Sussex World reporter Sam Morton joins Derren Howard after Brighton's 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the Premier League
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Sam Morton and Brighton seem to be playing OK. A few bits of sloppiness and lax play
00:18 in the middle cost them a bit.
00:21 Yes, absolutely. All Brighton for most of the first half. The first 40 minutes Brighton
00:28 were the better team by a long way. Liverpool were really struggling, especially in the
00:32 midfield. They were lacking a defensive midfielder to protect the defence. I think McAllister
00:38 was the deepest midfielder. As we know from his time at Brighton, he definitely isn't
00:44 a defensive midfielder by trade. They really struggled to deal with Brighton's attacking
00:51 players. As the game went on, you expect them to get that second goal. The first goal
00:57 was really well finished by Odinga. He took advantage of a mistake at the back. You thought
01:04 they'd get that second and third goal to try and kill the game off. It just proves how
01:08 quickly football can change. Salah got the equalising goal with a confident finish. Then
01:14 the penalty came a couple of minutes after that. It was a really bizarre few minutes
01:19 because it was completely against the run of play. Suddenly Brighton had gone from being
01:23 the better team in the ascendancy and suddenly they were losing it at half-time.
01:27 A couple of misplaced passes, Lewis Stone misplaced passes for the first goal. I'm not
01:37 quite sure what Bruggen was trying to do with that ball. It was definitely a ball that Pascal
01:40 Gross didn't really want to receive in that position. At 1-1, a little bit of pressure,
01:46 he should have taken a different option there.
01:50 It was a bizarre choice of pass. In a similar way to Van Dijk playing the wrong pass to
01:56 McAllister for the first goal. It just seemed to be the wrong option. It really was costly
02:03 for Brighton. It resulted in the penalty. Really frustrating few minutes. It's a continuation
02:10 of problems that Brighton have been having defensively this season. It's something they
02:15 need to improve on. If they get more tight at the back it can make such a big difference
02:21 to the way games go.
02:28 He put Carlos Bolivar in as his first Premier League start, as a bit of added protection
02:33 for the back four. How did he do?
02:36 Really well. Really impressed by Bolivar today. It was really good to see him start a Premier
02:40 League game for the first time. He slotted really well into the midfield. As I say, Brighton
02:46 did dominate for large parts of the game. He really contributed to that and had a good
02:51 impact on things. It was a really good performance from him. Definitely much improved from his
02:56 previous appearances. There are real Simon things to come. You can really tell that fans
03:04 are taking to him already. Really impressed by how he's performed. Really promising signs.
03:11 I agree. I thought he looked very athletic, very powerful. The more he plays, the better
03:17 his positional play is going to get. His tactical analysis is going to improve as well. It's
03:24 just going to take a little bit of time before. He looks very, very promising.
03:29 Absolutely. It's just that added competition for places they've got in the team. They can
03:34 drop players from the game team each week. Constantly add new players in and constantly
03:42 different ideas. The opponents must never know what's going to be against them each
03:48 game. As fans we don't know. As journalists we have no idea what team is going to pick.
03:55 That's the six changes today. Exciting time for Brighton. If they can tighten things up
04:01 at the back, they can definitely wobs their oyster this season. Definitely improvements
04:07 needed in that area of the pitch.
04:10 Odingara looked very good, didn't he? Very quick on the ball. A lovely finish for his
04:15 goal. He looks a bit of a nightmare for defenders to deal with.
04:19 Yes. It was a fantastic performance from Odingara today. Right from the off, on the front foot,
04:26 causing Liverpool all sorts of problems. His goal was so well taken after the mistake at
04:30 the back. He didn't even think twice and he just slotted it into the goal when Alisson
04:33 was completely off guard. It was a really well taken goal. He could have had another
04:38 one quickly after that as well. He was just a constant thorn for Liverpool. As I say,
04:42 they were really lacking protection in front of the defence in that midfield role. He was
04:47 exploiting that and causing Andy Robertson all sorts of problems. He had that chance
04:55 in the second half when he was 1-1 and Alisson made a superb save to deny him as well. Great
05:01 performance from him.
05:02 Was he your man of the match today?
05:07 He was. Odingara was my man of the match.
05:11 It's an international break now. How would you assess Brighton's season so far? It's
05:22 been quite tricky. Europa League matches are coming thick and fast. They've had to deal
05:26 with a couple of injuries as well. How would you assess it overall?
