Brentford (H) - PL | Post Match Thread

[I'msingingingtheblues]

Slightlt off-subject, but I do think Notts Forrest suit they're sky blue and white away strip :-)

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

One tiny concern I had in the game that I will confess to is that, at points, our midfield started to look a bit... old? A bit slow? The average age of the three players in the middle today (Kovacic, De Bruyne, Gundogan) was 31.5 and there were moments when it looked a bit easy for Brentford when winning the second balls. Foden will be back soon, McAtee and Nunes will get minutes, and Echeverri is coming in January, but you'd hope that the likes of Wirtz and Musiala are being considered as well. This core group of players we've had for about 6-7 years now has been incredible but we don't want to end up where we were during Pellegrini's last year and Pep's first season, where he had no option but to turn to players like Zabaleta, Navas, Sagna, Yaya Toure, Kolarov, etc. time and time again.

Looked leggy today and Grealish didn’t help much defensively either especially in that first 20 mins. Saying that everything stems from the back and today we effectively made 4 changes to our back four by brining in Walker and Stones and moving Rico and Akanji to facilitate them.

 

[leithblue]

Going forward was fine.

Gundogan - Kovacic is new midfield, they’ve not played together before so always likely to be a bit ropey at first.

 

[wattle]

They've never been great together! How long you been watching!

Lol

 

[Didsbury Dave]

The wide men were the biggest problem today. No end product from Grealish or Savinho. Second half we were really unlucky not to score again but Brentford competed well. ,Akanji, Emerson and (obviously) Haaland excellent, KDB below par, walker awful. 7/10

 

[youngbob]

Looked leggy today and Grealish didn’t help much defensively either especially in that first 20 mins. Saying that everything stems from the back and today we effectively made 4 changes to our back four by brining in Walker and Stones and moving Rico and Akanji to facilitate them.

Grealish still looks like he's taking a couple of games to get that fitness back on the wing. He's even talked about getting back to full sharpness himself, so even he feels he's not quite there yet. Thought he had a weird game today. Worked hard and showed a few nice touches, and did his usual thing of controlling the game from wide on the left. But his end product was underhit almost every time, like he was tiring slightly at the moment he met the ball. It'll come back, though - it might just take another couple of games.

 

[OB1]

Thomas Frank as a Pep replacement?

No.

 

[ancoats]

Did you think we controlled the game? I didn’t. Maybe the last 30 minutes but before that I thought they were the better team.

Sometimes the result and the 3 points are the only things you need to take out of the game.

Forget the lack of control in the first half because of the international break, Pep is a tactician master and needs the players to understand the plans to break teams down, The training City and Pep does with the players is a lot of mental break down of the other teams and they go over and over the plans until they get it right.

Just go and watch their manager's post-game interview on the BBC and you will understand what I am trying to say
Thomas Frank said Pep makes 2 tactical changes at half time and bang are back in control,

Given Brentford credit, if they had a little bit more quality in front of goal they would have won today

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

That was a tough tough game. For me at this stage of the season it's not about the free flowing football that we will play in the coming weeks, but about getting the job done.

Walker, Stones and Rodri their first minutes of the season and it's great for them to get them under their belt.

Not a great but steady performance imo, but what a great result and we now move onto the next one. CTID

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Sometimes the result and the 3 points are the only things you need to take out of the game.

Forget the lack of control in the first half because of the international break, Pep is a tactician master and needs the players to understand the plans to break teams down, The training City and Pep does with the players is a lot of mental break down of the other teams and they go over and over the plans until they get it right.

Just go and watch their manager's post-game interview on the BBC and you will understand what I am trying to say
Thomas Frank said Pep makes 2 tactical changes at half time and bang are back in control,

Given Brentford credit, if they had a little bit more quality in front of goal they would have won today

I think if we didn’t have Haaland they probably would have too or at least drew. I hope he stays fit.