Brentford (H) | Post-Match Thread

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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Yes it's just not quite right this season. Having said that we're right in the mix in all competitions but as you rightly say we've had a fairly easy run of fixtures on paper. We've got some tough games when we come back and our one really tough away game, Liverpool, we lost. No idea how this season will pan out from here to be honest it's in the balance.
 
What the f*ck was Cancelo trying with his dive ? There are probably twenty camera's covering the game and he tries to con the referee what a clown , he should have carried on and tried to score instead.
Despise players who cheat and i certainly dont like to see it in our shirt , the PGMOL should upgrade all diving in the penalty area to a red card , if a defender gives away a foul in the box its a penalty and possible red card so the same should apply to a player trying to con the referee.
Maybe players would think twice before cheating if it was a sending off offence.
 
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