Igor Julio voted WAB November 2024 Brighton Player of the Month

December 10, 2024December 10, 2024 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

Igor, Igor, Igor! With absolutely incredible timing, Igor Julio has been voted as WAB November 2024 Brighton Player of the Month in the closest poll we have ever had in the 14 seasons these awards have now been running.

Just 5.70 percent separated the top four in the voting. The results of which have been announced only two days after Igor made a catastrophic 91st minute error as the Albion collapsed from 2-0 ahead to draw 2-2 at Leicester City in their second game of December.

Igor attempting to dribble out of defence and around the entire Foxes team during injury time with Brighton holding a one-goal lead saw him score the lowest ever WAB Player Rating at the King Power Stadium.

In fairness to Igor, he made it past the first two Leicester players. Attempting to go around a third, however, was ambitious. And it proved to be his downfall.

It is Igor’s ability to go from having five or six really good games to completely losing his head by doing something wildly unadvisable which makes him a firm favourite here at WAB Towers.

And nothing quite sums that up like Igor winning Player of the Month in the same week he contributed towards Brighton dropping two points against relegation threatened opposition.

Igor did not put a foot wrong through November 2024 as the Albion picked up two wins, one draw and one defeat to end the month fourth in the Premier League standings.

His best performance came in the 2-1 win over Manchester City. It might well have been a different outcome had Igor and Jan Paul van Hecke not dealt so well with Erling Haaland at the Amex.

Most telling of how well Igor played in November was what happened when Lewis Dunk returned from a calf injury. The Brighton captain had to settle for a place on the bench against Southampton as Fabian Hurzeler opted to stick with the successful Igor and Jan Paul van Hecke centre back partnership.

It meant Dunk entering a Premier League game as a substitute for the first time out of 250 top flight appearances. Nobody in over 10 years had managed to keep Dunk out the team when fit and available before Igor.

Second place in the WAB November 2024 Player of the Month vote went to Kaoru Mitoma, only 0.82 percent behind Igor in the vote.

The Japanese Bullet Train enjoyed his best form of the season so far. He netted in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since February 2023 under Roberto De Zerbi.

An excellent finish from a brilliant Joao Pedro through ball provided the Albion with the second goal of their 2-1 win at Plucky Little Bournemouth. Mitoma then headed Brighton into the lead in the 1-1 draw with Southampton.

He played a major role in the comeback victory against City, tormenting Kyle Walker in a way few other wingers do. Walker was not the only world class right back to be tested by Mitoma in November, either.

Trent Alexander-Arnold also struggled to deal with him when Brighton went to Anfield at the start of the month. Mitoma played a big part in the opening Albion goal, scored by Danny Welbeck.

It was the least Brighton deserved for a first half display in which they completely outplayed Arne Slot’s Premier League leaders.

4.88 percent further back comes Joao Pedro in third. Pedro missed the Liverpool game but made a major impact on his return from an ankle injury picked up against Nottingham Forest in September.

His first appearance saw him come off the bench against City with Brighton trailing 1-0. In 30 minutes on the pitch, Pedro scored the equaliser and set up fellow substitute Matt O’Riley for the winner.

He then opened the scoring in the win away at Bournemouth, doing what all good forwards do by following up to convert a rebound after Kepa Arrizabalaga parried away a Georginio Rutter shot.

Pedro’s best moment of November followed with his second half assist for Mitoma. A world class through ball threaded through a gap in the Cherries defence nobody else had spotted put Mitoma in to double the lead.

If Kevin De Bruyne played that sort of pass, it would be played on a constant loop by Sky Sports News for the next seven weeks.