05:31 All things considered, it's been a great start to the season. The only negative, as I say,
05:36 has been the defensive side of things. They've been conceding a lot of goals and yet to have
05:39 a clean sheet. That really is a thing to work on. We're really seeing how much of a toll
05:45 I think the playing on the Thursday to Sunday. Having to play so many games in quick succession
05:53 is so new to this team. It's been a decent start. I think they can only improve as they
06:00 get used to this workload and get used to the fact that they're going to be making a
06:04 lot of changes each week. I think they can only improve from here. If they tighten things
06:08 up at the back, I think they can have a really excellent season. It just shows that fighting
06:13 spirit and passion that they have. You saw it in Marseille when they went 2-0 down and
06:17 they still managed to get a point out of it. Today, 1-0 up dominating the game, 2-1 behind.
06:22 You think their heads might drop, might end up losing the game, but they still managed
06:26 to get the equalising goal again in the second half. They could and probably should have
06:30 won it as well. Jalpedra obviously had that chance at the end there as well.
06:36 He deserved a goal. It was such a good game Jalpedra. It was a real shame he couldn't
06:42 cap it off with a goal. Brighton can only improve from here. It's exciting times for
06:48 the season.
06:49 I agree. I thought Jalpedra was very good today. I put in the report that it's probably
06:54 his best performance in a Brighton shirt so far for Pedro. If he had just got that goal
06:59 it would have topped it off nicely. Obviously not to me.
07:05 Alexis McAllister's return. What sort of reception did he get from the Brighton fans?
07:10 He got a lovely reception. When his name was read out at the start of the game, the fans
07:15 around me were applauding. A warm welcome for him back to the Amex, which was nice to
07:20 see. Obviously there's been some hostile reactions to the Chelsea players that have left Brighton.
07:27 It was nice to see McAllister get a nice reception on his return. Obviously, the Serb at the
07:32 end put his arm around him and made sure the Brighton fans applauded him and gave him even
07:37 more of a nice reception, which was great to see as well. Even after, I think if I'm
07:41 not mistaken, when De Serbi came into the press conference, McAllister was just following
07:46 behind him. I think they'd just come out of a private chat. That's why De Serbi was a
07:51 little bit late to the press conference. That was nice to see. Nice to see him catching
07:55 up with his old player. He obviously appreciates him a great deal. As I say, really nice to
08:01 see.
08:02 It's good to see that the Brighton fans valued him as well because he was such a key part
08:07 of their team last season that got them to the Europa League. Sometimes you worry, don't
08:12 you, that players come back and can be a bit of a pantomime villain. It was great that
08:16 he got a good reception anyway.
08:19 It was. He didn't have the best of games, in all fairness. He did struggle, especially
08:23 in that first half. A little bit out of position, what we were used to seeing him play at Brighton.
08:29 A lot of fouls. I can't believe he wasn't booked. Especially for that one on Matomer
08:36 in the second half. Very lucky he wasn't booked. I think he definitely was helped when Gravenberch
08:42 came on and he had a little bit of protection behind him.
08:46 There was one talking point in the first half. Pascal Gros. He sort of pulled the player
08:55 down for the penalty. There was talk that perhaps he prevented a goal scoring opportunity.
09:02 Do you think it was a red card? Lewis Dunk said no it wasn't. I was covering him behind.
09:07 What was your view on that?
09:08 It's a difficult one. From where I was it was difficult to see what the penalty had
09:13 been given for. Annoyingly the TV screen in front of me wasn't working. I had to lean
09:18 over a colleague to see his screen to get a replay of it. From what I could see, I don't
09:23 think it was a red. I think it was quite a harsh decision anyway. You can see what it
09:30 was given. I think a red card would have been extremely harsh. I think Lewis Dunk is right
09:34 to say it was never a red.
09:36 Did you speak to Joel Veltman afterwards?
09:43 Yes. I was in the mix zone. The managers were out. I managed to speak to Joel Veltman. He
09:49 was really pleased with the point in the circumstances. He said it's really taken an adjustment period
09:54 to get used to playing on a Thursday and a Sunday. Having to play so many games is a
09:59 bit of a learning curve for the players. I think he's pleased. He can understand why
10:04 his manager is making so many changes each week. In a sense they felt a draw was a fair
10:13 result. He did point out the Gravenberch miss in the second half when he was played in the
10:27 back post and he thought he was destined to score. He somehow managed to hit the crossbar.
10:30 It was a similar miss to Jal Pedro where both of them should have been goals. When you consider
10:35 those two moments, I think a draw was a fair result when you look at the whole game.
10:41 It's been an intense period for Brighton lately with the Europa League and the Premier
10:48 League games. They'll be glad of the international break to take stock and hopefully get a few
10:54 players back. Lots to have a look at. Your player ratings are up online at the moment
11:02 plus all the reaction from today. We'll start looking ahead to some new modes of play.