'Another gem' - Carlos Baleba impresses for Brighton against Liverpool - video Dailymotion

SussexWorld

Sussex World reporter Sam Morton joins Derren Howard after Brighton's 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the Premier League

Transcript

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.

'Another gem' - Carlos Baleba impresses for Brighton against Liverpool

Category

Transcript

Recommended