Ratings & Reactions: Brentford v Villa

[Peter Griffin]

4 minutes ago, CLARETANDBLUEFOXY said:

Many hours later - I’m still pissed off. I really hope Gerrard has spent this evening drawing up who he wants in so we can kick the sack of shit bringing us down out. 

Acceptance now 

 

I think Gerrard knows exactly who he wants at the club and who he doesn't want. I am hoping the list of Don't wants isn't longer than the list of wants. And listening to the presser the other day it sounds like he knows exactly who he wants to bring to the club. The future is bright

[VillanousOne]

We just can't seem to build any consistency or momentum, we can't put out the same team from one game to the next - which I know has impacted every team due to Covid.

Bailey has a few incredible cameos and injures himself scoring a goal, comes back a pale shadow of that same player and gets crocked again.

Nakamba starts to play well and that's him out for the season (probably)

Watkins and Ings can't seem to play together, but neither seems to stay fit/Covid free long enough to really see if that could change.


 

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

Today was the off key swan song for a number of the squad that kept us up:

 

Hause

Targett

Trez

 

…and Luiz as a DM

I think SG is leading  ‘Rebuild 2.0’. The next stage.
 

We’ve the spine of a v good team, but I’m actually a bit worried. That transfer window with Tactics Tim has left me scarred. ATM, youngsters are good but not lighting the place up in number and new signings haven’t quite gelled yet: add more to the mix and the XI will be v different.

[CLARETANDBLUEFOXY]

6 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

Acceptance now 

 

I think Gerrard knows exactly who he wants at the club and who he doesn't want. I am hoping the list of Don't wants isn't longer than the list of wants. And listening to the presser the other day it sounds like he knows exactly who he wants to bring to the club. The future is bright

I think January is going to be a very interesting time for us! 

[hippo]

11 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

We just can't seem to build any consistency or momentum, we can't put out the same team from one game to the next - which I know has impacted every team due to Covid.

Bailey has a few incredible cameos and injures himself scoring a goal, comes back a pale shadow of that same player and gets crocked again.

Nakamba starts to play well and that's him out for the season (probably)

Watkins and Ings can't seem to play together, but neither seems to stay fit/Covid free long enough to really see if that could change.


 

It's almost as though we need someone in a position of authority to sort out these pesky niggles.

[flashingqwerty]

Depressing game on the whole.

Martinez - little to do and don't think he had a chance with either goal - 6

Targett - useless as an attacking threat and mediocre defensively.  Often could out of position and too easily let his man past him. - 4

Hause - at fault for both goals and looked more than rusty - 4

Konsa - had his hands full trying to cover Hause's mistakes.  Liked how he took charge late 9n and tried to push us 9n, which is really what McGinn should have been doing as captain - 6

Cash - mediocre defensively and offensively.  Don't think he made many mistakes but also don't recall many positives - 6

Ramsey - some nice touches and interplay, and took a lot of kicks. There's a player in there, but he's still young and raw.  Looked jaded 2nd half. 6

Luiz - he's not a CDM he's just not good enough defensively - 5

McGinn - were he not captain he'd get a 6, but as captain he needed to be a lot more vocal and get himself more involved. Really let us down 2nd half losing possession frequently and not tracking runners.  A couple of decent long rangers, and some decent passes early on but poor by his standards - 5

Traore - no idea how he stayed on the pitch so long. Bad control, bad dribbling, bad passing bad positioning, just BAD. 3

Ings - though he should have had a hat trick, I think he showed what having a proper striker up top can do.  I think Ollie works hard but is more a wide forward than a striker.  Ings was good today. 7

Buendia - god he's so irritating!  Some great forward play and interplay with Ramsey, but offered nothing defensively.  Never tracked back and never tried to win it back when he lost it. 6

Trez - never want to see him in the shirt again after that dive. Embarrassing. 0

Sansom - he was ok, needs more minutes I think but looks a decent player - 6

Gerrard - starting line up was ok and we started well.  Think the players let him down after a good 25 mins or so in the 1st half.  But, Traore was a passenger all game and should have been subbed a lot earlier and why were only 2 subs made?  We were crying out for pace and Archer would have given them a huge problem.  Think we might also have benefitted from an extra CM when Brentford started countering at pace.  Rookie mistakes today reminiscent of DS. 4

[villalad21]

18 minutes ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

We’ve the spine of a v good team

Spine is decent. Rest is shit.

From now and start of next season we need about 7 outs and 7 in

[VillanousOne]

15 minutes ago, hippo said:

It's almost as though we need someone in a position of authority to sort out these pesky niggles.

It's nothing to do with the management, only thing a manager can do is get the best out of what there is, our squad just isn't strong enough to whether the issues.

Our summer transfers look like a series of flawed choices that left us unbalanced and unprepared, but even then the signings of Bailey and Ings looked good on paper.

I find it bizarre that when we did manage to score goals and win games, usually on the break with width we bemoan the lack of possession, passing and midfield balance. Yet we now have a far better midfield and possession but no width, speed and intensity on the break. I lost track of how many times players got forward today and no one crossed or tried to get into the box, can Ings not get a head on crosses?

