Match Review: Brighton 1-3 Burnley
This was Brighton and Hove Albion’s biggest game of the season so far and not to put too finer point on it, but they completely blew it.
It wasn’t so much the fact that the Albion lost to Burnley that was the problem. It was that we were out thought, out battled and out played by a side who two months ago we were 12 points better off than. The gap to the Clarets is now a big, fat, zero.
Burnley aren’t the only thing to have caught us up over the past eight weeks. The relegation zone is now looming ever closer as well, with just three points separating the Albion from Southampton in 18th spot. If this run of one win in 11 games carries on for much longer, then we’re sleepwalking into the Championship.
Could it happen? It really shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Southampton, Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City and Newcastle United are all to still visit the Amex. Those fixtures should push us very close to the required points to avoid the drop. If we fail to win even three of them, then we’ll deserve to go down.
Coming up against a goalkeeper who doesn’t save more than Jesus Christ would be a good starting point to the Albion turning around their current dire form. Last week it was Ben Foster who made three world class saves to earn Watford a 0-0 draw at the Amex.
This week, it was Tom Heaton who produced three saves of his own that were arguably even better than Foster’s. The first saw him deny Solly March’s brilliant header, the second involved superhuman reactions followed by superhuman strength to push away a Pascal Gross volley that was hit so ferociously it probably would have broken the net had it not come into contact with Heaton’s hand first.
The third was the best of the lot. It looked to the whole world like Gross’ looping effort was heading in until Heaton did a passable impression of Stretch Armstrong to somehow tip it away at the expense of a corner.
Burnley opened the scoring in between chance two and three thanks to a slip from Lewis Dunk, who appeared to have mistakenly covered his boots in butter before the game.
That allowed former Albion striker Chris Wood a clear run at Maty Ryan and the popular New Zealand international made no mistake, beating Ryan with a cool finish.
Wood struck in the 26th minute but despite there still being well over an hour to go, you never really sensed that the Albion would get back into the tie. We possessed neither the creativity nor the desire to find a way past a well-organised Burnley outfit.
One moment in the first half summed it up perfectly. Burnley had retreated into their rigid 4-4-2 shape with two banks of four lined up inside their own half, leaving Dunk and Shane Duffy to stroke the ball between themselves across the Albion back line.
Both were looking for a forward pass, but the midfield three and the front three were just static. You’d find move movement in the cemetery up on Bear Road.
With absolutely no options on offer, Duffy eventually had no choice but to resort to smashing it forward, something that a side as big and physical as Burnley were rubbing their hands with glee at. It was little wonder that after that blistering start, we barely registered as an attacking threat.
It’s just one of the many, many problems that playing 4-3-3 is heaping upon the Albion. 4-4-1-1 gives two wide men to get the ball to, 4-3-3 compacts everything down the middle.
4-3-3 also leaves Gaetan Bong hopelessly exposed due to Jurgen Locadia’s phobia of defending. It reduces the amount of protection offered to the back four in general, which is why the defensive solidity that last season’s survival was based on has gone out the window and we’re leaking goals at an alarming rate.
It is ruining Dale Stephens by asking him to play as a midfield pivot which he looks about as comfortable doing as Dianne Abbott at a maths convention. And it means our most creative player in Gross is playing a lot deeper.
How long will Hughton persevere with a formation that has delivered three wins in 13 games? Based on this second half, it’s got to be ditched before the Albion’s next league game away at Leicester City in 17 days time.
Wood doubled Burnley’s lead with an hour played when Stephens this time stumbled, Dwight McNeil took advantage to find Wood and he beat Ryan despite the Australian number one appearing to get a good hand to the shot.
Stuart Attwell and his team of officials took centre stage 13 minutes later with an absolutely horrific passage of officiating. Attwell was no more than 10 yards away from Jeff Hendrick when the Burnley midfielder practically caught the ball in the box.
Remarkably, neither Attwell nor his linesman viewed it as a deliberate handball. Hendrick was able to then throw the ball forward to start a quick counter which ended with Ashley Barnes being hauled down by Ryan in the box.
Barnes duly dusted himself down and converted the resulting penalty for 3-0, making up for an astonishing miss in the first half after Duffy’s attempted clearance cannoned off the bar and straight to Barnes, who somehow contrived to squander the opportunity despite having an open goal from a matter of yards.
With Barnes joining Wood on the score sheet, the rain pouring down and a League One standard performance from the Albion, it all had a very Brighton 2010-11 season feel to it – the only thing missing from 2011 being that Tru has sadly long since closed it’s disco room doors serving £2 apple VK which used to be a sure-fire cure for forgetting a dire 90 minutes at Withdean.
That third goal killed the game and while Attwell played a huge part in it, anybody seeking to pin the blame for the defeat on the referee is simply trying to mask the Albion’s own shortcomings.
Sure, if Attwell gives a penalty and we convert it rather than Burnley going up the other end and scoring, then it is 2-1 with 15 minutes left to play rather than 0-3.
But Attwell wasn’t responsible for Dunk slipping over in the first half. He wasn’t the reason that Stephens looked like a donkey all afternoon. He didn’t select and then persist with a formation that clearly wasn’t working. He wasn’t responsible for the appalling lack of movement from the front three. Or the lack of fight all over the pitch.
The reason Brighton lost was because Brighton weren’t very good. Duffy did manage to net a late consolation with his fifth of the season two minutes after Barnes’ penalty, but that was all it was ever likely to be. With Duffy having previously played on-loan at Burnley from Everton, it meant that all three of the day’s scorers were netting against their former club.
The Irishman is now the top scoring centre back in the Premier League this season and was probably the only man in blue and white to come out of Saturday with any credit.
Duffy encompasses the fighting spirit and the attitude that the rest of his teammates need to rediscover if this is not to turn into a desperate battle for survival.
The Albion have to dig in and start fighting before they are swallowed up by the relegation zone. Let’s hope this defeat to Burnley proves to be a watershed moment – we can’t afford many more afternoons like it.
