Arijanet Muric voted WAB April 2024 Brighton Player of the Month

May 7, 2024May 7, 2024 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

Arijanet Muric enjoyed quite the April for Brighton. Not only was he the only person to score an Albion goal, but he has now been voted WAB Player of the Month in an absolute landslide. We’ll just ignore the fact he plays for Burnley.

Over 57 percent of Seagulls supporters chose Muric, which tells you all you need to know about how badly April went for the Albion. Five games, two draws, three defeats just the one goal and 11 conceded.

Were it not for Arijanet Muric at Turf Moor midway through the month, Brighton would have drawn a blank in April. There was zero danger on a rainy day in Burnley and no Albion player within 30 yards of Muric when Sander Berge rolled him an innocuous back pass.

Muric though must have coated the bottom of his boot with butter or something before kick off. He failed at the most simple of tasks of bringing the football under control.

Instead, it slipped underneath his foot. Despite the best (and very funny) efforts of Muric to retrieve the situation, the ball crossed the line. A goal greeted by outright laughter from the away end rather than the normal cheers.

To make matters worse, Burnley had only taken the lead three minutes earlier via Josh Brownhill. The Albion had scarcely looked capable of scoring themselves up to that point, meaning we can safely say Burnley would have picked up three precious points in their battle for Premier League survival had Muric not made such an horrific mistake.

Second place in the WAB April 2024 Player of the Month award went to another goalkeeper, although this one does at least play for Brighton.

Bart Verbruggen continued his fine recent form, having topped the March 2024 Brighton Player Ratings last month.

Verbruggen registered a clean sheet against Brentford as the Albion secured their other April point via a 0-0 draw at the Gtech Stadium.

He followed that up with a string of impressive saves in the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal. Without Verbruggen, it would have been a much heavier loss to the title chasing Gunners.

Verbruggen secured 11.41 percent of the vote. Only just behind in third place with 10.86 percent came Carlos Baleba.

The Cameroonian midfielder enjoyed a run of starts through April with Billy Gilmour ruled out injured for most of the month.

Baleba was one of the better Brighton players on show in the games against Arsenal and Burnley. What really excited Albion fans with one eye on the future was his opening 15 minutes at Brentford.

He was head and shoulders above any other individual on the pitch, popping up all over the place to snuff out Bees attacks and try and get Brighton on the front foot.

Roberto De Zerbi has said the Albion will be a better team next season for the experience their young players have picked up in this testing sequence of results.

Baleba is very much in that category, alongside the likes of Julio Enciso, Facundo Buonanotte and Valentin Barco.

The potential in this Albion squad is frightening. A positive to hold onto, even through a run of form in which the Burnley goalkeeper has proven the Albion’s best player.