Iain McDonald hands out his marks
Fabianski: I was too far away to judge his part in the debacle for their first – made up for it with a brilliant tip over very late on 7
Fredericks: Young Ngakia will have taken heart from this display 5
Diop: Got the opener, but it was a ridiculously cocky decision to let them back into the game. Could have done anything else and they’d not have scored. Terrible 3
Ogbonna: Another combative and steadfast display, leading the defence by example 7
Cresswell: Got forward well before the break 6
Rice: Looks like he will appreciate having some support from Soucek in the middle 6
Noble: Good first-half, kept going best he could; it was telling that as the game wore on he was often closest to Haller 6
Soucek: An impressive debut – settled into the midfield immediately and has a knack for drifting into the opposition area 7
Snodgrass: A great performance and 2 deserved goals 8
Haller: Surely Moyes can’t put up with much more of this, lacking in effort, movement and, it seemed today, nous 4
Antonio: Posed a genuine threat, we really need to get him playing the full 90 7
Subs
Masuaku: A strange replacement for Antonio, never really got into the game 3
Lanzini: Shied away from a few tussles, some misplaced passes… not the impact Moyes would have hoped for 3
Fornals: I’m not sure he touched the ball 3
Manager:
It was all going so well until Diop’s aberration. The replacement of Antonio took all the pace out of the attack, and the introduction of Lanzini and Fornals didn’t pose Brighton any problems. Optimism with the performance of Soucek and surely Bowen will offer more than Haller 5
Diop abberation, what a laughable comment when Masuaku played them into trouble and Diop and Ogbonna were BOTH at fault for their indeciveness.
Antonio was a spent force when he was taken off. If he’d stayed on he could very possibly have ended up with another serious injury. When you’re tired is when you’re most vulnerable to muscle and hamstring injuries. We could have lost him for the remainder of the season. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Imagine: 3-1 up and coasting. Antonio stays on and just before the end he does his hammie again and is out for the season. Who gets the blame? Moyes of course for leaving him on.
What we should be talking about is why we are so dependent on one injury prone player.
Totally agree! Antonio is the only player that can keep us up and with his injury problems this year he needs to be managed so carefully. No way Moyes could predict the capitulation by the defenders in that last 20 mins
Again defence issues, the back line needs replacing, felt sorry for Snodgrass . he
Played really well only to see it all undone by school boy errors. Strange how we capitulated so easy.
What a ridiculous set of complaints re the Antonio substitution; he’s just come back from injury, we were 3-1 up, and in control! The manager could not have foreseen the inept defensive display that was about to follow. Diop, what a joke, and yes Devlan needs to be restored to the defence,,,, Immediately
In other words.Lean back on the ropes and take the punches for 20 minutes because that is what happened once our outlet to attack was removed.Its been plain to see all season that this defence cannot hold out under pressure no matter what the lead is.19 points thrown away from a winning position.
The game turned on the substitution of Antonio, full stop. An absolute terrible decision by an inept manager. This was a game we had to win. Give him a rest against City. An idiot’s decision that cost us the game. If you were replacing him it should have been if he was feeling something but no he was not. Paul Merson is right we are playing steady safe players. Moyes is negative in nature, a terrible appointment and he has to go because we will never win 5-6 games with his negative approach. Players like Fredericks are awful and team lose confidence in what they are doing. Noble no longer able to play 90 mins so a clued in manager would plan to bring him in with 20 mins to go to see the game out.To leave Noble on the pitch for the entire game was another horrific decision. The owners have let the fans down with the appointment of Moyes. He has cost us several points already with some horrific formation choices and selections. Today was another example his decisions cost us the 3 points and he blames the players for giving away 3 terrible goals; I believe Moyes would make a good director of football but he is a has been manager. We play City next. City are weak in one place at CB. Play two up with Anderson or Bowen in behind.
Spot on mate if honest we will stay up but must replace the negative Moyes eventually and hopefully the board as well
Souceck was a big plus and Snoddy deserved to be on the winning side. But the decision to substitute Antonio, who was at times unplayable, lost us the game. Who do you NOT bring on to shore things up? Masuaku. At least we saw a few seconds of Fornals. Good to know he’s still around…
The game turned on the Antonio substitution for the awful Masuaku.Oh to have seen him and Sanchez leave in the transfer window would have been bliss.Lucky we held on for a point in the end as all momentum had gone with Antonio off.Its a real slog now and we could be cut adrift after the next 2 fixtures.
Not sure how you get them scores when we throw away 2 goal advantage at home and should of lost in the end
I can just about understand why Moyes substituted Antonio with 20 minutes to go when we were 3-1 up. But why oh why did he bring on Masukau of all people; that man is disaster waiting to happen and you don’t have to wait long. Wasn’t it his poor pass that led to Diop’s under-hit back header and the sloppy goal? For a team with rock-bottom confidence, that started the rout and the rest is history.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I am lost for words, if not the will to live.
And the rating for the manager?
He chose a real fine team, but truly messed it up with atrocious substitution.
So for a fine team = 10, and for the subs -10 • Total=0
Anyone saying Antonio shouldn’t have been taken off didn’t see him the last 10 he played. The guy was dead on his feet and needed to be replaced. That’s why Haller dropped deeper as Antonio couldn’t run. Strange decision to put Masuaku on for him as Ajeti has done well and we could have defended higher up the pitch. Masuaku doesn’t deserve the skating here as he was clearing it and the guy stuck a leg out. There were 3 other opportunities to clear it after his strike up field being blocked. Fab was at fault for the first and Diop the 2nd as for the 3rd less said the better. Why Snodgrass and Soucek were taken off I don’t know. Noble was a spent force after 50 minutes. Moyes lost that game