This was a really important, hard-fought win. The games against the deep block sides are always tough, particularly Brentford who are happy to drop 11 players into the area at times. They are a much better side with Wissa and Onyeka, who provide more running power.
Of course, these tactics are used to emphasise their strengths, which are counter attacking and oddly, goal kicks/dead balls where they can plant the ball deep into our half and then look to cause chaos to benefit from. It's all to reduce the game down to the finest margins.
It requires a patient approach, which we didn't use last season and ended up losing. At times last night we rushed the final ball, early in the first half where they almost benefitted twice. Once we became more patient and pushed them into a low block for extended periods, we should've scored through Bobb (insane block from Mee) and Bernardo's missed header.
Great goal in the end with the quick passing and benefitting from the slip (fine margins as mentioned above) Haaland ice-cold which shows his resilience after the Chelsea game.
We are doing a solid job of staying in the race without reaching our maximum yet. But we need to hit it very soon given the fixtures coming up. Showed signs v Copenhagen and hopefully we can build from here.
One final point on the corners. I think it's looking to benefit from more physical contact allowed with goalkeepers and also the proximity of the ball to the goal. As seen against Spurs, if the ball is only 2-3 yards from goal then it only needs prodding into the net, particularly if the ball is between the width of the posts. Not a header through a forest of bodies.