Brentford are being over hyped if you ask me

We were that bad on Saturday that any top half team probably would have beaten us. The fact is that despite our utterly appalling display they still needed a slightly fortuitous penalty to beat us and we still created enough good chances to have got something from the game. That does not suggest that they are that good.

What they are is a well coached, enthusiastic team with a good midfield who pass and move very well. This being the case they were probably one of the worst sides we could have come up against with all our central midfielders missing because that area is their real strength and Pritchard was basically able to operate completely unchecked all game. I suspect it would have been very different had Tettey been operating in his usual zone and closing him down.

All of which makes the set up, tactics and centre back pairing rather baffling because having seen Brentford live just once this season at the away game I could have told you how they were going to play, that they would pose little threat in the air but that their small, nippy midfielders passing and moving would be the main threat. Having calmed down a bit I'm inclined to give Neil the benefit of the doubt and think he was perhaps over confident in the ability of our players to impose ourselves on them in the 4-2-3-1.. He will learn that with our lot you can't rely on that! The alternative is that he was just very naive which is much more concerning. Above all though I have now reconciled myself to the fact we are not suddenly going to sweep all before us and surge to the top two. It's playoffs at best now and then just hope our team show up in those games!

I think he would help himself immensely by playing Wes and focusing on a bit of ball retention in the next few games though.

Posted By: Jim on January 26th 2015 at 09:27:14

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