Wolves 2-3 Brighton: Magic Mitoma tops player ratings
On any normal day, Adam Lallana rolling back the years to 2015 would be enough to top the WAB Player Ratings – but Wolves 2-3 Brighton was not a normal day.
Kaoru Mitoma was on the pitch, you see. Making just the second Premier League start of his life, Mitoma scored one goal, was involved in two more and ensured that Wolves went down to 10 men with the entire second half still to play. He was phenomenal.
What makes Mitoma so exciting is that he brings an entirely new dimension to this Albion team. He offers speed, skill, directness and wants to run at opponents.
He is the sort of player that Brighton have been needing for three years to unlock defences when pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass does not work.
Lallana meanwhile is a master of the possession game, an individual who makes keeping the ball seem effortless as he glides around the pitch. This was arguably his best performance in three years as an Albion player.
Of course, victory was not just down to Lallana and Mitoma – 12 others contributed something to the win at Molineux. Here are your player ratings from Wolves 2-3 Brighton.
Robert Sanchez – 7.07
His poor penalty saving record meant that Wolves were pretty much guaranteed to score the minute they were awarded their spot kick. Made two important tip overs at full stretch in the second half as the 10-men of the Old Gold played shrewdly on the counter.
Pascal Gross – 7.93
Showed that his superb performance at right back against Chelsea was no fluke. His creativity helps the Albion build from defence whilst Roberto De Zerbi is happy for him to go ravaging forward, as happened when he popped up in the Wolves box with seven minutes left to score the winner.
Lewis Dunk – 7.57
Hit two wonderful balls out of defence in the first half, one leading to an early chance for Solly March and the other sending Mitoma clear for what ended up being the red card incident. VAR has taken a right panning for its role in awarding a penalty against Dunk for handball, meaning nobody seems to have asked why he stuck his arm so high in the air in the first place?
Adam Webster – 6.93
Solid defensively. A number of Albion fans appear to have marked him down for squandering two good headed opportunities at the other end, which he admittedly should have done better with.
Pervis Estupinan – 6.93
Goodness knows where he was when Wolves opened the scoring but it was not in the left back position. The penalty also originated from down his flank. That is what you get with Estupinan though; you have to accept defensive mistakes and issues for him being so cavalier getting forward – which he did really well at Molineux.
Moises Caicedo – 7.93
Linked in the week with a £68 million move to Real Madrid, Caicedo’s performance at Molineux just added to the hype. Consistently won the ball for the Albion, always found a blue and white shirt with his passes and played a part in the second goal by setting Mitoma away towards the by-line.
Alexis Mac Allister – 7.50
A disciplined performance allowed Caicedo to shine. Mac Allister still managed to have two good sights of goal, bending an effort wide and then drawing a fine stop from Jose Sa with a free kick. His delivery all afternoon was decent and he might have even had an assist if Webster could head the ball on target.
Solly March – 7.07
Scoring a Premier League goal is a feat which continues to elude him. Had a first half effort deflected wide and saw a powerful second half drive kept out expertly by Sa at the near post. His quick feet started the move which led to Gross’ winner.
Adam Lallana – 8.64
An utter joy to watch. Took the sort of early shot De Zerbi loves when opening the scoring and provided the perfect cross for Mitoma to head home the second after working some space with silky skills. Seems to be thriving as an orthodox number 10, rather than the plethora of different positions Potter asked him to play.
KAORU MITOMA – 9.07
The outside of the right boot pass into Leandro Trossard in the build up to the first goal was sublime. The leap followed by powerful header to score his first Albion goal defied belief. The pace which led Nélson Semedo to produce a rugby tackle was electric. And the trickery to advance into the Wolves box and deliver the pass leading to the winner was pure magic.
Leandro Trossard – 7.14
It was his first touch which teed up Lallana to open the scoring. Buzzed around as the focal point of the attack, causing Wolves enough worry but never really having the impact he managed in the 4-1 win over Chelsea. No shame in that though; if Trossard played that well every week, he would be at one of the biggest clubs in the world rather than Brighton.
Danny Welbeck – 6.00
Gave Wolves a different kind of threat to think about when introduced in place of Lallana. Earned the free kick from which Mac Allister tested Sa and had a couple of other promising breaks which came to nothing.
Billy Gilmour – 6.21
His nice sideways pass helped the ball from March to Caicedo in the build up to the winner. An intriguing cameo which sets him up nicely for the midweek trip to Arsenal in the Camila Cabello Cup, should he start at the Emirates.
Deniz Undav – 6.43
Involved in a Premier League goal for the first time, playing the pass into Gross which set up the Albion’s third. That should provide a confidence boost ahead of Arsenal.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
