Brighton 4-0 Crawley: Baleba beats Enciso to top of ratings

Fabian Hurzeler rang the changes for Brighton 4-0 Crawley Town in the Carabao Cup and yet these Albion player ratings still contain nearly £150 million worth of transfer fees.

Needless to say, the Red Devils were unable to cope with such an array of talent as Brighton eased into the third round of the competition without ever needing to get out of second gear.

Carlos Baleba and Julio Enciso pushed their claims for more game time in the Premier League whilst Bart Verbruggen and Pervis Estupinan made successful returns from injury, further increasing the options available to Fabian Hurzeler.

The only negative was Matt O’Riley limping off after less than 10 minutes, the victim of a horror tackle from Crawley captain Jay Williams. How Williams escaped without so much as a yellow card caused bafflement and anger in equal measure.

O’Riley still managed to rack up a 5.29 despite his limited minutes in the Brighton 4-0 Crawley player ratings – with the rest of the scores as follows.

Bart Verbruggen – 7.29
From a Euro 2024 semi final in front of a packed Signal Iduna Park to Carabao Cup duty against League One opponents with the Amex half empty. Such is the life of a professional footballer. Forced into a couple of decent first half saves as Crawley enjoyed a good opening spell.

Tariq Lamptey – 6.14
How quick must Crawley’s Rushian Hepburn-Murphy to outpace Lamptey on occasions as the visitors tried to take advantage of the Albion’s high line?

Adam Webster – 6.71
Captain for the night and marked the occasion with a towering header for the third Brighton goal.

Igor Julio – 6.14
Igor! Igor! Igor! Whilst Crawley tried rough tactics against several Albion players, no Red Devil was brave enough to get into a physical battle with Igor. Solid defensively and embarked on a couple of trademark crazy runs into midfield.

Imari Samuels – 5.29
Mixed bag on his full Albion debut. Some impressive interventions won back possession but he was also guilty of getting caught himself at times. Most notably in the second half when Crawley would have had a tap in if any of their forwards possessed the anticipation to get on the end of Ronan Darcy’s low pass across goal.

CARLOS BALEBA – 7.71
A tour-de-force in midfield. His driving run and perfect pass cutting through the Red Devils defence for Simon Adingra to open the scoring provided a magnificent assist on the way to a deserved top spot in the Brighton 4-0 Crawley player ratings.

Matt O’Riley – 5.29
He came. He saw. He got kicked off the park in less than six minutes. Not the debut anyone wanted to see from the £25 million signing from Celtic. Still, at least Crawley boss Scott Lindsey said sorry for the aggressiveness of his skipper afterwards. Apologies are well-known for healing broken bones.

Jeremy Sarmiento – 7.00
Looked a real threat whenever he was on the ball and lashed home his first Brighton goal with aplomb. Needs regular football for his development which he will not get at the Amex this season, explaining why he is expected to join Burnley on loan before the transfer window shuts.

Yasin Ayari – 6.57
Picked up a booking by going into battle for his teammates. Did not really offer too much else, certainly compared to the pre-season form which has pushed him into Fabian Hurzeler’s thinking.

Simon Adingra – 6.57
His clinical finish for the opener made it two goals and one assist from three appearances this season. Far too good for Crawley but we already knew that.

Julio Enciso – 7.57
Started up front before dropping into the number 10 role when O’Riley was forced off and O’Mahony came on. He was at the heart of most good things the Albion did, including a stunning turn starting the counter which led to the second goal. Only took two shots from outside the box as well, down from the usual 17.

Mark O’Mahony – 6.71
The way he harried a Crawley defender into a mistake, picked their pocket and then finished for his goal was reminiscent of Evan Ferguson against Arsenal at the Amex two seasons ago. Easy to see why O’Mahony has been compared to his fellow Irish teenager. It will be fascinating to see how he does out on loan.

Pervis Estupinan – 5.71
Back from injury earlier than Roberto De Zerbi predicted in April to bank useful minutes. The less said about his one attempted shot, the better.

Cameron Peupion – 5.71
Struggled to make much impact in open play but he did swing over the corner headed in by Webster after accepting responsibility to take it when no other Brighton player would.

Jensen Weir – 6.00
Tall, isn’t he? Looked comfortable in terms of the physical battle with Crawley having spent the past three seasons in League One on loan with Cambridge United, Morecambe and Port Vale.

Odel Offiah – 5.71
Nephew of rugby legend Martin had little to do after replacing Lamptey at a point where Crawley were non-existent as an attacking threat.

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.