Brighton 1-1 Sheffield United: Adingra storms to top of ratings
Simon Adingra stormed to the top of the Brighton 1-1 Sheffield United player ratings, thanks largely to the brilliant individual goal which got the Albion off to the perfect start.
After Adingra weaved his way around a multitude of Blades players, exchanged a one-two with Facundo Buonanotte and then clinically beat Wes Foderingham, Seagulls supporters could have been forgiven for thinking this was going to be a routine win at the Amex.
But nobody else in a Brighton shirt was able to find a way past Foderingham. The Albion paid for their wastefulness in front of goal when Adam Webster turned a Jayden Bogle cross beyond Jason Steele four minutes after Mahmoud Dahoud received a pretty braindead red card.
Needless to say, Dahoud and Webster achieved the lowest individual scores with Jan Paul van Hecke not far behind Adingra at the other end of the scale.
Here are your Brighton 1-1 Sheffield United player ratings from a frustrating afternoon as the Albion’s winless run in the Premier League was stretched to six matches.
Jason Steele – 6.17
Not much he could do about the own goal but that has not stopped a lot of people apportioning blame on him. Webster’s finish was in fact the only shot on target Steele faced all game.
Adam Webster – 4.83
Was going alright until unfortunately stretching to divert the ball past Steele. Suffered a real wobble after that. Playing more like Sally Webster than Adam was a problem with Brighton down to 10 and the Blades looking for a winner.
Jan Paul van Hecke – 7.50
With Lewis Dunk out injured, Van Hecke stepped up to lead the back line. He was superb all afternoon… dare we say it, a future Albion captain should he still be here when Dunk hangs up his boots?
Igor Julio – 7.17
Seems to be growing in confidence with each game. Made one very important intervention when a Van Hecke pass was intercepted.
Pascal Gross – 6.33
Whipped in some dangerous crosses but seemed to have much of his creativity stifled by Roberto De Zerbi deploying him as some weird sort of hybrid right wing back who was also expected to rove into midfield.
Billy Gilmour – 6.33
A strong first half showing in which he almost beat Foderingham with a distance drive the Sheffield United goalkeeper had to turn over the bar. Faded after the break.
Mahmoud Dahoud – 5.00
Neat and tidy in midfield and tested Foderingham on the hour mark. All that good work though was undone by him losing his mind and stamping on the back leg of Ben Osborn right in front of referee John Brooks. Even in amongst De Zerbi ranting about disliking 80 percent of English referees, the Brighton head coach had to admit Dahoud deserved a straight red.
Facundo Buonanotte – 6.00
His best performance of the season before being withdrawn at half time for Joao Pedro as De Zerbi went more attacking in the desire to find a killer second goal. The back heel assist for Adingra has received nowhere near the amount of credit it deserves.
Adam Lallana – 5.33
This seems like a somewhat harsh rating for Lallana. Threaded Ansu Fati in for a good opportunity before making way at the break. No coincidence that Brighton lost control with him off the pitch. A rare mistake from De Zerbi.
SIMON ADINGRA – 7.83
Switched to the left in place of Kaoru Mitoma from his normal right wing spot. Justified the adjustment with that brilliant Lionel Messi-esque goal inside of five minutes. Struggled to get into the game as much in the second half and it seems to have gone unnoticed that it was Adingra who lost the ball cheaply in the build up to the Blades’ equaliser.
Ansu Fati – 6.67
Led the line as a false nine with Evan Ferguson injured. Saw two efforts saved by Foderingham in a lively first half showing but faded after the break.
Kaoru Mitoma – 6.67
De Zerbi introduced Mitoma at the break clearly hoping for a repeat of his heroics from the bench against Plucky Little Bournemouth in September. Drew a decent near post stop from Foderingham. He otherwise seemed to spend most of his 45 minutes running down blind alleys.
Joao Pedro – 6.67
Wanted to run at the Sheffield United defence and he did that fairly well as the Albion sought a second goal. His rolling around on the floor before jumping to his feet when he realised he was neither getting a free kick nor was Mr Brooks stopping play was cringeworthy.
Carlos Baleba – 5.67
Replaced Gilmour immediately after the red card. Bizarrely, De Zerbi decided to leave Baleba as the sole holding midfielder which the Blades took full advantage of within minutes by carving their way through the middle for the equaliser. It would have been interesting to see what happened had he found himself in one-on-one with Foderingham late on rather than being illegally halted right on the edge of the box.
Joel Veltman – 6.00
Came on as Brighton shifted to an orthodox back four in response to Dahoud heading for his early bath. The change simply served to sew confusion as Sheffield United scored almost immediately. Provided a relatively calm presence after that, as you would expect.
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.
