Bart Verbruggen was delighted to keep a clean sheet in the 1-0 home victory over Nottingham Forest. But the Netherlands goalkeeper still believes he has room for improvement and will have analysed his performance in detail before his next appearance.
“I was just happy I could help the team by keeping the clean sheet,” he said. “I did have a couple of moments where I wasn’t really perfect in my mind, so I will look back at that and try to do better next time we play.
“I feel like I’m progressing a lot. I feel like I learn something every game and today, like I just said, I did keep a clean sheet and I did make some good saves but there were some bits that weren’t perfect. I’ll reflect on that and speak with the gaffer about it and learn from it and then next game I will be even better again.”
What aspects of his performance against Forest did he intend to look at this week?
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“In the first half there were two passes, one I got away with, and one I didn’t,” he said. “I always have little bits after games where I feel ‘I could have done this, I could have done that’ but I think that’s also the way I progress as a person. Even though I have played a good game, I always try to look at the things that weren’t perfect.
“It’s quite difficult to play 90 minutes of football at this level absolutely perfect, so there are always bits that you can improve on and do better. That’s what excites me and gives me energy.”
His best moment was arguably his save from Divock Origi in the first half, seconds after Albion had taken the lead. “I’m just trying to get in the right area so that the moment he puts his head down, I can engage, try to make myself as big as I can and stay in control. Luckily it worked out.”
The defence kept Forest out in the second half, helped by Bart’s save from Chris Wood. But he said that there had been no special instructions at half time about keeping things tight at the back.
A clean sheet against Forest! 👏 Bart Verbruggen putting in a shift between the sticks. 🫡⛔️
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) March 11, 2024
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“No, not really at half-time, because there was still a lot of football to be played,” he said. “But I think everyone knows that, everyone has experienced that and everyone tries to avoid that, so I don’t think we even had to say that to each other. We just had to tell each other to stay sharp, stay alive and that’s what we did. We didn’t give away a lot of chances so we did well.”
The much-needed victory has improved the mood in the camp ahead of Thursday’s return match against AS Roma. “Yes, obviously we knew we had to bounce back from what happened in Rome,” Bart said. “I think we used this game to turn the tide and get a big confidence boost for Thursday and I think that is what we got. The mood is good, the spirits are high and the belief is big for Thursday, so we’ll give it our best.
“We were low, we were down, but after the game that’s normal. We’d just lost 4-0 and we know what was on the line. But for my feeling, that was only for 24 hours and after that we were fully focused on this game [against Forest] and even if we did speak about the Roma game, we were all full of belief that we can turn it around. We have nothing to lose, we have all the belief, so we’ll give it our best shot and win 5-0!”