Sam Morton reacts to Brighton's 6-1 Premier League loss at Aston Villa
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00:00 Okay, thanks for joining us, Sam, from Villa Park.
00:04 Well, what can you say about that?
00:06 It was an absolute, they took an absolute hiding, didn't they, really?
00:10 Yeah.
00:11 Lewis Dunn said afterwards it's the worst performance they've had under
00:14 De Serby. De Serby spoke on TV about sort of a lack of mental,
00:18 a bit of mental fatigue as well.
00:21 What was your take on it, Sam?
00:22 What went wrong today?
00:24 Yeah, bits of all of those things, really.
00:26 I kind of agree with Lewis Dunn, probably, that it was probably the worst
00:29 performance I've seen from Brighton under De Serby.
00:31 And it was a strange one, really.
00:34 It kind of started off on the wrong foot quite early on.
00:37 Brighton didn't really look settled in the game.
00:40 Passes weren't really going to the right players.
00:41 And they were hit quite early on by Olly Watkins.
00:45 It was kind of an easy finish in the end, but it was a nice move.
00:49 It was Matthew Cash that kind of pulled it back.
00:51 And Matomah couldn't quite get there quick enough to cut out the pass.
00:55 And Watkins was on fire, really.
00:56 And he got a quick five seconds.
00:59 It was a mistake in the middle of the park from Joel Weltman.
01:02 And Watkins was played in by De Serby.
01:05 And he just looked so strong, so quick.
01:07 And Brighton couldn't really deal with him, really.
01:10 And it was just, yeah, just one of those days, really, that nothing went right at all.
01:14 And Stukunov had a pretty awful first half where everything that could have gone wrong
01:19 went wrong for him, really.
01:20 And he obviously scored the unfortunate own goal to make it 3-0 to Villa.
01:24 And you didn't really see a way back for Brighton after that.
01:26 And they made some changes at half-time.
01:28 And obviously, it was good to see Ante Fatih get his first goal.
01:31 And you thought maybe that could inject a bit of life and make a spark and unlikely comeback.
01:36 But it was quickly snuffed out, really.
01:39 Watkins grabbed the hat trick.
01:40 And then there was kind of nowhere back from then on.
01:44 And everyone's heads went down.
01:46 And then obviously, just the small line got worse.
01:48 And yeah, a bit of a difficult afternoon for Brighton.
01:52 And definitely one that's going to probably have a bit of a toll on the players, I think.
01:56 Yeah, that's going to be hard.
01:58 They're going to have to bounce back quickly, aren't they?
01:59 Because they've got Marseille on Thursday in the Europa League.
02:03 And that is one of the difficulties of this season, isn't it?
02:05 And I think without that, I don't really want to go back to sort of Caicedo and McAllister.
02:11 But without those two in the centre of the park, they're missing that dynamism now, aren't they?
02:17 It's seen.
02:17 100%. It's that protection as well, the protection in front of the defence.
02:20 They really lacked that today.
02:22 Billy Gilmore and Minchel Wood.
02:24 They're good on the ball.
02:27 Yeah.
02:28 I think they're good if you're dominating a game.
02:30 But those kind of players, when you're up against it, I'm not really sure it was the right choice in the field, if I'm being totally honest.
02:36 They needed someone, I think, with a bit of strength, a bit of physicality and a bit of protection.
02:40 And I know it's difficult.
02:42 Obviously, after Caicedo left, he's such a hard man to replace, isn't he?
02:46 And I think he would have been perfect in that kind of role today.
02:49 And they really did miss him, I think.
02:51 And maybe Boliva could have done the job, but he struggled a little bit up against Chelsea in midweek.
02:57 So, yeah, it's a difficult one.
02:59 It's a real problem area, isn't it?
03:01 It's a real problem in that section of the pitch, I think.
03:05 Yeah, absolutely.
03:06 It would be interesting to see how they deal with that going forward.
03:10 Yeah, yeah.
03:11 You were in the press conference afterwards.
03:13 You said it was short and sweet, wasn't it?
03:14 That De Serbi wasn't there for too long.
