Brentford (A) - Post-Match Thread

[Keeper!]

Ain't that the truth, though? We had our full team out. They had hardly any normal first team starters. They gave us a game.
No problems with Brentford as a team, or their supporters, personally.

As said they have been incredible, just goes to show what can be achieved with sensible investment and good planning.

The likes of Everton and Newcastle could learn so much from a club like that.

 

[SamTheGuru]

You haven't done Norwich or Southampton away then! It's their main chant too.

I don't have any issue with small clubs. Good luck to them. Holding us to 1-0 is a major feat. 7 against Leeds and 6 against Leicester - their fans must have feared the worst.
They used to get 4k. Now cutting their cloth realistically with a new 17,000 stadium. I like to have new teams in. Just hope they make life as difficult for everyone else. Good luck to them. Also, something refreshing about Toney and Fern getting snidey digs in on each other.
Overall, glad that one's out of the way with the points in the bag, and we move on to deal with the Arse.

I have definitely done Southampton away and the stadium was falling to bits! Very young at the time though.

 

[SamTheGuru]

I'm presuming he was under instructions to do it, cause Pep would have 100% dragged him off if he was moving out of position.

I got the feeling that Pep was not going to make a substitution even if we were losing 10 nil.

 

[Mancity1980]

We mustn't get too giddy with an eight point lead. I seem to recall a team who squandered an eight point lead with a lot less games left to play. Can't for the life of me remember who it was. I think they steadied the leaking ship in the last game with a win at Sunderland, but the damage had been well 'n truly done. I also seem to recall that a Vinny bullet header figured largely in the demise!

You know it is funny you say that. I just heard Sky Sports say that no team with with a 6+ lead at Christmas had ever lost the league. No, but a team with a 8 point lead with 6 games remaining did! Funny that they didn’t mention that?

 

[Burtonblue]

The only thing that was annoying me about Grealish, (he needs to be given a chance to adapt to the way we play) but he should have been hugging that left wing when Jesus had up to 3 guys on him at points on the right, and he kept getting drawn into the play. Very naeve positionally.

Not sure about that. I would have thought That’s exactly when he needs to come more central as that’s where he becomes a goal threat once Jesus has created the space by drawing players onto him….

 

[chesterbells]

Watched it with the commentary switched off for the first time last night, miles better and gives a different view in the game. I thought the ref was good and favoured us, their fans were shit, complete with the usual nu-fan bollocks, one nil and you still don't sing (we did) and wwywyws, do they realise how small time they are?
Anyway, if sky have the no commentary option that's me from now on

Interesting, so you had audio from the stadium so could hear the crowd noise, but the comms off? Is that one of the options with Prime? Never realised. Might do that if I happen to glance at the match tonight.

 

[Plays By Sense Of Smell]

I don't think it should be decided by the furthest edge of a line as it's impossible for an attacker to know if they are onside by a gap as marginal as 1cm. If they knew that it was the width of a ball, or something like 20 to 30cm, then they could play to that.

Whichever way we look at it, the problem is always the degree of variability of decisions being open to interpretation.
Cuases of this can include the fundamental definitions of what constitutes on/off/where/when lines should be set etc.

If we're going to go for as accurate as possible, then it almost doesn't matter what you choose to measure from; as long as it is possible to set a rule/measure that can be consistently calibrated, you're heading in the right direction.

My feeling is that the shirt sleeve rule is too variable as some shirts may be adjusted,some players have longer arms, some wear long sleeves. There is no definitive point for everyone.

And I'm quite OK with players not being able to tell to within 1cm/whatever - that's part of the skill of playing the game - their judgment. And of course, if things could be know to be reliably exact, then we shouldn't have any qualms with the truth.

There is of course, a way to ensure you are onside. (Check). But to push the limits, as in any competition, there is an event of risk required , and sometimes you'll get it wrong.

VAR probably has improved the game from a technical correctness point of view, and will occasionally suffer from issues that either can't be addressed perfectly, or are part of the learning curve.

But in getting more precise, it highlights the areas where there is a lack of consistency in its own processes. And when that inconsistency is down to the humans who implemented it not having thought things through well enough (perhaps deliberately so), then that's what grinds gears.
The huge human reaction to perceived unfairness.

 

[blue cigar]

Interesting, so you had audio from the stadium so could hear the crowd noise, but the comms off? Is that one of the options with Prime? Never realised. Might do that if I happen to glance at the match tonight.

Yes exactly that, really good to just get the crowd noise

 

[goalmole]

Erm... You know it wasn't us booing Grealish, right?

