Brighton 0-3 Burnley: How low can player ratings go?
Not great, was it? Brighton 0-3 Burnley has resulted in easily the lowest WAB Player Ratings of the 2021-22 season far, a consequence of the worst home performance since Plucky Little Bournemouth won 5-0 at the Amex three years ago.
Travel problems. Rain and wind. Graham Potter getting his team selection horribly wrong. Robert Sanchez and Shane Duffy having a very public disagreement before conspiring to allow the Clarets to score their second. You name it and it was a disaster.
In amongst the horror show, only two players managed to score above a five – Alexis Mac Allister and substitute Solly March.
At the other end of the scale, Duffy’s 3.20 was the lowest rating of the season so far. That particular accolade had been held by Aaron Connolly, who scored a 3.55 for his efforts in December’s 1-0 defeat to Wolves.
The only other play to have been marked in the threes was DJ Jurgen Locadia for his cameo from the bench in the 0-0 draw with 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United. Not exactly great company for Duffy to be in…
Those who are feint of heart may wish to look away now – here are the full Brighton 0-3 Burnley player ratings.
Robert Sanchez – 4.07
Conceding three goals to opponents without an away win all season is never a good look. The second in particular was disappointing, Sanchez and Duffy clearly having their minds on continuing their argument from minutes earlier rather than stopping Josh Brownhill scoring the Clarets’ second.
Tariq Lamptey – 4.87
Potter playing a back four hoisted more defensive duties upon him and that meant he could not get forward anywhere near as much as normal. On the one occasion he did charge up the right, it ended with a lovely cross from which Adam Lallana should have put a diving header on target.
Joel Veltman – 4.33
You know it is a bad day at the office when Mr 7/10 is nowhere near a seven out of 10. Neither him nor Duffy had any answer to Wout Weghorst, who was the best player on the pitch for much of the 90 minutes.
Shane Duffy – 3.20
Whether it was fair or not to suggest that he should have got out the way when Sanchez attempted to claim, what cannot be in doubt is that a senior player should not be remonstrating with one of the younger members in the team. The cost of that came minutes later when Duffy allowed Brownhill to slip past him and Sanchez failed to save the Burnley man’s shot.
Marc Cucurella – 4.73
Like Lamptey down the other flank, the use of a back four restricted his attacking intent. Was not great in a defensive sense either, most notably when Burnley tied him up in knots with some slick passing in the build up to Weghorst’s opener.
Jakub Moder – 4.93
Adding to the problems Potter caused by playing a back four was the the Albion boss’ use of two central midfielders is wingers. Moder has been a tour de force in recent weeks playing behind the front two. The positional change resulted in him being anonymous.
Yves Bissouma – 4.60
Two below-par performances in a row coupled with him storming down the tunnel at the end of the past three matches have left Brighton fans asking if there is a problem. He surely cannot be downing tools because the Albion turned down a £35 million offer from Aston Villa in January, can he?
Adam Lallana – 4.47
Both he and Bissouma wanted to sit deep, the result being a huge and obvious gap between midfield and attack. That partly explains why Brighton were so toothless as Neal Maupay and Danny Welbeck were left isolated. The one time Lallana did get into the box he put a diving header wastefully wide.
Alexis Mac Allister – 5.13
The only player in the starting XI to score above a five in the Brighton 0-3 Burnley. Even he was miles below par, suffering the exact same problem as Moder in being shunted out to the wing.
Neal Maupay – 4.40
Put a difficult volley off target in his only sight of goal all afternoon. As a striker who usually needs three or four chances to score one goal, the Albion’s inability to create anything over the 90 minutes meant this was always going to be a fruitless afternoon for Maupay, despite his hard work.
Danny Welbeck – 4.00
That gap between midfield and attack meant he dropped deeper and deeper in an attempt to see something of the ball. It is hard to recall him having many touches in the box, his best piece of work being one promising run down the left.
Leandro Trossard – 4.40
Introduced 10 minutes into the second half, bringing renewed optimism that Brighton might find a way back into the game from 2-0 down. Those hopes proved forlorn as he barely had a sniff.
SOLLY MARCH – 5.40
That he topped the Brighton 0-3 Burnley ratings for 35 minutes work is indicative of how badly wrong Potter got his starting XI. Natural pace and width troubled Burnley, making it maddening that Moder and Mac Allister had started as wingers and Lamptey and Cucurella had been deployed as orthodox full backs rather than wing backs.
Evan Ferguson – 4.87
Became the Albion’s youngest ever player in the Premier League when introduced just prior to Burnley’s third. It is a shame that his re-writing of the history books came on such a terrible afternoon for the Albion.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
