Manager Chris Hughton was a proud man at the full time whistle as Brighton lost to Manchester City on the Premier League opening day.
Hosting Pep Guardiola’s side at the Amex, Brighton battled hard but eventually went two nil down inside of the final 20 minutes of the game, but Hughton knew there were plenty of positives we could take from the match.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the full time whistle, the gaffer explained.
‘It was always going to be difficult. We were up against a team of world-class players who have eyes on winning the Champions League, but I was really proud of what I saw in the first 70 minutes. You can only play one way against that type of quality, and that`s making sure you`re compact and not giving away too much space. Probably the one time that we allowed ourselves to be stretched was in the 70th minute and their quality capitalised on it. It`s difficult over 90 minutes because they`re going to get something. I was very proud of what I saw today but we just needed a little more quality on the ball.’
With City dominating possession on the day, Hughton took confidence from our overall performance and the way we largely remained organised and kept them out.
‘One thing we will certainly do is evaluate the game and look at the positives. At this moment, for me, there are more positives than negatives. We have to think about the quality that we were up against. If they want to keep possession for a long period of the game, then there aren’t too many teams that will stop them. When we had those moments to keep possession, they pressed very well because they`re a high-energy side. When you play these types of teams, when that clock`s running down – 50, 60, 70 minutes – you`re just so delighted that you`re still in the game.’
With Izzy Brown going off injured in the first half, Hughton hoped immediately post game that it was just fatigue.
‘I`m hoping that it`s a bit of fatigue, because he`s played a lot of games lately. It`s in the hamstring area, so we`ll assess that one. We`ll certainly know more in the morning.’
Goalkeeper and summer signing Mathew Ryan was also speaking following the game and for him it was a learning curve but he too felt that there was plenty we could take from the game.
‘We wanted to get something from this game in front of our home fans; it was disappointing in that aspect but there was patches throughout the match where we had a little bit of momentum. They’re obviously going to dictate a lot of the play. Defensively we stood up numerous times in the first half and then we shot ourselves in the foot at crucial times in the second half; both goals were preventable and we have to move on from that.’
Ryan went on to say.
‘This team has not played anyone big in the last couple of seasons, so there`s not a lot of experience playing against these sides. We need to stick together for our defensive work. In the last two games, the goals we have conceded have come down to our errors and not down to great play from the opposition. Fingers crossed we can rectify that going forward, but we are still finding our structure.’
