Leicester 1-0 Brighton: Hips don’t lie for Zeqiri in FA Cup player ratings
Ignore the catastrophic defending from that short corner in the final seconds if you can. The player ratings for the Albion’s 1-0 FA Cup exit at the hands of Leicester City point to a very bright future for Brighton.
Graham Potter gave a number of his young squad members the opportunity to get 90 minutes under their belts at the King Power Stadium with promising results.
Topping the ratings was 21-year-old Swiss striker Andi Zeqiri. In third spot came 19-year-old Polish full back Michal Karbownik on his Albion debut.
Sandwiched between those two in second was Steve Alzate who, although a regular in the first team squad for the past two seasons, is still only 22-years-old himself.
In light of the fact that he was a virtual spectator for the first 80 minutes, Christian Walton scored highly. Jakub Moder was another debutant to impress, showing some nice touches in midfield.
With so many young, inexperienced players on show, perhaps we should not be surprised that the Albion had a moment of naivety to lose the game in the last 10 seconds. Here are your player ratings for Leicester 1-0 Brighton.
Christian Walton – 6.36
It felt like somebody should have checked on his welfare as for the first hour, he was just stood there in minus temperatures with nothing to do. Made a brave second half save from Ayoze Pérez. Should maybe have been aware and alerted his teammates a little earlier to Leicester’s quickly taken corner which provided the winner.
Ben White – 6.45
Played his part in keeping Pérez quiet for most of the evening. Did not step into midfield quite as often as he has in recent weeks but having played the full 90 minutes against Spurs, Liverpool and Burnley in the last 10 days, nobody could blame him if he were feeling a little jaded.
Lewis Dunk – 6.45
On the one hand, he pocketed Jamie Vardy. Even if Vardy did not look fully fit, not many defenders do that. On the other, a player of his experience should have been ensuring his young side did not lapse their concentration when defending one final set piece with seconds left to play.
Dan Burn – 5.91
Watching Big Dan Burn is never boring. He nearly scored an own goal when his feet got stuck and he kneed the ball just wide of Walton’s post. He then spun around in the box like a whirling dervish, completely unaware of where the ball was to backheel it into the path of a Leicester forward for a good chance. And he was the closest player to Kelechi Iheanacho when the Nigerian headed in the winner. In amongst all that, he did some decent things going forward including one run from centre back to the Leicester by-line, ending with a dangerous low cross into the box.
Michal Karbownik – 6.64
It was a bit of a surprise to see him at right wing back and Alzate on the left. There is a reason that Karbownik has been compared to Philipp Lahm though and he shone on his less-favoured side with some intelligent play, good use of the ball and plenty of attacking intent. A promising first appearance.
Jakub Moder – 6.27
Did not have quite the same impact as his compatriot Karbownik. Spotted a few gaps in the Leicester defence but could not quite thread a through ball into the space. It was noticeable just how tall he is.
Pascal Gross – 6.45
Was at the heart of Brighton’s domination of the latter stages of the first half. Bamboozled a couple of Leicester players with some trademark Cruyff Turns Gross Turns and even outpaced one of the Foxes at one point, the second time that has happened in the past few weeks. Has he got a yard quicker?
Adam Lallana – 6.18
His experience was vital in such a young side and you could hear him constantly offering encouragement and guidance to the likes of Moder and Karbownik. There was some momentary confusion in the first half as he seemed to think he was playing against Leicester Tigers rather than Leicester City when placing two shots over the crossbar.
Steve Alzate – 6.73
A reminder of his versatility as he came second in the Leicester 1-0 Brighton player ratings playing at left wing back. Helped Burn out defensively and got forward to deliver some fine crosses in a neat and tidy performance. Hopefully, more Premier League minutes await between now and the end of the season.
ANDI ZEQIRI – 6.91
Zeqiri, Zeqiri was top of the class on his third Brighton start. He is still very raw as any player coming from the Swiss second tier was likely to be but there is definitely something there. His performance was almost Glenn Murray-esque in the way he showed intelligent movement, held the ball up well and was offside 15 times. Showed he can finish too with a lovely little dink past Danny Ward on one of those occasions he was correctly flagged.
Percy Tau – 5.73
Worked hard but it never really happened for him as he was the lowest scoring player in the Albion starting XI. This was a reminder that despite all the hype, he is still a young forward coming from Belgium to try his luck in the cutthroat world of the Premier League. It is a massive step up and as we have seen with Alexis Mac Allister and Yves Bissouma, it takes time to adapt to English football.
Joel Veltman – 5.64
Thrown on to give White a breather late on. Given how well he has played as right wing back in Tariq Lamptey’s absence, it felt strange seeing him as part of the defence even if is is his more natural position.
Alexis Mac Allister – 6.18
Added invention when both sides decided to go for it in the final 10 minutes to avoid the prospect of extra time. Some of his attempts at incisive attacking play suggested he certainly did not want to spend another half hour in the freezing cold as he looked determined to find a winner.
Yves Bissouma – 5.18
Not a great evenings work for the normally reliable Malian. Picked up a booking in the brief time he was on the pitch for a clumsy and unnecessary foul in what was his only contribution of note.
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.
