Brentford (H) | Post-Match Thread

The amount of chances we have conceded in the last 2 home games...ouch...way too many, Chelsea should have scored 2/3 on Wednesday....we were wide open again today on the break
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
They played right up against Akanji on purpose.

They cut out Stones and Laporte by going direct in to Akanji.

More alarming was the lack of bravery and awareness of winning the second ball from the surrounding players.

At some stage I saw Gundo and Kev duck out of the way of the ball.

Brentford got their tactics spot on and Pep failed to react during the game, despite obvious failings.
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It was a simple change to put Akanji at Right back and Stones at CB
Both were shockingly weak and losing their individual battles, a switch might have played more to their strengths
But no, captain stubborn doubled down
 
Brewster's millions said:
We now have the identical number of points (32) after 14 games than we did last season, albeit with slightly better goal difference, so I would say that the raw numbers are essentially the same as the comparable point of last year. However, after 14 games last season we had already played Spurs, Chelsea, United and Liverpool, critically all away from home.

The fixture list has been far more favourable to us so far this season and as such if we are to repeat our tendency to score more points after Christmas, we’ll have to do it with a more difficult run of fixtures. Also, you could arguably attribute our tendency for slow starts in previous seasons to the impact of international tournaments and the demands these placed on our players. Again, if we have a similar hangover from the WC, then it will be another factor challenging our usual outperformance during the second half of the season.

However my belief that we’ve gone backwards this season is less to do with the statistics and more to do with the nature of our performances and the balance of the squad.

We look more vulnerable at the back in my opinion - Dias in particular has underperformed while Cancelo has become increasingly erratic - and Zinchenko’s departure has been a significant loss. Zinchenko could also be very inconsistent and he wasn’t a natural defender. But his departure has been a key negative and Guardiola clearly doesn’t trust Gomez to defend properly given how he’s tried to shoehorn Akanji and Stones into the full back positions. We don’t look a cohesive unit at the back.

In midfield, I think Rodri’s level has dropped from last year - albeit from a very high point - and the balance also seems slightly off. Guardiola, for whatever reason, persists in playing Bernado out wide even though he’s much less effective out there. Up front, we haven’t been able to provide Haaland with a consistent level of service and we look short of options on the wings and overly reliant on one or two players.

Overall, given the addition of a player as good as Haaland, I think we have gone slightly backwards and I don’t think we can necessarily expect a big improvement in the second half of the season just because we’ve done it in previous seasons.
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You’re just in the moment. You judge these things at the end of a season. If we were reviewing the last 2 seasons at the same stage you’d be up in arms. The media was writing us off, bluemoon was writing us off.

Titles aren’t won in November. The real teams shine in the run in when the going gets tough. That’s when you find out how good a team really is. Not 3 months into the season, with injuries (Walker a huge loss), getting used to a new striker etc.

More than happy to pick up early June when we’re champions?
 
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