Brentford (H) | Post-Match Thread

Most of the players on Saturday were thinking about the World cup. But this has happened before reminded me of when we played Leeds a few seasons ago and Dallas scored two. We had no creativity, hopefully, all the players come back from the World Cup fit and healthy and ready to go for the remainder of the season. No need to panic yet, they are too many games to play in the season to panic right now.
 
oldhamblue said:
I remember posting something like this last season. "We have these games where we are listless, square pegs in round holes and Pep refusing to make subs to rectify the situation.

Might have been against Palace last season.

For me it's on Pep. Stones will never be a right back, Bernardo a right winger or Phil a left winger. They might do a job there, but at elite level they'll get found out. Or against Brentford
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I don’t get all this “it’s on pep “ I’ve seen quite a few of these posts so I don’t want it seem like I’m digging you out.

There are a lack of options at full back. Apart from stones who else can he play there. Lewis looks ok but I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment to play in the premier league. Gomez again doesn’t look like he’s up to it.

Foden is probably the best option we have on the wing. Grealish has been doing ok but apart from that he doesn’t have a lot of options.

Wether this is ok pep or the board that we have a lack of options in the full back and wing positions I don’t know but I’ve said a million times the squad is unbalanced.

Also I don’t think the Brentford game is on pep. The players have to stop that last goal. We had a few chances to either make a tactical foul or cut out the cross. That’s solely on the players.

It’s always hard after a defeat especially one that on paper we look at that we should be winning. Also double hard as we have 5 weeks to stew on it.

I’m hoping in January we can make a signing at full back as I think it could cost us in the long run.
 
balotellishaircut said:
75% possession means fuck all if you’re passing it square and not getting in behind, we could all see in the ground it needed changing at H/T, we can all accept a defeat but a defeat due to the lack of ideas and not changing things up is unacceptable imo.
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It matters to the point that I was making. What you refer to is a different matter. I've already posted that I would have made changes at HT but I don't think it is unacceptable for Pep to decide not to make changes: that was his judgment and he commented on it in his presser. What would have been unacceptable was if he didn't think about it. For exmaple, he left Gundo on for a reason and it nearly paid off: he should have scored. Them's the breaks.
 
I’m over it. They had a bad day at the office.
I watched those lads come off the pitch. They were as devastated/annoyed as we were. Annoyed with themselves I guess because they knew that some things didn’t work out, some things could have been better but it wasn’t to be.
Onwards and upwards after the World Cup.
Put Saturday behind us and we start again.

The Boys in Blue never give in. They fight to the end. The fans in Blue never give in. They believe to the end. :-)
 
There's no doubting it was a poor performance on Saturday, but I do feel it was a one-off rather than symptomatic of a malaise.

Brentford were well prepared and utilised their strengths well, but we provided them with ample opportunity to do so. It was hugely reminiscent of the Palace game last season where we resorted to desperation immediately after conceding a very poor goal.

To give you an idea of how drilled in the Brentford goal kick & set pieces were, the goalie spent a large chunk of his warm delivering the same kick over & over. A diagonal to be flicked on and get around the second ball. And we never dealt with it properly - to start off we had a centre back challenging Toney, until he won 3 or 4 in a row and they almost got in. Then we had a bit of not challenging at all and focussing on stealing it. And finally Rodri was stepping backward to challenge. The first goal was just a driven diagonal. After they had run round like maniacs for 10 minutes and we gave them that cheap goal, they dropped off markedly.

Part of the issue was the sheer volume of goal kicks we actually gave them, which does sound ridiculous. Each goal kick allowed them to rest and also cause us an issue by putting the ball 30 yards from our goal.

City have an unrivalled ability to control the tempo of games. Once we cede it, things can become a mess quickly. No matter how Brentford wanted to defend, we should've just worked them relentlessly. But like Palace, we just kept trying odd passes and looped crosses which resulted in dead ball situations.

Gundogan should've stopped Wissa by any means for the second goal. It was weak. Just clip his ankles as soon as he turns and pick the ball up. Rugby tackle him if you have to.

It's worth looking at the recent goals we've conceded. There's a theme of a majority being from set pieces and very fine margins. Salah - poor ball from KDB and a mistake. Sevilla - poor set up. Fulham, long ball from a free kick, misread by Ake.

We do need a change in the set pieces and there's a new analyst (from Brentford) who can hopefully make a difference.


This portion of the season has been ok, but it does feel like we still don't have our best system and XI in place yet. We started with inverted full back and then swapped a number of times. The most recent system, which has looked dangerous, is allowing the full backs to generate the width (didn't use this at the weekend) But it also leaves us more vulnerable to counter attacks.

The time off may prove useful.
 
Bobby the blue said:
I don’t get all this “it’s on pep “ I’ve seen quite a few of these posts so I don’t want it seem like I’m digging you out.

There are a lack of options at full back. Apart from stones who else can he play there. Lewis looks ok but I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment to play in the premier league. Gomez again doesn’t look like he’s up to it.

Foden is probably the best option we have on the wing. Grealish has been doing ok but apart from that he doesn’t have a lot of options.

Wether this is ok pep or the board that we have a lack of options in the full back and wing positions I don’t know but I’ve said a million times the squad is unbalanced.

Also I don’t think the Brentford game is on pep. The players have to stop that last goal. We had a few chances to either make a tactical foul or cut out the cross. That’s solely on the players.

It’s always hard after a defeat especially one that on paper we look at that we should be winning. Also double hard as we have 5 weeks to stew on it.

I’m hoping in January we can make a signing at full back as I think it could cost us in the long run.
Click to expand...

The problems and likelihood that we struggle to get anything from that game were obvious after about 10 mins.....so the criticism aimed at Pep is warranted as he was the one with the ability to try and change things.

The squad is unbalanced,we do need a full back,but that is not new news.....its been a weakness of ours for a few seasons and yet we have done little to correct it.

Who does that fall on? well of course it has to be the management as a whole,but Pep is the most influential voice and he is the one who gets to pick the 11 every week.He has to take main responsibility for not building balance and having the necessary quality in certain positions.
 
This defeat has been coming for a few weeks. We got lucky last week and got ourselves out of a hole. We haven't really played well since we ripped the rags a new one a couple of months ago. However, it's hardly the end of world, even if the media make it to be that way. We lost a game of football. We will lose another one or two also, before the end of the season. I still think we are the best team in the PL by some distance and will pick up the trophy again.
 
Cancelo. Where is his head at the moment? Gifts the scousers a goal, then red carded, now booked for diving. Disgraceful!
We have 5 centre backs but instead of them being hungry for game time in the two centre back positions they are being used as full backs so 3 of them get a game. No hunger. No competition!
We have a new exciting left back that Pep won't play - what is going on here!
 
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