miserable day, Bong accused Rodriguez of racially abusing him in the second half with the line “You’re black and you stink”. Rodriguez claims to have said “You’re breath stinks” and the FA have opened an investigation. Seeing as the incident happened off the ball and with nobody around, it looks as though it will be difficult to prove either way what happened but it’s hard to imagine a man like Bong who is more laid back than the cannabis taking device he is named after can make you getting so worked up without whatever was said being significant.
The result gave Alan Pardew his first win as Baggies boss and his side a first victory in 20 league games. It leaves the Albion down in 16th spot, just three points above Stoke who occupy the final place in the relegation zone.
And as for Dry January, well that came to a shuddering halt back in Birmingham afterwards. Driven to drink by a piss poor performance from Brighton and Hove Albion. It’s just like old times.
