Newcastle 2-1 Brighton: Stuck in a rut or a bigger problem at the Albion?
704 miles. Approximately 2,357 steps up to the away end at St James’ Park. Brighton fans put in a lot of time, effort and money to get to Newcastle United, only to be rewarded by a 2-1 defeat against the in-form Saudi Sportswashers.
A fourth defeat in a row for the first time under Graham Potter elicited lots of concerned responses and conspiracy theories as to why Brighton have tumbled out of the race for European football.
Some believe the club are to blame thanks to their lack of January transfer activities. They became complacent and were too busy basking in the glory of the Seagulls spending all season in the top 10 to strengthen the squad in the requisite areas to maintain that position.
Whilst others spent, the Albion if anything became weaker through the sale of Dan Burn – outstanding for the Toon in Newcastle 2-1 Brighton – and with injuries to key players now raring, Brighton are paying the price.
Or is the problem that too many players have entered the final 18 months of their contracts at the same time?
Yves Bissouma is not going to sign a new deal and has subsequently been playing like a man who knows Brighton will have to sell him in six months time or risk losing him for nothing.
Bissouma has been reining himself in to the point where Graham Potter dropped him for the trip to Newcastle.
The midfielder is not the only whose contract expires in 2023. Alexis Mac Allister, Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard are amongst the other big names who have 18 months to run.
Why have none of them signed new deals? And what if they are thinking the same as Bissouma? Suddenly, you have four key players whose minds are potentially elsewhere and you cannot afford that in the Premier League.
Rather than the contract situation, maybe it is another problem behind the scenes? “Something isn’t right” is a phrase bandied around but it is so vague as to be completely pointless.
If something wasn’t right every time Brighton were crap for a few games in a row, then something hasn’t been right for the majority of the club’s 121 year existence as we are traditionally more used to disappointment than success.
And perhaps that is just it? Losing games is part and parcel of football. Every team goes through peaks and troughs and right now, Brighton are stuck in a losing rut.
Four defeats from 23 top flight games was not a normal start to the season. The Albion have been punching well above their weight so far and now they are returning to the level the quality and value of this squad should be at – upper mid table.
It is a reality check. Four defeats in a row being seen as a full-blown disaster comes about because of the hype that came with the Albion being in the cusp of the top six.
A lot of fans jokingly talked about European tours, but some actually believed that Thursday nights in Kazakhstan were on the cards for 2022-23.
Paul Barber would frequently remind us with his programme notes how fantastic this Brighton side are in breaking records. That ramps up expectations too.
“Mind the gap” taunts to Crystal Palace fans always looked premature with 15 games of the season to go. Albion supporters who dished them out currently have egg all over their faces as the Eagles climbed above us following Newcastle 2-1 Brighton.
Whilst we all search for deep reasons to justify the Seagulls slipping to 13th, Match of the Day dedicated five seconds to dissecting the problem. “Brighton are on one of those runs, but they will be fine,” said Micah Richards. And that in reality is probably the truth.
Potter shook things up with his starting XI for the Newcastle 2-1 Brighton in an attempt to break the losing sequence, making some bold selection decisions.
Bissouma being dropped for Steve Alzate was one. Top scorer Maupay was also jettisoned, a controversial choice given that La Petite Shithouse Française is very much a confidence player who tends not to respond well to the stick approach.
We saw that the last time Potter took Maupay out of the side in October. Maupay had begun the season in fine form with four goals in nine games and a WAB September Player of the Month gong for his mantlepiece.
After being left on the bench, his form deserted him in November and he returned to being a striker who could not hit the proverbial cow’s arse with a banjo.
It took him a month to get back into the swing of things and we all know what happened next; last minute goals galore and another Player of the Month award for December.
Although the Albion had not scored for over 270 minutes coming into the trip to Newcastle, this could not be laid at the door of Maupay.
The service to the front line has been non existent, so to jettison Maupay for not scoring when his teammates have barely created a chance seemed harsh.
Dropping Maupay already looks to have backfired on Potter again. When Maupay did come off the bench, he gave one of his worst performances of the season.
