COULD BRIGHTON BENEFIT from the same lack of respect from opponents which helped Leicester City win the Premier League in 2016?
That theory was floated on The Football Family, a podcast for subscribers to The 42, by Shane Keegan, the Cobh Ramblers manager.
Keegan believes the pragmatic approach used by David Moyes was key to West Ham’s 3-1 win over the Seagulls at the weekend – but that bigger Premier league sides will lack the humility to alter their gameplan to play Brighton.
“I know they couldn’t play probably more different styles than Leicester when Leicester won the Premier League, but where we’re going to draw the comparisons is there was a certain lack of respect for Leicester that thankfully for Leicester maintained right throughout their title-winning season.
“That still exists a little bit with Brighton in that I think a lot of teams are still saying, ‘Well hold on. It’s Brighton. We are not going to decide our whole gameplan based on how Brighton play, we’re going to decide our gameplan based on how we play’ – and that’s exactly how teams were thinking when they were taking on Leicester.
“Teams knew, ‘Right to deal with Leicester really this is how we should go about it. But, you know what, it’s only Leicester we’re going to go about it our way.’ And I think that’s what’s going on here again.
“Unfortunately for Brighton, David Moyes certainly doesn’t have that level of airs or graces and isn’t worried about altering his gameplan.
“I would argue David Moyes is one of the Premier League’s very, very best at coming up with specific gameplans for the opposition. He was certainly outstanding at that at Everton. I think he’s still showing bits of it and I think that’s why he was so unsuited to the United job – you can’t be chopping and changing your gameplan based on the opposition every week.
“But this game was made for David Moyes. He would have been licking his lips, on the training ground, looking at the numbers, looking at the style of play. All of that kind of stuff going, ‘Okay, what specific way can I come up with playing with here that can capitalises on the chances and the opportunities that they give you?’
“I just don’t think there’s going to be a huge amount of Premier League teams that are going to come up against Brighton and think that way. I think most of the top half of the table teams will still feel ‘No, there’s no way on earth that we’re just going to accept that you’re gonna have 80% possession here.’
“Can you imagine Ten Hag going into his dressing room and telling his players they’re going to allow Brighton have 80% possession because that’s the best way of beating them? But that’s the reality.
“David Moyes is right. The best way of beating Brighton was to allow them to have 80% possession, play in the manner needed with the low block and then explode out of that on the counter attack. But there’s no way United are going to do that. There’s no way Spurs are going to do that. There’s no way Arsenal are going to do that. So, that’s what’s going to play into Brighton’s hands. They are going to find it probably tougher against upper-bottom half teams if that makes sense.”
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