A different type of football - Brentford match report

[goodshot (FGS)]

Disappointment at Charlton – dismay at Brentford.

Won’t bore through the match facts – the description is pretty good on the website.

I could understand the formation he started with; the 4-1-4-1 which had been successful at Reading and Wolves but I couldn’t really see any reason why Edgar should start instead of Coady in the holding role. However, not sure it would have made a great deal of difference.

The plan from the first minute seemed to be to concede possession, absorb the pressure and try to nick something on the break. The difference at Reading and Wolves was that we pressed the ball high up the pitch. Here we sat back and let Brentford dominate. When we had the ball they pressed us like buggery and we couldn’t string two passes together because our man in possession was constantly under pressure, and then either made a mistake or hoofed it. In contrast they played the ball around under no pressure until they got near our box because we didn’t press them.

Unfortunately for the plan – a dreadful bit of defending in the first couple of minutes as one of their forwards picked up the ball with his back to the goal outside the box and easily span around Wallace, moved to the edge of the box and lashed it past a helpless Smithies. But for Smithies they would have been 3 up inside 10 minutes. One shocking miss from Douglas who rolled it in to Smithies hands from 3 yards out with only Smithies to beat, and one great block from Smithies as their scorer broke free in the box easily.

We were all at sea and totally under the cosh – being played off the park.

The first time we tried to get a foothold in the game came through a bit of pressing from Hogg pushing in to their half after about 20 minutes and getting round a few of their players. It made them pause for thought and a sublime ball from Vaughan picked out Bunn on the edge of the box and he twisted his marker inside out and hit a terrific left foot shot to the keepers left. Great, powerful finish with his supposed weaker left foot.

This set Brentford back a bit. Although they dominated the ball for the rest of the half they didn’t really create too much more up to half time.

Very fortunate to be in at 1-1 at half time.

Robinson must have taken a knock because it was a great surprise to see Carroll emerge for the second half. Unfortunately, the first bit of defending he had to do came in about 5 minutes and Jotta? burst past him on the inside (we had several opportunities to clear it before it got close to Carroll so he wasn’t 100% to blame) fired one in which seemed to bounce about a bit in the box after being saved by Smithies but the loose ball was belted in to the roof on the net by the lad who scored the first.

After that, as at Charlton, the game was over. We gave it a bit of a go and had a bit more of the game than in the first half but they always looked more likely to score next. Carroll did reasonably well after a poor start and got in a few beefy headers and challenges and one great cross on the run. Vaughan got stuck in but the service to him was frustratingly poor.

I’ve never seen a Town team give the ball away so much. It was entirely due to the pressure that Brentford put us under on the ball. They passed and moved and were slick, fast and strong, quick of foot and quick of mind – everything we were not. They probably had better individual players than us but the key thing that stuck out to me was that they pressed Town for 90 minutes when they didn’t have the ball, and we didn’t press them hardly at all – except in the build up to Bunn’s goal.

It was very similar to the Bournemouth game. I thought Bournemouth were a bit better than Brentford but didn’t quite create the same chances and put us away – we could have easily lost that 4-1 as well.

Where do we go from here? Are the players good enough as individuals or are they getting the wrong instructions/game plan, or both!

Our defending and distribution from the back was shocking at times – but I do have some sympathy because they were constantly under pressure – the Brentford back four might have easily been as shocking under that type of pressure! With tonight’s type of game plan – we’ll never know!

It wasn’t for lack of effort or trying by individuals. We didn’t lie down for them. We need CP to get us on the front foot rather than being on the back foot all the time. I don’t mind us losing to teams like Brentford but we need to be having a bit of a better go at them. My conclusion is: keep Smithies, Hogg, Coady, Butterfield, Bunn, Vaughan who I think can be competitive at the type of level that Bournemouth and Brentford play at but if we want to reach that level as a team - the rest are passengers/dead weights around them.

We have to develop a pressing game.

I’m off for a bit of Vitamin D so back for the Birmingham game – and in truth – not really looking forward to it. I think we will finish 5th from bottom above Rotherham – hopefully.