Brighton 1-2 Leicester City: Albion lose yet another lead

Brighton & Hove Albion are 16th in the Premier League table and have spent virtually the entire campaign in the bottom six. Leicester City are second and are the only side not to have been outside of the top four so far. Brighton 1-2 Leicester was therefore a not entirely unexpected result.

And yet this was another dispiriting evening for the Seagulls as they threw away points that were there for the taking. Brighton’s game management has been appalling at times in the two years Graham Potter has been at the club and here we saw another example of it, moving the Albion onto 17 points dropped from winning positions in 2020-21.

Stats like that are why teams end up relegated. Alongside an awful conversion rate, one home win in 14 attempts and one victory in 12 against teams in the bottom nine, you have the perfect storm of factors explaining why the Albion are currently relying on Fulham and Newcastle not picking up points to remain in the Premier League.

Adam Lallana knows. Speaking to Sky Sports afterwards, Lallana gave an interview 10 times more honest and insightful than anything we have head from Potter so far this season. No mention of positives or learning, no burying of his head in the sand like an ostrich, just cold hard truth.

“Second half we were poor,” said the Albion midfielder. “It almost felt like we had won the game at half-time. If you drop your levels you get punished.”

“There have been games we’ve felt hard done by but today doesn’t feel like that. We didn’t perform well enough in the second half. We’ve proven we can get results against big teams. We all dropped off a couple of percent. We were too passive and we got punished.”

More than a few eyebrows were raised in the summer when the Albion gave Lallana a three year contract, but his signing was always about more than what he offered on the pitch.

He is an intelligent player who looks ideal for management. Brighton want Lallana to start his coaching career at the Amex and listening to him speak, you could hear the future boss in him.

Based on his performance in Brighton 1-2 Leicester, that retirement and move into coaching could be a few years away yet. Lallana was superb in the first half, the best player on the pitch who ran the game and was responsible for the Albion’s dominance of the opening 45 minutes.

Potter played him in a more advanced role than we have seen so far, just off Neal Maupay. It took Lallana just 14 minutes to justify that decision when scoring his first goal in Brighton colours after fine work from Maupay.

A couple of weeks ago we wrote a piece for the Brighton Independent about how Maupay’s game was about more than goals. His lack of clinicalness is well documented, but his hold up play, his intelligence and the way he gives opposition defences a more torrid time than Meghan Markle gets from the British press mean he is a vital part of this Brighton team.

He is probably more suited to playing as a second striker rather than being the man upon who the Albion rely for goals. Sign that silver bullet in the summer – presuming we are still in the Premier League – and a new striker x Neal Maupay front two could be sublime.

Maupay showed everyone that here. He did brilliantly to hold off a Leicester challenge before sweeping the perfect low pass into the path of Lallana rushing into the box.

Lallana made no mistake, lashing an effort past Kasper Schmeichel as Brighton scored with their first real shot on goal. A far cry to the the previous two home matches against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace which had yielded one goal from 41 attempts.

Leicester finally managed to get the ball off Lallana with 10 minutes of the first half remaining to break into the Brighton half for their first real chance of the game.

Jamie Vardy laid off to Sidnei Tavares who hit a thumping volley which looked destined for the back of the net. Robert Sanchez though flung himself to his left and showed an extraordinary strong wrist to turn the ball around the post at full stretch.

Lallana nearly had a second shortly after that Sanchez save, only for his flicked header from a Gross free kick to hit the post with Schmeichel floundering.

Next it was Lallana’s turn to be the provider. His gorgeous around the corner touch played in Maupay who beat Schmeichel but not the offside trap. As already noted, it was a magical first half from the playmaker amid a solid all round showing from the boys in blue.

Leicester with all their injuries – not mentioned anywhere near enough by the Sky Sports commentary team for our liking – looked there for the taking as the players trooped off at the break. Another half like that and Brighton would have a well-earned three points.