Foden was getting booed as well iirc

 

[yerwot?]

"Take no risks" summed up our approach, barely attempted to take players on, a sort of about-face from our previous games. Champagne to flat beer.
Painful to watch at times; soon over it, a look at the league table and all is forgiven....Talk of the title-race being over is laughable, it's not even certain to complete. ffs. Especially if we have a double-figure lead....just sayin'

 

[stonerblue]

Foden was getting booed as well iirc

started to get a few boos after he went down for a freekick then sprang back up when not given.

 

[Blue Til Death]

Lots of posts about an 8 point lead on here, it’s probably 6 in reality, not impressed with Chelsea, I think the dippers will take all 3 points …
I won’t be getting giddy until we are at least 12 ahead with 3 games to go :-)

 

[goalmole]

started to get a few boos after he went down for a freekick then sprang back up when not given.

OK. Wondered what it was all about.

 

[The Colonel]

They did topple over quite a lot, ref fell for it too.

Apart from getting conned a couple of times I thought the ref was very good. Let a lot go and no cards iirc.

 

[Nascent Blues]

Whichever way we look at it, the problem is always the degree of variability of decisions being open to interpretation.
Cuases of this can include the fundamental definitions of what constitutes on/off/where/when lines should be set etc.

If we're going to go for as accurate as possible, then it almost doesn't matter what you choose to measure from; as long as it is possible to set a rule/measure that can be consistently calibrated, you're heading in the right direction.

My feeling is that the shirt sleeve rule is too variable as some shirts may be adjusted,some players have longer arms, some wear long sleeves. There is no definitive point for everyone.

And I'm quite OK with players not being able to tell to within 1cm/whatever - that's part of the skill of playing the game - their judgment. And of course, if things could be know to be reliably exact, then we shouldn't have any qualms with the truth.

There is of course, a way to ensure you are onside. (Check). But to push the limits, as in any competition, there is an event of risk required , and sometimes you'll get it wrong.

VAR probably has improved the game from a technical correctness point of view, and will occasionally suffer from issues that either can't be addressed perfectly, or are part of the learning curve.

But in getting more precise, it highlights the areas where there is a lack of consistency in its own processes. And when that inconsistency is down to the humans who implemented it not having thought things through well enough (perhaps deliberately so), then that's what grinds gears.
The huge human reaction to perceived unfairness.

I agree to an extent with what you're saying, but the issue people have is that a player cannot possibly judge whether his toenail is offside, so there needs to be a fairer, not exact, way of deciding offside and this falls to the degree of latitude in place between how offside is measured.

For instance, whether it's the back of the head or from the foot furthest forward where the initial measurement takes place, the thickness of the lines gives a particular degree of latitude, for argument's sake, say 25 cm, which is in favour of the striker. Although there would still be some subjectivity in relation to VAR because it didn't place the line right at the back of the head (because a fan perceives there was still a spare millimetre), people wouldn't feel as aggrieved because it's the striker that has the cushion of 25cm.

 

[The Colonel]

Very underrated and an easy target for some who ought to know better.
He's a grafter and never shirks a tackle or moans when things are not going for him.
Always gives his best and you can't ask for more than that.

Reminds me a bit of Richard Dunne (and I loved Dunnie). Also struggles to sort his feet our sometime as well. But committed, good in the air, decent pace and reads the game well.

 

[kaz7]

Aside from eddie, ake , dinho and flashes from kev and phil everyone else was poor but points is all that count this time of year

 

[kaz7]

Just seen the Laporte 'offside' again. The ball was well on its way when they drew the lines. Clearly some VAR fuckery going on there.

What ever happened to the thicker line , not even half a season and they have ditched it

 

[goalmole]

We mustn't get too giddy with an eight point lead. I seem to recall a team who squandered an eight point lead with a lot less games left to play. Can't for the life of me remember who it was. I think they steadied the leaking ship in the last game with a win at Sunderland, but the damage had been well 'n truly done. I also seem to recall that a Vinny bullet header figured largely in the demise!

You're not wrong about it being too early to get giddy but it's a great feeling nevertheless.

 

[goalmole]

Any criticism of Grealish is extremely premature and properly raggy.
Anybody with half a wit should recognise that every player we have signed in recent years (Dias excepted!) has taken at least a season to settle into the system and deliver their best.
Rodri, Gundogan, Mahrez, Bernardo and Cancelo all struggled to start with.
Grealish’s qualities are not in doubt and he will come good when the time is right.
Class is permanent.

All those players you've named got dogs abuse while they were adapting.
Nothing new with Grealish in that sense.