Brighton games with Liverpool and Manchester City moved for TV
Brighton have had two of their home games in April selected for live TV coverage with the visits of Liverpool and Manchester City to the Amex both rescheduled.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds will now come to Sussex on Monday 20th April with a friendly kick off time of 8pm for the travelling Scouse support.
Liverpool should already be crowned champions by the time they arrive in Brighton, barring a major cock up. They are currently 22 points clear of City with the fixture at the Amex being their fifth-from-last game of the campaign.
Their trip to Brighton could still have a huge bearing on Liverpool entering the record books however, which is why Sky Sports are probably so keen to show it on live TV.
The Reds are now looking to emulate Arsenal and Preston North End as the only sides to go through an entire top flight season unbeaten.
Should Liverpool still be in the FA Cup, then their trip to the Amex could be rearranged yet again. The semi finals take place at Wembley that weekend.
That’s quite a big if though. Klopp has done his level best to get eliminated from the world’s greatest cup competition, sending out a reserve side against Everton in the third round before taking his entire first team squad on holiday when they played Shrewsbury Town in the fourth round.
Such disrespect will surely be punished by Chelsea, whom they meet at the next stage of the competition. While Klopp couldn’t give a toss about the FA Cup, Frank Lampard will be hungry to mark his first season at Stamford Bridge with some silverware – particularly as their league form begins to tank.
Five days after the Liverpool game and City’s trip to Brighton will also be shown on TV with a 5.30pm kick off on Saturday 25th April.
Pep Guardiola’s side will have fond memories of their last visit to the Amex. That too was shown on television as City ran out 4-1 winners to secure back-to-back Premier League titles.
It’s fair to say little has gone right since that May day under the Sussex sun. As already noted, City have been blown away by Liverpool in the title race this season.
More problematic is the fact that UEFA have banned them from competing in the Champions League for the next two seasons after they broke Financial Fair Play rules – being found guilty of cheating not being the best look for a club whose purpose is to portray a positive image of Abu Dhabi to the world.
Should City remain in this season’s Champions League, then their visit to the Amex could yet be rearranged as well. We’re not actually sure why as the first leg of the semi finals don’t take place until Tuesday 28th and 29th of April.
Potter said…in his chat with radio Sussex after the CP disaster today, that we needed more luck etc. how can a premier team manager rely on luck!! and the teams around us losing. He is losing the team, the fans and probably the club management with his amateurish attitude. We need 2 things…a strong experienced manager and a proven striker otherwise we will go down.
I was at the Crystal Palace game, and it seems nothing has changed. The head coach and players keep saying there is “plenty of quality” in the squad to stay up. But quality of what ? Not in scoring goals, that’s for sure, and that’s what we need to be doing, not standing back and admiring how good players look. Quality of players is one thing, but where is the coaching that’s going to make this happen ? Because that’s what appears to be missing. It seems to me we need to stop trying to play like Man City, and walk through the defence, but instead stick to the simple things. For example, in the Palace game there were a lot of passes out to Montoya and March on the wing. So what happens then ? Instead of whipping it across into the goal area, the player tries to beat the full back three times (this is a common fault with most teams). And with Murray on the pitch ¾ of the game gone, crosses are essential to provide him with service, aren’t they ? This didn’t start happening until 8/9 minutes from the end, but it seemed to be more out of desperation than a deliberate strategy. I firmly believe in the first time low cross behind the defence, and I mean first time – this causes panic in the defence. We’ve “scored” two own goals that way, including the winner against Everton, a match I also attended (and if the defender hadn’t put into his own net then there were two Brighton players queuing up to tap it in). Another example is a lack of “Route 1”. It’s all very well playing out from the back, but has the team got the flexibility to try Route 1 when it might seem to be a good ploy. At the Palace game, every time Dunk got the ball I was urging him to try one of his wonderful long passes, whether to the wing or straight down the middle – but he never did ! Another example is, instead of say trying to head in straight from a corner, which invariably fails for all the usual reasons, try heading it across the goal for someone else to score. I could go on. One thing I despair at is how lacking the forward players are in having the nous – natural instinct – to finish off a move with a shot that’s not only on target but also is not going to go straight at the goalkeeper. If the player lacks that kind of nous, then maybe they should make up for it by showing some composure. My main message therefore is to practise and put into effect simple moves and some intelligence, and not be afraid of playing some Route 1 football.