Sunderland were defeated 2-0 against Brighton and Hove Albion at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon, with the visitors ending the game with ten men after Pascal Struijk’s red card.
However, Sunderland struggled to create anything against Brighton’s solid defence, and the Seagulls finished the game off in added time, with the Lads unable to respond before Thomas Bramall blew the whistle for full time.
The defeat leaves plenty to talk about, so let’s go through some of the main talking points
from the game…
Brian Brobbey proves a big miss
Brobbey’s absence was particularly notable, as although Wilson Isidor was full of running in the first half, he seemed to pick up a knock early on and didn’t quite look the same after.
The ball never stuck up front and Isidor was muscled out of the game by Struijk and Lukas Vuskovic, although the one time he got the better of Struijk, the defender was sent off at the behest of VAR after the referee seemingly had his eyes closed at this point.
Régis Le Bris did say that Brobbey’s shouldn’t be a long absence, so hopefully he’ll be back starting games in the next couple of weeks and we’ll have his physicality and ability to bring others into play, as well as troubling Premier League defences.
More mistakes lead to goals
Another game, and another error that led to a goal — or both goals in this game.
For the first, the ball was given away cheaply before Kevin Danso was beaten too easily in the air, and Trai Hume was slightly too high and couldn’t reach the ball as it was played through to Boscagli.
The second was almost a carbon copy as the ten men of Brighton somehow managed to get a man over on the left again after Robin Roefs carelessly booted the ball into the stands. Nobody got back in time and it was a simple finish for Hadjam to finish the game off.
Sunderland were sloppy on the ball throughout the game, starting with a poor Hume pass to Danso early on leading to the Austrian losing the ball to Diego Gomez and only being bailed out by a strong save by Roefs. Roefs in particular had a very poor game with his distribution, and often struggled to pick out a man.
A rare off-game for the Dutchman.
A lack of red and white creativity
They say its sometimes harder to create chances against ten men than eleven, as teams tend to sit more deeply and take less risks when defending, although I think Sunderland might’ve struggled to create against five men yesterday.
With a lack of movement up front coupled with sloppy play and a lack of wingers beating full backs, the ball was never getting near the back of the net for the Lads.
Nilson Angulo had a particularly poor game and Malick Fofana also struggled to get the beating of Kadioglu after coming on for Thomas Meunier, who picked up an injury in the first half. Crosses into the box rarely found a man, with a number not getting off the ground and causing little trouble for Brighton.
Sunderland also resorted to a number of pot shots from distance, with Granit Xhaka blazing a couple over the bar and Nordi Mukiele having a couple blocked and not troubling Verbruggen in goal.
The Talbi and Rigg dilemma
Another Premier League game went by with Chemsdine Talbi and Chris Rigg failing to get on the pitch, leaving a number of us wondering what the pair need to do to get on.
Even with Nilson Angulo struggling and, in my opinion, needing a spell out of the side as he’s starting to come under fire from sections of the fanbase, neither seem to be getting a sniff at the moment.
Rigg performed very well towards the end of last season and also had a strong showing at home to Hull in the Carabao Cup. Talbi was the best player on the pitch in that game, scoring a fabulous chip and being direct and aggressive every time he got the ball.
It seems just a matter of time before the youngster moves on, but its a shame to see his time here turn a bit sour this season after such a strong showing last year, as well as the big goals he came up with against Chelsea, Liverpool, Burnley and of course, that lot up the road.
The refereeing report
I also wanted to offer a word about the officiating.
I don’t like talking about referees after a defeat, as it can come across as salty and looking for excuses, but Thomas Bramall and his assistants had an absolute shocker.
The standard of refereeing in this country is an article for another day, and one I may very well look at myself, but to just speak quickly on yesterday’s display, it speaks volumes that the only thing Bramall did seem to get right wasn’t even his decision, as VAR intervened to send him to the monitor and send off Pascal Struijk.
All in all, a very disappointing day.
Thankfully we have another match on Thursday to turn things around, as attention turns to Lieira where we face Torreense and a good opportunity to get a win and provide some confidence to a number players who seem devoid of it at the moment.
