Brentford (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[eyalluvitt]

 

[manimanc]

Big shout out to Nico Gonzalez.
It's took a bit of time, he ain't no Rodri but he's only growing into the holding position. He looks stronger, he's finding his passes and he's putting his foot in.
Chuffed for the lad as it's been tough for him but he is looking alright to me.

 

[madloaf]

Rodri only two or three weeks, and the next two weeks are international nonsense. That's a relief.

 

[WesthoughtonJohn]

Bobb was involved a lot first half!

Lacked an end product - bar the excellent chance he laid on for Phil (who inexplicably missed the target)
Needs time, and instruction, to get things right. Missing last year is an obvious reason

 

[David White]

Very decent first half sprinkled with some poor finishing. Great goal by Erling, more balls like that please. It allows him to be a bully. Played with purpose and wanted to be positive.

Second half we just dropped off enormously. Great block by donnaruma.

I’d have taken that this morning. Tough place to go and get a win.

Well done blues.

 

[madloaf]

But if you're going to do that, you have to also look at ehat the rest have played too. Arsenal have played Liverpool away, newcastle away, united away, city and forest at home.

That is a much, much tougher set of fixtures than what we have had.

Can people stop including united in these lists of teams played! They are shite.

 

[axlgod]

Lovely stuff.
That’s it.

 

[ysmsa]

On our league position, am I right in thinking we would have been top if we didn't concede against The Arse.

Joint top on GD, not sure about the goals scored though

 

[malg]

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

But if you're going to do that, you have to also look at ehat the rest have played too. Arsenal have played Liverpool away, newcastle away, united away, city and forest at home.

That is a much, much tougher set of fixtures than what we have had.

But you don't have to do that at all - because all that's in City's control is City. Worry about your own team and put in the performances that will put you in the picture come the end of the year. We've done that so far, end of story. Will Arsenal also be in the picture? Probably yes, they've also had a good set of results for the fixture they played.

Do you think Pep is sat there analysing how Arsenal are performing versus their own expectations? I don't. He'll be targeting getting this City team back up to 85-95 points a season, and that will be his singular concern.

If Arsenal are going to go and get a 100 points then what can we do about that? Nothing.

 

[big gaz]

Win pretty. Win ugly. Just win.

Or be the fucking Mets ;-)

 

[noseve]

I like O'Reilly. Big lump of a lad as well. I wonder how he'd fare if Rodri took him under his wing at training to maybe play a bit in the middle.

Not until we sign a proper left back to take his place though...

 

[Norbert D]

Bobb was involved a lot first half!

Bobb played well when City were playing well in the first half, he faded as we faded. We need Kovacic back to help plug the gaps in the middle, oh and score a few goals.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

A second from those chances in the first half and we'd perhaps gone onto score 4/5 but, it was a bit tense near the end playing against 11, the ref and a towel.

 

[Roachy]

Not bad 1st half but the 2nd was a bit iffy. Brentford played better after the break and we coped but didn't look great. Anyway, that's still a cracking 3 points for us and there's plenty to look forward to.

 

[Dribble]

Shockingly shit, but 3 points away is a good 3 points...​

Up until we scored, we were playing like the Champions of old, with a swagger & precision that matched City in our pomp. However, after 25 minutes, we got into a predictable, robotic tempo & aside from the Reijnders chance, we never really threatened Brentford again, albeit up to half time we were comfortable.

Haaland took his early goal well which was just reward for our dominance up to that point. Gvardiol put a hopefully ball through to him, & Erling had to fight & shrug off the CB to gain the advantage & slam the ball home.

The only other notable occurrence of the first half was the worrying substitution of Rodri, which looked like a hamstring injury. At least he won't get rinsed playing for Spain & hopefully his injury isn't too serious & he'll be back sooner rather than later. City 1-0 at the break.



After half-time, Brentford came out with more purpose as to be expected, but what I didn't expect was City to not be able to pick up our tempo & then push on to go another level above again.

Perhaps our midweek exploits in Monaco were taking their toll, but we were on the defensive for vast periods of the second half against a spirited, but very poor Brentford side who posed little in the way of clear cut danger to Donnarumma. I seriously fear for their PL existence based on this display.



I thought Bobb was largely ineffective & rarely attempted to take on their left back.

Savinho wasn't any better against their RB either. He looked more comfortable & threatening on the right when Doku came on, but he still didn't cause the Bees many issues. It's still early in the season, but we need both Savinho & Bobb to start showing more attacking intent & end product sooner rather than later.

There were several hairy moments in defence, as the whole back 4 & Donnarumma made errors which would've cost us against better opposition. I thought Dias was the best of a battling bunch, which says a lot about our performance.

Reijnders was decent in the first half, but faded worryingly as the 2nd half wore on, & became almost anonymous just when we needed midfield control the most.

Nico G was steady, but started to become overwhelmed as the second half dragged on as the Bees threw all they could muster at us. The whole team became more & more disjointed as the minutes tick by toward the 90.

Bernardo replaced the ineffective Bobb & steadied the listing ship somewhat.

Doku on for Reijnders gave Brentford something to think about, but he showed very little to unduly worry them either.

My MoTM was Phil. He ran his heart out & was our only beacon of light in a shockingly shit, but ultimately professional performance which led us to victory.



This is an instantly forgettable match, which will only be remembered for the three points we picked up on the road against a poor, short of PL quality opponent.

We've got ANOTHER two week international break, & to be honest, I think it's come just at the right time for us to rest, patch up our wounded & try to return our injured players to full fitness.

It was a fuckin painful watch, but like I said, 3 points away in the PL is three points away in the PL, & they all count, even if our performance against a poor team was crap. We move on & keep the bandwagon rolling.

 

[Manc baggie]

As long as they are available for BOTH teams its ok.

Apparently, both teams have to agree for towels to be used in a match.

 

[malg]

Big shout out to Nico Gonzalez.
It's took a bit of time, he ain't no Rodri but he's only growing into the holding position. He looks stronger, he's finding his passes and he's putting his foot in.
Chuffed for the lad as it's been tough for him but he is looking alright to me.

He needs to practice headers.

 

[Jonas.shaffer]

Well apart from Ederson who didn't want to play for us anymore, comfortable ball playing goalies are rarer than rocking horse shit. So might as well go for one of the best shot stoppers in the business as a consolation prize.

Are they, though? Every young keeper these days is training with the ball at their feet more than ever. I didn't expect the club to find a replacement keeper with Ederson's qualities, but I also didn't expect them to go from Eddy to a keeper who's notorious for being poor with the ball at his feet, to the point that PSG moved on from him despite winning everything available to them bar the Club World Cup.

 

[KS55]

6 senior players have just left us. 6 new players have arrived. We are just 7 games into the season and not far off the leading team, with a new team and new tactics. Half the BM posters are complaining. Ok, please yourselves.