Brentford (H) - PL | Post Match Thread

[yeah whatever !!]

 

[youngbob]

This was a great win given the international break disrupting rhythm, the changes to the team and conceding so quickly.

I dislike their 'pragmatic' style they usually adopt against us, but their build up play in the first 20/30 minutes was excellent. Our press was incorrect and overly aggressive - I assume we anticipated they would play a 532 and look to play long into the channels.

However, in possession they used 4 at the back and pushed Lewis-Potter onto Walker, created a deep box and then moved it quickly, with Mbuemo or Wissa dropping to become an extra man forward.

What hurt us was Brentford's willingness to play quickly into eachother, with a lot of one and two touch combinations.


We tried to press in a very aggressive 424, but with Lewis Potter pinning Walker and Mbuemo/Wissa the centre backs, the back four was disconnected and it gave them a big space play in. Plus Flekken became a spare man and had time to clip balls onto the wider defenders.


They pressed us man to man in the first half and Ederson/Haaland punished this with the second goal.


Second half we had a lot more control and should've killed the game - their legs were going from 60 mins onward. I expected the change to 433 from them at 70 minutes to kick on but we dealt with it fine.


The changes that got us control were -

- Changed press so Haaland squeezed Flekken to push play onto one side of the pitch
- Rodri for Kovacic - presume due to yellow but he's much better at timing presses and winning seconds etc
- Gvardiol for Rico, just a lot more physical



Our start has been impressive but we need to sharpen up defensively ahead of these next three games. Inter and Arsenal will dismantle a poor press. Both games will require a lot of patience too.

Really good analysis. Post more.