We have been here before of course, too many times to want to remember. The Albion have given countless dominating first half performances this season, only to then come out after the interval and throw all that hard work away. West Brom at home, Southampton at home, West Ham away and Burnley away all spring to mind. Now we can add Brighton 1-2 Leicester to the list.

It was fairly clear almost immediately that Leicester were going to have more of a say and Brighton were once again suffering from a concerning drop off in performance caused by whatever was put in their half time oranges.

Kelechi Iheanacho hit the side netting and Lewis Dunk, Yves Bissouma and Joel Veltman had to make vital blocks and tackles. Veltman’s challenge in particular was another one of those moments where you have to pinch yourself as a reminder that he only cost £900,000.

As the half wore on, Leicester became more and more dominant. Lallana was starting to tire which was hardly a surprise as this was his first Premier League start since Boxing Day. Leandro Trossard meanwhile was having one of those nights where a cardboard cut out of Noel Edmonds would have been more effective.

Brighton were crying out for changes to freshen things up. An injection of pace from the bench would have made the Albion more of a threat on the counter and given Leicester something different to think about.

Virtually everybody watching could see something needed to be done – everybody except the one man whose decision making matters. Potter sat twiddling his thumbs and when Leicester equalised through Iheanacho, it came as a surprise to nobody.

Dunk was the man at fault, allowing Iheanacho to escape his attentions far too easily. As Youri Tielemans slipped the ball through, Dunk looked like a lost dog, produced a wild attempt at a sliding block and then had to watch from the ground as Iheanacho showed great composure to beat Sanchez one-on-one.

Seven minutes later and Potter finally turned to his bench, introducing Steve Alzate for Alexis Mac Allister. The thinking was clearly that Alzate could help Brighton regain a greater share of possession, but to sacrifice one of the few players capable of making something happen when you need a goal to win the game seemed curious.

There was further curiousness to come. By the time the game reached the final 10 minutes, Lallana had run himself into the ground to the point where you wondered if there is enough WD40 in Sussex to oil his creaking joints.

Potter though decided that hauling Maupay in favour of Danny Welbeck was the second substitution he wanted to make. Welbeck’s finishing ability was a welcome addition to the party, but in place of Maupay? Trossard was allowed to continue looking like a vampire desperately trying to hide from the light in unseen corners.

Welbeck’s first involvement was to help Brighton create their only real chance of the second half. The Albion countered, Gross played a perfect pass across the edge of the area into the path of the onrushing Lallana – still somehow moving – but his shot was repelled by Schmeichel.

Then with four minutes to go, Leicester won it. Or to be more precise, Sanchez gave it to them. Over came a corner, Big Bob turned into a ghost as the ball sailed straight through his arms when he attempted to gather and Daniel Amartey had the simple task of guiding the ball into the empty net.

It was a terrible and costly error from Sanchez, but one every level headed Brighton fan knew was going to come eventually. Young goalkeepers make mistakes; what is important is how Sanchez bounces back and learns from it.

If he continually makes the same mistake going forward, then Houston we have a problem – and Potter’s decision to go into a relegation battle without an experienced Premier League goalkeeper in his squad is going to look very questionable.

Sanchez though appears to be made of stern stuff. As long as it does not knock his confidence too much or prevent him claiming crosses in the future, he should become a better player for it.

From that world class save in the first half to such a costly error in the second, being a goalkeeper really is the hardest job in football.

To blame Sanchez for Brighton 1-2 Leicester is to miss the point, anyway. If Sanchez’s teammates had maintained their levels from the first half across the 90 minutes, Brighton would have won the game. If Potter had recognised that he needed to influence proceedings as Leicester were getting on top, Brighton would have won the game.

Leicester are one of the four best teams in England; Brighton 1-2 Leicester is not a disaster. What was a disaster was Brighton’s game management, just as it was when throwing away points against Manchester United, West Brom, Southampton, West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace. When are Potter and Brighton going to learn?