This was summed up late on when Maupay was in a promising position but completely failed to do the basics of even controlling a football.
Brighton cannot afford to wreck the confidence of their only goal scorer again and yet it looks like Potter might well have willingly done that.
Potter did at least seem to acknowledge the lack of creativity as Pascal Gross returned to the line up. It is absolutely no coincidence that Brighton mustered only two shots on target across the 3-0 defeat to Burnley and the 2-0 loss to Aston Villa whilst Gross sat on the bench.
How anyone can dismiss the German playmaker’s importance to the team after those impotent displays is baffling.
Needless to say, Gross weighed in with an assist in Newcastle 2-1 Brighton with a pinpoint corner powered home by Lewis Dunk.
That Dunk goal came 10 minutes into what was a much better second half performance from Brighton. Newcastle were hanging on by the end and there were several chances for the Albion to force an equaliser.
Unfortunately, it was an all-too-familiar case of opportunities being squandered. Dunk saw another close range header kept out by Martin Dubravka.
Substitute Solly March teed up Trossard but again Dubravka scrambled across his goal to make another good save.
Robert Sanchez came up for a corner right at the end but not even the presence of a Spanish giant could help Brighton put the ball in the back of the Newcastle net.
There had been chances in the opening 10 minutes of the first half too. Both were fashioned by Gross, Shane Duffy heading wastefully wide five yards out from a precision corner and then another Gross set piece enabled Welbeck to test Dubravka.
So many misses would not have mattered if Brighton had not given away two cheap goals in the space of as many minutes before the 15 minute mark had been reached.
Potter reverted to a back four once again, a formation that has hardly brought out the best in Brighton in recent weeks.
The issues it causes were highlighted when Newcastle scored their opener, Cucurella having gone charging forward from left back only to give the ball away on the edge of the Toon box.
Newcastle were able to break at pace, exploiting the space now left by Cucurella who was desperately trying to get back. He could not get near Jacob Murphy, whose subsequent shot past Sanchez hit the post with Ryan Fraser following up to score.
Playing with three centre backs means that when Cucurella is putting his attacking threat to good use, Brighton are well covered should the opposition end up regaining possession and breaking.
Newcastle ruthlessly exposed the flaws of a back four with a full back whose main contribution to the team is in attack, namely that it is easy to overrun the defence.
Brighton are so much better playing three central defenders and Cucurella and Tariq Lamptey as wing backs and yet Potter seems to have given up on that setup. Mad.
120 seconds after Newcastle opened the scoring and they had their second. Fraser swung over a corner which Fabian Schar headed towards goal.
Sanchez was hardly convincing in getting a hand to the ball but failing to keep it out in what was another below par performance from the Albion number one – so much so that there were calls after Newcastle 2-1 Brighton for Jason Steele to start next week against Liverpool. Can you imagine…
Ah yes, Liverpool next. The rampant Reds look unstoppable at the minute as they try and haul in a Manchester City side who most were proclaiming as champions back in January due to the points gap they had opened at the top of the Premier League.
So good have Liverpool been since the turn of the year that City’s advantage is down to six with Jurgen Klopp’s men having a game in hand. The Redmen are the last opponents any club in the world would want to face whilst in the midst of a four game losing run.
And yet Brighton are not any club. We all know about the Albion’s liking for going from ridiculously disappointing results to picking up unexpected and unbelievable wins.
Losing 1-0 to nine man Walsall followed by eliminating Manchester City from the League Cup. A biggest victory in 60 years against Northwich Victoria and seven days later losing 1-0 at home to Tranmere Rovers.
Even the Reds have been on the end of Brighton’s Jekyll and Hyde nature. The Albion had won three times in 19 games all season before beating Spurs at home and Liverpool at Anfield in the space of four days in the 2020-21 campaign.
There is no need to panic just yet about the Albion’s current run of form, even with Liverpool and Spurs to come again before the international break.
The losing run could easily extend to six after those two matches. But it is also just as likely that it ends against Liverpool. And that unpredictability is why we are all Brighton fans, right?