03:18 Yeah, short and sweet.
03:19 I guess I probably want to get on the coach back to Brighton and quickly after that one.
03:26 But yeah, I think De Serbi admitted it was a terrible performance, really.
03:30 He said that his team played really bad.
03:32 He took responsibility for it.
03:34 He said he takes full responsibility for the manner of the defeat.
03:38 But he doesn't think it's going to badly affect the team.
03:41 He said that he trusts in their ability and their character to bounce back.
03:45 He actually said we're going to see a different Brighton on Thursday.
03:49 It's kind of shades of what he said after the Everton defeat last season.
03:53 Yeah.
03:54 He kind of said it's a one-off and you'll see the real Brighton against Arsenal on Sunday.
03:57 They went on to beat Arsenal and pretty much end their hopes of a title.
04:00 So hopefully, Lightning will show it twice in that sense and they'll bounce back.
04:05 I was kind of hoping that might happen today after the defeat against Chelsea.
04:09 I thought maybe they'd show that kind of form of bouncing back from defeat.
04:12 But it was the exact opposite, really.
04:15 It didn't go to plan at all today.
04:17 I think everything that went wrong, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.
04:20 It did go wrong, yeah.
04:22 It was quite hard to gauge quite where Brighton were before this match.
04:26 They were going well.
04:26 They were third in the Premier League.
04:28 But their last sort of few performances, Athens, even against Bournemouth, they were shaky.
04:33 Chelsea, they didn't really play that well.
04:35 But yet they were still third in the Premier League.
04:37 So it was a funny one, wasn't it, going into this?
04:40 Yeah. Villa were exceptional.
04:42 I've got to credit them for that performance.
04:44 Ollie Watkins was fantastic.
04:47 Probably the best I've ever seen him play.
04:49 He just seems to be getting better and better all the time.
04:51 Always plays well against Brighton, doesn't he?
04:53 Always. Yeah, always does.
04:55 And then I think he was a big mismatch against Adam Webster today.
04:58 He really struggled to keep up with the pace and physicality of him, really.
05:03 It was quite a tough watch at times, trying to see the Brighton players try and stop Watkins from getting a shot away.
05:11 In that first half especially, it could have been four, five, six or four hard times that Chelsea had.
05:16 So, yeah, a real tough one.
05:18 And you wonder where they go from here, really.
05:21 Obviously, it'll be interesting to see what Dele does.
05:25 I think he's obviously going to change tactics, maybe, because he does like to make a lot of changes.
05:30 Maybe that could be becoming a little bit of an issue.
05:33 Yeah, has he made too many changes lately?
05:35 Yeah, potentially.
05:36 I think there's talk that maybe swapping the keeper is doing more harm than good,
05:42 which I kind of feared a little bit, that maybe if he does keep changing the keeper.
05:46 Obviously, we're all clueless to who's going to play each week.
05:49 Maybe the keepers are as well.
05:50 And maybe there's that element of doubt involving their mind.
05:54 Are they going to play or are they not going to play?
05:55 Yeah.
05:56 Yeah. What do they need to do to keep their place in the team?
05:59 And yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he keeps that up going forward,
06:02 if he's going to keep rotating the keepers or if he's going to try and pick his favourite at some point.
06:08 Yeah. Yeah. It's that risk, isn't it, with De Serby as well?
06:11 It's like every Brighton fan has enjoyed his tactics when it goes right.
06:16 But just he's a very high risk approach, isn't it, that he takes.
06:21 And when it goes wrong, it looks really bad, isn't it?
06:24 But when it's great, there's no middle ground, is there?
06:27 It seems to be.
06:29 Exactly. It's summed up, really.
06:31 I think that's one of the questions that De Serby was asked, really, in the first one, for instance.
06:35 So how does he go about stopping that?
06:37 And it's really one for him to dwell on and to maybe try and come up with a system that allows them to play attacking football,
06:46 but whilst also staying tight at the back.
06:48 And it's a difficult one.
06:50 And I wouldn't want to be in his position deciding how to do that, really.
