Match Review: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Brighton
Pink gin and tonic. Rum and coke. There was an unusual offering of alcoholic beverages available in the away section of Molineux, which was just as well as the latest 0-0 between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton was a pretty terrible spectacle all round.
Not that we’re complaining. Hard earned points like the one that Graham Potter’s side ground out against a Wolves outfit who had failed to score at home on only one previous occasion so far this season are exactly what we need to remain a Premier League club for 2020-21.
One bloke over on our We Are Brighton Facebook page couldn’t quote compute that a game can be a dreadful spectacle but you can be more than happy with the outcome.
He posted, “I don’t understand why you, as so called fans, don’t get behind the team instead of bleating. Brighton hasn’t got the resources that the bigger teams have got. Just be grateful that they are, at the moment, still in the Premier Division, but with supporters like you lot, they won’t be for long.”
Presumably, he was commenting from behind a computer screen at home rather than sipping a rum and coke amongst the small away contingent who’d travelled to the West Midlands.
Brighton ticket sales for this trip had been so poor that we’d been moved from the normal away section at Molineux down the side of the pitch so that Wolves could sell more tickets to home fans.
Instead, the Albion support were housed in a corner behind one of the goals. The last time we’d occupied this area was when Gus Poyet’s Brighton had drawn 3-3 with Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 2012 with both sides scoring in second half injury time – a far cry from this 0-0.
But who cares? What the chap on Facebook seemingly doesn’t understand is that you can think a game of football has been terrible AND you can be happy with it at the same time – if it delivers a good result.
Anyone who actually watched the action from Molineux would appreciate that it was far from a classic. It was on Match of the Day last for a reason.
For the first 70 minutes, a speculative Davy Propper effort easily saved by Rui Patricio was the only shot on target either side managed.
But we’re at the stage of the season now where we’d much rather witness a turgid affair like this and take a point than an expansive Brighton performance which delivers nothing – as has been the case on many occasions under Potter this season.
For only the second time this season, Potter named an unchanged starting XI. Quite why he decided a 1-0 defeat to arch rivals Crystal Palace was the performance to reward with consistency in selection we don’t know, but trying to understand how or why Potter makes the decisions he does is a pointless business.
Sometimes, Potter gets it wrong. We see that whenever he has to make a personnel change or a formation switch before an hour has gone because his initial plan and tactics haven’t worked.
On this occasion though, he got it right. Brighton had more possession and took more shots than their hosts, who could be playing Champions League football next season.
That made for an uncomfortable truth when it was pointed out to those Wolves fans bemoaning the Albion parking the bus. They described us as relegation fodder; but we were relegation fodder who had just about shaded a dire contest.
It doesn’t say much about Wolves and the array of Portuguese talent they’ve been stuffed with by the super agent Jorge Mendes that they had less of the ball and less goal scoring opportunities than a side they seem to think is destined for the Championship next season.
The Albion also had the best player on the pitch in Yves Bissouma. While the standing of Potterball may have taken a slide in recent weeks thanks to only two wins in 18 – the same record that cost Chris Hughton his job – Bissouma’s emergence as a mature, Premier League footballer is much to Potter’s credit.
From the moment that Bissouma arrived from Lille for £15 million in the summer of 2018, it’s been clear that he had talent.
We’d only seen it in glimpses so far. His form was too erratic, his attitude in terms of the defensive side of the game extremely questionable and you doubted whether he had the mentality to make the most of his natural ability.
Up until last month, Bissouma had struggled to hold down a spot under Potter. Then, Potter began starting him as a defensive midfielder in place of the injured Dale Stephens.
A player who had demonstrated an inability to tackle and a lack of interest in defending playing as a holding midfielder. Had Potter gone mad?
No was the answer. Bissouma has since delivered three performances of striking maturity. He was everywhere as Brighton drew 0-0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers, quite rightly being named man-of-the-match in the BBC’s report.
He demanded the ball from his Brighton team mates, frequently broke up Wolves’ attacks and looked a class above anyone else involved – exactly the sort of performance we expected to see on a regular basis after Hughton made Bissouma the second most expensive signing in Albion history.
Joining Bissouma on the pitch at Molineux was another young midfielder who we’ve got high hopes for. Alexis Mac Allister finally made his Brighton debut, 13 months after the club paid £7 million to Agentinos Juniors for his services.
Mac Allister was only on for 10 minutes, nowhere near enough time for anyone to form a judgement on what he might offer.
That didn’t stop the Twitterati going into overdrive however, with demands for Mac Allister to be starting in next week’s home game with Arsenal based on a couple of half decent free kicks.
He looked confident and his team mates certainly seemed to want to get him on the ball. One to watch with interest over the coming weeks.
That aforementioned Propper shot was Brighton’s only effort on target and came in the 17th minute. Neither Maty Ryan nor Rui Patricio had a save to make for the next hour until Wolves introduced Adama Traore midway through the second half.
Traore has been one of the Premier League’s outstanding attacking players so far this season. It looked like he would have free reign to run the game, given that he was up against Leandro Trossard – who has all the menace of a newborn kitten – and Dan Burn, who had earlier picked up a booking in a wonderful passage of play which seems to have sadly slipped under the radar somewhat.
It began when Lewis Dunk first fouled Diego Jota. The referee played a good advantage, during which Burn clattered into Raul Jiminez. Two fouls and two yellow cards inside of 20 seconds from one swift break. That doesn’t happen very often.
Traore was the architect of Wolves’ only shot on target when his scampering run down the right and low cross found found fellow substitute Daniel Podence.
Dunk did superbly to block Podence’s shot. The loose ball fell to Raul Jimenez, whose effort was comfortable for Ryan even after it took a nick off Adam Webster.
Both sides had one other glorious chance apiece to score, neither of which hit the target. For Wolves, that came when Webster once again got into a right mess when attempting to deal with an aerial ball over the top.
Jimenez met it with a spectacular volley which had Ryan beaten all ends up, but luckily it crashed into the stanchion behind the goal.
Brighton’s opportunity fell to Solly March and although not quite as easy as that glaring miss he produced against Palace last week, it still wasn’t a great moment for the winger.
Trossard centred to his fellow winger who had ghosted into the box, March taking the shot on first time from the penalty spot but blasting over. He had enough time to take a touch and who knows, had he set himself he might have done better.
The 0-0 draw was probably the right result come the final whistle and one that Potter and the players rightly celebrated. In truth, the Albion never really looked like scoring but when you defend as well as the men in blue and white did, that doesn’t matter.
Brighton could repeat this 0-0 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers in all of their nine remaining games this season and stay up. That’s all that matters at this business end of the season.
Saying games are dull won’t be a criticism as long as it delivers Premier League football in 2020-21. Hopefully with pink gin and tonic and rum and coke on sale at the Amex.
