We cannot say for certain whether Thomas Tuchel has ever read WAB before. But there would be no better place for him to start than with these Brighton 2-1 Liverpool player ratings from a little over 24 hours after Danny Welbeck missed out on a place in the England squad.
Tuchel called up 35 players for Wembley friendlies against Uruguay and Japan to experiment with ahead of the World Cup. Yet despite the bumper-sized squad, Dat Guy was not one of them.
The decision to omit Welbeck was seen as controversial on Friday morning when the announcement was made. By 3pm on Saturday afternoon, it looked like sheer madness.
Two Welbeck goals put the reigning champions to the sword and saw Dat Guy become the leading English scorer in the Premier League this season. Can Tuchel really afford to ignore the country’s most in-form striker not called Harry Kane?
Alongside Welbeck and his brilliant brace, this was an excellent team performance from the Albion – who thoroughly deserved their three points from the reigning champions.
Something reflected by Jan Paul van Hecke and Yankuba Minteh both joining Welbeck in racking up player ratings in the eights. Five more of their teammates scored higher than a seven in one of the best sets of collective scores for some time.
Here are your Brighton 2-1 Liverpool ratings.
Bart Verbruggen – 7.71
The Albion looking dangerous going forward in the second half feels like it overshadowed the fact Liverpool had some good chances of their own. Top class Verbruggen saves from Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo were needed to secure the three points.
Mats Wieffer – 7.71
Picked up his usual yellow card but this one was at least a tactical necessity. Coped well with Gakpo. The only criticism you could level at Wieffer for his afternoon was he should have put a second half header on target which he glanced wide.
Jan Paul van Hecke – 8.50
An impervious display featuring two magnificent interventions in the box. He even had the confidence to attempt a back header to Verbruggen despite having seen the pig’s ear Lewis Dunk made of an earlier attempt at the same thing. Van Hecke has been linked with a summer move to Liverpool. If this was his audition, he passed it with flying colours.
Lewis Dunk – 5.86
The Dunk trademark back header or chest to his goalkeeper had to go awry at some point. Milos Kerkez was the beneficiary when it did as he latched onto the loose ball and finished over Verbruggen. Time to get Danny Cullip in for some one-to-one training with Dunk as you never saw the 2003-04 playoff final winning captain mess up the party trick he first introduced to the Albion.
Ferdi Kadioglu – 8.21
Lively presence as always both defensively and going forward. Tested Giorgi Mamardashvili with a firm drive after galloping up the pitch from left back. And it was his cross nodded square by Diego Gomez which teed up Welbeck for the opening goal.
James Milner – 7.86
A far cry from when Milner came on with five minutes left to play at Anfield in the reverse fixture for no other reason than to get a nice reception from Liverpool fans. His contribution on this occasion was big including important challenges on Gakpo in particular. Milner also accidentally injured Hugo Ekitike after only seven minutes which probably made the Albion’s task a little easier.
Pascal Gross – 6.57
Did a lot of hard work, much of which went unnoticed to explain his relatively low Brighton 2-1 Liverpool player ratings score. Delivered some wicked set pieces, including one late corner causing enough panic to give Brighton two chances cleared off the line from Van Hecke and substitute Yasin Ayari respectively.
Diego Gomez – 7.00
An assist for the first Brighton goal and came close to getting on the scoresheet himself with a bending free kick Mamardashvili had to push away at full stretch.
Jack Hinshelwood – 6.79
Claimed the assist for the second goal after breaking into the box alongside Welbeck to get on the end of a Minteh cross. Had a couple of other chances but like at Sunderland seven days ago, it was not really his day in front of goal.
Yankuba Minteh – 8.43
Fabian Hurzeler opted to keep Minteh in the XI and restrict the returning Kaoru Mitoma to a place on the bench. A decision justified by Minteh being a total livewire down the left flank, especially during the second half. Rightfully left to a standing ovation when substituted – which would have been even louder had he converted a one-on-one with Mamardashvili.
DANNY WELBECK – 8.86
Welbz is Dat Guy. Vintage Welbeck really with goals made from clever, intelligent movement. Clearly enjoyed netting against Liverpool as a former Manchester United player based on his celebration for the first goal of cupping his ears at the away end. Would rather not see him leapfrogging 6’2 Dunk again though as he did when VAR cleared the second. It would be just the Albion’s injury luck for Welbeck to end up landing awkwardly, breaking a leg and be ruled out for six months.
Carlos Baleba – 6.93
An important cameo on his return after missing the trip to Sunderland last week.
Kaoru Mitoma – 7.57
Mitoma delivered his best display for many weeks from the bench – maybe the rest he received from being injured for the trip to the Stadium of Light was what he needed? Eased past Liverpool players like they were not there to set up several chances.
Yasin Ayari – 6.36
Almost onto the scoresheet with an acrobatic volley kept put by a world class Jones block.
Georginio Rutter – 5.21
Not much impact after his introduction alongside Ayari.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via social media. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter or We Are Brighton on Bluesky and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
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