06:54 So, yeah, interesting times ahead, I think.
06:57 But yeah, I don't think there's any reason to panic.
06:59 I think there's plenty of games coming to put things right.
07:02 There's no better way of doing that than away win at Marseille.
07:05 And this will be quickly forgotten if they can get the three points there.
07:08 Yeah, well, that's it, isn't it?
07:10 They've got Marseille, Liverpool, Man City, then Ajax.
07:14 That's huge, isn't it?
07:16 Four massive games coming up.
07:18 Massive matches.
07:19 Yeah, if they can get...
07:21 Sorry, Seth.
07:22 Sorry, Danny. I was going to say, those are obviously massive games.
07:24 And it can really just shift the momentum if they can even pick up a few wins there.
07:29 Or even a draw here or there, it can massively shift the way the momentum is going.
07:34 Yeah. Was there any...
07:35 I know the press conference was a bit brief, but was there any updates on Pascal Gros,
07:40 James Milner, Adam Lallana?
07:43 How are they?
07:45 Yeah, no injury updates at all, really.
07:47 I was obviously planning to ask about that, ask about Jakob Moder
07:50 and see when he might be back in Bolton-Midfield, France.
07:54 Yeah, unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ask the questions.
07:57 Yeah, it's short and sweet, as I say.
07:59 But yeah, hopefully in the coming days, obviously, if he speaks ahead of the Marseille game,
08:04 he might reveal some of the players that are available.
08:06 Hopefully that will become clear soon.
08:08 Yeah, yeah.
08:09 It was Pascal Gros, he was a big miss, wasn't he?
08:11 He's helped... He is an experienced player and he's sat alongside Billy Gilmore
08:15 and he's helped cushion the blow.
08:17 He doesn't offer the same sort of athleticism as Acedo,
08:21 you know, as such, but he's helped soften the blow, hasn't he?
08:24 And I thought him missing today was really, really big.
08:29 Yeah, no, I agree.
08:30 I think just that kind of composure on the ball, trying to pick a pass.
08:33 I thought that was a lot of sloppy play today from Brighton.
08:36 The players giving the ball away too often.
08:39 And it was one example where it didn't actually lead to a goal,
08:42 but it was 2-0 to Villa at the time.
08:44 And Danny Welbeck came up to collect the ball in his defensive path.
08:49 He tried a little backheel chop and it was completely needless, really.
08:53 He gave the ball straight to a Villa player and they nearly made it 3-0 from then.
08:56 And it was just those little things and the kind of sloppy passes
08:59 and things that you don't usually see from Brighton, really.
09:02 They usually take care of the ball and don't let the opposition anywhere near it.
09:06 So, yeah, definitely an off day, I would say.
09:10 Hopefully it doesn't stay good for too long.
09:12 Bad day at the office.
09:13 Yeah, well, thanks.
09:14 Thanks for all the coverage there, Sam.
09:16 Great work as always.
09:17 And your player ratings are up on the Sussex World website.
09:20 You gave a 2, didn't you, to someone today?
09:22 It's a very rare 2.
09:23 Yeah, a rare 2, unfortunately, for a Stupin man.
09:27 And he might have been able to get a higher score on if he was in the second half.
09:31 And he was subbed off at half time.
09:32 He had no chance to redeem himself at all.
09:34 So, unfortunately, yeah, he got probably my lowest ever score.
09:38 He couldn't have got much worse for him in that first half.
09:41 He really struggled, didn't he?
09:43 And he's one of the senior players, isn't he, as well?
09:45 He is.
09:46 Yeah, yeah.
09:47 I'm glad I didn't start him in my fantasy team.
09:49 I put him on the bench today.
09:50 I didn't see him in the clean sheet.
09:53 So, yeah, I made the right call on that one.
09:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:57 Oh, well, lots to chew over.
09:59 Like I say, all the reaction is on Sussex World website.
10:02 So, we'll be looking at what happened at Aston Villa and also then looking ahead to the big game against Marseille.
10:08 Brighton's first ever away Europa League trip on Thursday.
10:14 So thanks again, Sam.