Sussex World reporters Sam Morton and Henry Bryant reflect on Brighton's 4-0 defeat against title-chasing Manchester City.
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00:00Hello, I'm Sam Morton and I'm here with Henry Bryant. We've just watched Brighton lose 4-0 against Manchester City at the Amex Stadium.
00:08It probably went as we expected in terms of the winners of the game. We expected Manchester City to win the game obviously but they're chasing the title.
00:15Brighton have been in a poor run of form, obviously their hopes fading of another season in Europe.
00:21But it probably was the worst way for the first half to go, wasn't it Henry?
00:26Obviously three goals they conceded in quick succession with De Bruyne scoring a brilliant header, Phil Foden with a deflected free kick and then Foden scoring again from a mistake at the back from Valentin Barco.
00:37How would you assess that first half and the collapse you saw from Brighton?
00:41I think it's everything that Brighton fans didn't want to see in the match.
00:45I think there were a few moments where we were having a bit of confidence, having a bit of tap in the starting few minutes.
00:52And we saw that Jean-Pedro and Danny Wolbeck were actually putting the Manchester City defenders in an uneasy position at times.
01:00But I think that confidence quickly drained and once they scored their first goal, De Bruyne's immaculate diving header that just wasn't man-marked by Yako Moda at the time.
01:11And a lovely pinpoint cross from Kyle Walker. It seemed like Brighton just lost their heads, lost their cool.
01:18And a few passes round the back that didn't quite work out for the likes of Valentin Barco saw that Brighton just weren't at the races today, especially in that first half as you mentioned.
01:28And it was just a shame really to throw it away that quickly.
01:31You did an article at half-time didn't you from the comments that Alan Smith made on Sky Sports that it was just one pass too many.
01:38And it was Brighton kind of being courageous or is it just a bit of stupidity playing into Man City's hands, especially with that third goal.
01:47Just trying to play out from the back and Man City are experts at putting you under pressure and winning the ball high up.
01:52So do you feel like in this kind of game there needs to be a different tactic?
01:56I think so. I think especially with the likes of our key players out at the moment, especially sort of in the defence and the midfield,
02:04it seems like we need to just be able to regroup, especially in those big, big games like Manchester City.
02:10And it's very hard even at home to get anything, let alone a goal against Manchester City.
02:16So I think that in terms of the way we just started the game and the outlook, I understood what Deservey was doing.
02:22He was trying to be attacking, he was trying to catch them off guard.
02:24And obviously some people said that they were tired after the matches that they played in the Champions League,
02:29getting knocked out of that amongst other competitions.
02:32So yeah, it just seems like Brighton were able to not stick to the game plan.
02:40And I think they just needed something a little bit different for this one.
02:43Yeah, and obviously in the second half Brighton did improve. They looked like they might score on the odd occasion.
02:49It definitely was not as kind of poor defensively as it was in the first half,
02:53but they did concede a fourth goal through Julian Alvarez from close range.
02:57It was a bit of a mix-up. I think Valentin Barko's game was kind of turned inside out a little bit
03:02and Jason Steele tried to claim the ball but couldn't quite get there and Alvarez scored from close range.
03:07So I mean, how would you sum up that second half performance?
03:09And Barko as well, obviously, because we saw a couple of defensive mistakes,
03:13but there were some promising moments, especially going forward.
03:15So how would you kind of sum up that?
03:17Well, I think the second half, the manager must have said, come on, let's regroup.
03:22Let's pretend that this is nil-nil. Go back into the game with some fight and some confidence.
03:26And you saw that Brighton were able to pick that up to an extent.
03:29After the sort of fourth goal did go in, heads did drop,
03:35but you still saw the likes of Jal Pedro making runs and having a nice chance in the last 15 minutes of the game
03:41that maybe should have been a consolation goal for the Albion.
03:43But look, overall, all we can do at the moment as Brighton and as fans of the club is pick ourselves up
03:49and just have a good run out into the season
03:53and just hope that we can maybe pick up a few points in these last few games.
03:56We've got Bournemouth on Sunday. That'll be a good test for Brighton over Albion
04:00and to see if we are able to get some points against Bournemouth that have done all right this season.
04:05They look like they've got a mid-table finish coming up ahead of them
04:08and Brighton should be able to get past them, but we'll see.
04:13Thank you, Henry, and stay tuned for all the match reaction and player ratings at sussexworld.co.uk.