What exactly where Brighton trying to achieve against Crystal Palace from a tactical perspective?
First Half - In Possession
In possession Brighton utilised a 4-2-4 formation with the idea being that it would pin the 2 palace full backs deep. This would mean that Palace would be in a 5-2-3 shape off the ball which would give Brighton numerical superiority n the middle of the pitch. Brighton further looked to exploit the Palace 2 man midfield by inverting a full back. The full back would depend on where the ball was, for example if the ball was down the left side, Ferdi would invert and De Cruyper would tuck in making a hybrid back 3 alongside Dunk & Boscagli. When the ball was down the right side the De cruyper would invert with Ferdi making up the back 3. This Created a 3 - 3 - 4 shape when Brighton were building up and allowed Brighton to maintain 3 v 3 at the back as well as swamp the midfield.
Brighton in the 4-2-4 shape
Brighton in 3-3-4 build up with Ferdi inverting
First Half - Out of possession
Out of possession the shape would change to a familiar 4-4-2 with Mitoma and Howell dropping alongside the two cms. Rutter and Babis where tasked with blocking passing lanes into the two Palace midfielders with the intention being to force Palace to play out wide. Brighton also looked to utilise man to man marking off the ball as detailed below.
Second Half
Game continued in similar vein as the first until the goal.
How did goal happen?
The goal came about from a long ball floated forward by Adam Wharton. Dunk headed the ball back into the midfield and unfortunately the ball was picked up by the Palace forward. As seen in the image below Gross was behind the Palace forwards and Boscagli was out of posisition leaving Dunk and Ferdi exposed.
The Dunk error is further compounded by Ferdi decision to try and win the ball as Guessand is driving forward. By jumping and leaving his position it allowed Sarr to run into the vacated space with no defender in sight. Guessand then played the simple pass through to Sarr and he was clean through on goal.
Palace player driving
Ferdi jumping. Sarr in Space
Brighton Changes
Hurzeler decided to ring the changes on the 70th minute by subsisting De Cruyper, Howell and Baleba for Wellbeck, Minteh and Gomez. This meant another change of shape for Brighton with the south coast side switching to a 3-4-3 formation with a twist. Rather than play the traditional way with full backs creating the width and the two wider forwards operating as narrow 10s (like Palace). Hurzeler instead opted to further swamp the midfield by having the 4 midfielders operating very narrowly with the wide forwards (Minteh and Mitoma) creating the width. Gross was operating just in front of the 3 defenders and the idea was for him to dictate the play and help with the build up from the back, This meant Brighton still had the 3 v 3 at the back on the ball but they now also had 4 players central opposed to Palaces 2. This is shown below
Summary - Why didn't it work?
At the game I was frustrated and angry at the Brighton manager. After watching it back however my opinion has changed significantly. I didn't understand the reluctance to start Howell in such a big game and was also confused as to why he favoured Babis over the in form Wellbeck. But as I have highlighted above the plan was for Brighton to really pin Palace back and utilise the midfield spaces. To do this Brighton would need their best ball players starting the game. This is why I believe Howell was chosen ahead of Minteh as Howell posses a better ability in tight spaces.
The goal Brighton conceded came from two individual errors and again I place no blame on the Brighton manager for that.
The main reason the game plan didn't work in my opinion is due to the poor play from key players who were consistently in good positions. The formation allowed for both full backs to get into some dangerous areas but their quality and finishing let them down. On top of this Rutter had an awful game. He consistently gave the ball away with moves breaking don due to his poor control as well as naive decision making..
To summarise the plan implemented by the manager was a good one and on another day Brighton probably win that game. Better finishing and better quality needed when players find themselves in those positions..