James Trafford gives Pep Guardiola food for thought – Man City’s winners and losers vs Brighton
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola may have a couple of selection dilemmas following their 2-1 defeat at Brighton.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring and Man City looked comfortable in the match and cruising towards three points.
Man City failed to get the second goal and paid the price when Matheus Nunes’ handball gave Brighton a penalty, which James Milner successfully converted.
An 89th minute winner for Brighton, courtesy of Brajan Gruda, punished City further and made it back-to-back defeats following their failure to beat Spurs a week earlier.
Here are the three winners and losers from the Brighton defeat.
Winners: Omar Marmoush the star in Man City defeat
James Trafford
James Trafford was criticised against Spurs, and his playing out from the back led to the second goal.
However, against Brighton, Trafford proved his worth especially with a superb last save to deny Jan Paul van Hecke.
Trafford was alert though to deny Kaoru Mitoma in the first period and Yankuba Minteh in the second when Man City were on top.
Could do nothing about Milner’s precise penalty and was left with little chance of denying Gruda’s winner.
Omar Marmoush
Omar Marmoush shone against Brighton, with a bright attacking display which the Egyptian was at the heart of when Man City were on top.
Grabbed the assist for Haaland’s goal and looked a threat, and could now cement his position down the left flank for the Manchester derby after the international break.
Made the most successful dribbles in the match and created two big chances, but is says a lot about Man City’s performance that his total of eight touches in the Brighton box was the most of any of his team mates.
Erling Haaland
Three goals in three games, Haaland has started the season well and could have had more against Brighton.
Before his goal, Haaland was denied well by Bart Verbruggen who kept out his close-range header and hit a low strike wide when well placed.
When given the service, Haaland continues to prove that he is one of the most ruthless finishers in the Premier League.
Losers: Man City star unexpectedly flops
Abdukodir Khusanov
With Man City toying with Brighton at times, Abdukodir Khuasnov and his defence was comfortable.
However, when Brighton made four substitutions on the hour mark and began threatening Trafford’s goal, Khuasnov in particular looked uncomfortable.
Booked for a late and unnecessary foul which then led to the Brighton penalty, Khuasnov lost his composure at the wrong moment.
With Ruben Dias on the bench, Guardiola got his line-up wrong and the Portugal defender was brought on for Khusanov with five minutes to go.
Bernardo Silva
The usually creative and reliable Bernardo Silva was not at his best at Brighton and with options on the bench, and to return from injury, the 31-year-old needs to step up.
Silva was weak in the middle of the park, winning just two of seven duels and he was not as neat in possession as usual.
Offering nothing going forward for Haaland and the attack, Silva was surprisingly poor.
Oscar Bobb
The 22-year-old has started all three of Man City’s games this season, in what could prove to be a breakthrough campaign for the Norwegian.
Oscar Bobb though was ineffective at Brighton, with no accurate crosses and just one shot on goal.
Like Silva, Bobb currently faces a lack of competition for his place in the starting line-up, with just Jeremy Doku as a natural replacement on the bench.
However, when Phil Foden and Savinho return then Bobb will need to start contributing more service to Haaland.