Wins don’t come much sweeter than when they’re needed most. With three games left of the season to play coming into a hungry Wolves side, the Seagulls saw them off in strong fashion.
My ‘Player of the Match’…
The name in everyone’s minds since has been Mats Wieffer. The man who was widely disregarded earlier in the season as one that could be the ‘flop’ or one that doesn’t work out? Remember that? Those who saw Wieffer in his Feyenoord days knew what type of quality player he could be, but it has taken some time for the Dutchman to break into the side with real meaning.
Largely playing out of position for the majority of the game, he controlled the narrative well against Matheus Cunha and the Wolves forward line in general. Right-back has become a natural transition for a holding midfielder in modern football, but the role cannot be underestimated. Intelligent and strong players are capable of maneuvering, and Wieffer showed exactly that.
Covering half spaces in front of him in rotation with Tariq Lamptey in the first half worked well, barring the last 10 minutes of that half. The fluidity and versatility to play the defensive role well whilst bombing forward and inverting into midfield showed every part of what Wieffer can do.
Credit where it is due for our head coach!
The game plan was a breath of fresh air and was executed to near perfection from Fabian Hürzeler’s side. A sentence that I’ve wanted to say all season! Albion knew of the Wolves’ quality on the ball, in possession and midfield. The tempo was largely dictated by the visitors by outnumbering in transition, strengthening numbers around individuals like Matt O’Riley, who played a successful free role this afternoon.
The substitutions worked well. Lamptey was unfortunate with his knock, but the arrivals of Simon Adingra and Brajan Gruda worked a charm.
It has to be said, that Wolves didn’t have their shooting boots on. Chances that could’ve been taken, however, were limited for the most part thanks to the squad unified in a stronger manner than in previous weeks.
Danny Welbeck fired his 10th goal of the season for the first time in his career in the Premier League. A story in itself, as the revival of the man, has been nothing short of incredible at the South Coast. The club successfully identified the injury crisis that hit him so badly in his tenure at Arsenal and Watford. Without this history, every reason to believe he could’ve made it at his boyhood club Manchester United… not that I’m complaining!
Welbeck has brought a fresh feeling of quality and experience for our young players to feed off, and with an average squad age of just 24, it is more than necessary.
Gruda on the scoresheet!
I can’t tell you how happy I am for Brajan Gruda. The £25 million German wonderkid was reduced to tears after he lifted the ball beautifully over Jose Sa in the despairing Wolves net. Gruda has hit a small patch of form of late, with his minutes managed very well by Hürzeler and the coaching staff. Not every player has to hit the ground running to be successful, and Gruda is most definitely one of those.
His quality on the ball and technical ability was clear to see today. His goal today was his first since his move to Albion, and based on his recent confidence, hopefully a lot more to come.
Overall, a very strong performance. Much improved on some this season, particularly the 2-2 throwaway earlier in the season against Wolves. To be balanced, it is important to contextualise the result, the season is over for them. Irrespectively, a truly significant three points to ease the journey back home.
