Boss Roberto De Zerbi was not stunned to see World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister come off the bench to cement Brighton’s place within the FA Cup fourth spherical.
The Argentina worldwide scored two second-half targets, the primary of them with an audacious flick, to assist the Premier League Seagulls to a 5-1 win at Sky Bet Championship Middlesbrough.
Asked about his contribution, De Zerbi stated: “Alexis is not a surprise for me. Alexis is a top player for me, for us and I think after the World Cup, for everybody.
“But I knew before the World Cup he is a very good player, a very important player for me, for us.”
Brighton went in on the break on the Riverside Stadium 2-1 to the nice after Pascal Gross and Adam Lallana had taken benefit of poor defending both aspect of Chuba Akpom’s equaliser.
Mac Allister’s introduction at half-time noticed them step up a gear and the Argentinian’s intelligent 58th-minute flick and one other deft end 10 minutes from time had wrapped up the win lengthy earlier than fellow substitute Deniz Undav accomplished the scoring.
Asked if the midfielder had returned from Qatar with additional confidence, De Zerbi stated: “I don’t know but he is a strong player in his head and I think he didn’t need the World Cup to have confidence.
“He has the quality to score. Before the World Cup, I used him in a midfield position with responsibility to build the play.
“Now he’s higher and I think higher he can help us to find the last pass, to find goals because he knows very well that position.”
Belgium’s Leandro Trossard didn’t make the matchday squad on Teesside after being instructed he wanted to point out extra to earn his place, sparking hypothesis over his future, though De Zerbi insisted his absence was injury-related.
He stated: “Yesterday he didn’t train with us. He has a problem with his calf.”
It proved a sobering afternoon for Boro, who had misplaced solely considered one of their earlier 9 video games, though head coach Michael Carrick was proud of points of his workforce’s efficiency towards opposition he all the time anticipated to trigger important issues.
Carrick stated: “I knew before the game how good they are.
“We’ve obviously watched a lot of them and those who hadn’t probably seen much of them maybe didn’t appreciate how good they have become at the moment, so we knew who were up against.
“For long spells in the game I thought we did really well, actually, and we still felt and looked like we had a threat in the first half, especially on the break.
“Obviously the quality was there for everyone to see but in those type of games you need certain moments and certain momentum shifts in the game.
“You just need those moments to change the course of the game, really, and we didn’t quite get it and towards the end, obviously it becomes difficult.”
