Quite why such things happen is one of the mysteries of the game and it left Manuel Pellegrini in an agony of frustration during and after the game against Brighton.
The south coast side are well organise for sure but when most of their goals come from the same source, not dealing with it is criminal.
Unfortunately such circumstances tell us more about our own team than the Seagulls on this occasion and however hard the boss Pelle has been preaching the same messages he needs to make sure the players are listening.
The boss was in an agony of frustration last night at the goals we conceded as they were so predictably but at least ours had a touch of class open play about them.
Sadly it meant despite the efforts of Noble, Antonio and Arnie we lost two points through the defenders not heeding the boss and back up team’s messages on the training pitch and that makes the result so much harder to take.
Talking on www.whufc.com the boss said: “We’re frustrated because we knew before the game that the most important way that Brighton score goals is from set-pieces, specifically corners.
“They had seven goals from corners and we worked on that, but we allowed them to score two goals. I do not remember one chance from Brighton to score otherwise during the whole game.
“But, we didn’t have one chance in the first 45 minutes on goal. After that, losing 2-0, I have to praise the spirit of the team. We didn’t give up, we continued to fight, and we draw the game 2-2, and after that we had clear chances.”
Pic via www.whufc.com
“I think both Noble and Antonio came into the game very well. They changed the face of the team. We needed to make changes. We have played nine games with our matches since December.
“We needed to make the substitutes becauase it’s impossible to keep playing matches with the same players.”
The boss was delighted with Arnie and said: “Marko rested for a complete month so he is full of energy. He is a decisive player in these types of games. He scored two goals and I hope he will continue in the way he did tonight.