Edited January 2, 2022 by VillanousOne

[the_eristic]

Saw that old sloppiness setting in towards the end of the first and knew the script. We still have some kind of mentality problem where we lose our focus and edge when something doesn't go our way. Need someone on the pitch who can settle things down and direct traffic, so to speak, but we don't really have anyone who fits that bill.

[Brentfordnylons]

1 hour ago, useless said:

The idea of Brentford having most of their team missing is being greatly exaggerated:

Fernández 10 PL appearances

Pinnock 18 PL appearances

Jansson 19 PL appearances

Bech Sørensen 4 PL appearances

Roerslev 9 PL appearances

Onyeka 17 PL appearances

Nørgaard 18 PL appearances

Jensen 13 PL appearances

Canos 18 PL appearances

Wissa 11 PL appearances

Toney 17 PL appearance

So they obviously weren't as depleted as some are making out, most of their team today would have played a big part in the good season they're having so far. Another thing about their squad, and I mean this as a compliment, is that a lot of their players are much of a muchness, meaning if one or two are out injured, in most positions they have someone of a similar quality to bring in.

You could probably say we were just as much affected by Nakamba, Mings, Bailey, and Waktins missing, as they were by the players missing for them.

 

 

Raya 

Henry 

Ajer 

Janelt 

Mbeumo 

All starters 

 

[villalad21]

How are these nobodys beating us on a consistent basis?

Their players are awful. None of them would make out starting eleven apart from perhaps Toney.

We've spent over 300 Million since promotion. We should be battering these.

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

It's nothing to do with the management, only thing a manager can do is get the best out of what there is, our squad just isn't strong enough to whether the issues.

Our summer transfers look like a series of flawed choices that left us unbalanced and unprepared, but even then the signings of Bailey and Ings looked good on paper.

I find it bizarre that when we do managed to score goals and win games, usually on the break with width we bemoan the lack of possession, passing an midfield balance. Yet we now have a far better midfield and possession but no width, speed and intensity on the break. I lost track of how many times players got forward today and no one crossed or tried to get into the box.

We seem to want to play a narrow formation with the width (if any) coming from the full backs. Our full backs decent as they are, aren't up to that. Full backs that can do that at this level are going to cost £50m+ 

 

However Brentford were poor today - worrying how little they had to do to beat us.

[QldVilla]

Thought Brentford started slowly today and allowed us to look very good for the first 35 minutes and we should have killed the game in that time.

They got better and started to be more physical and knocking our players off the ball and we started to give the ball away cheaply.

I look at the spine of our team today and there are no leaders, no one to take control of the game and that showed in the result and in the second half we were just kicking the ball around like a bunch of headless chooks.

Gerrard has a lot of work to do, the honeymoon is over.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Very strange game as we seemed to dominate it for large periods, halfway through the second-half we had nearly 65% possession.

Apart from the over-the-top criticism of our midfield players in their individual threads they were paramount to our dominance in midfield and possession for large periods.

Defensively a little weak and some sloppy goals to concede. 

Buendia MOTM, by far.

Targett our weakest link and has been for awhile now; we really need to go all in for Aaron Hickey.

I hope Gerrard has learned a little more about certain characters today and can address this in January. I'd imagine part of the agreement to him joining us was to allow him money to sign players in January.

 

[VillanousOne]

10 minutes ago, hippo said:

We seem to want to play a narrow formation with the width (if any) coming from the full backs. Our full backs decent as they are, aren't up to that. Full backs that can do that at this level are going to cost £50m+ 

 

However Brentford were poor today - worrying how little they had to do to beat us.

agree, we don't have the players to play the way Gerrard seems to want to, 'yet'. Even Dean Smith seemed determined to change our formation from something that sometimes worked and got us results to something that doesn't get us results often.

But Cash and even Targett go to crossing areas today and did nothing. I know Buendia tried to feed Ings a few times including the goal but most of the time our players get passed the half way line and are clueless as what to do next. McGinn shooting on sight doesn't help and when Ollie does play he refuses to pass to anyone.

[Phil Silvers]

5 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Very strange game as we seemed to dominate it for large periods, halfway through the second-half we had nearly 65% possession.

Apart from the over-the-top criticism of our midfield players in their individual threads they were paramount to our dominance in midfield and possession for large periods.

Defensively a little weak and some sloppy goals to concede. 

Buendia MOTM, by far.

Targett our weakest link and has been for awhile now; we really need to go all in for Aaron Hickey.

I hope Gerrard has learned a little more about certain characters today and can address this in January. I'd imagine part of the agreement to him joining us was to allow him money to sign players in January.

 

Bang on, almost all goals vs us are do to our own poor defending, needs fixing asap

[Phil Silvers]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

If Gerrard decides a lot of these players don't fit in with his system that is going to mean wholesales changes to the squad probably in the summer and even more money to be spent. I hope Wes and Naseef are still committed to the 'project' as its going to take a lot more bunce  to get us competing for european spots.

I think they have a much better understanding of the way this business works than our last couple of owners. SG will have told them in his interview what his plans for the team are, he's still assessing and a few are doing themselves no favours at all. I think the money will flow no danger.

[DaveAV1]

Leaving tactics and individuals aside, I think this was the first time under SG that we saw a performance that was un Gerrard like. We played some nice looking football at times and overall were the better team but we lacked intensity and aggression and despite some good play we only really looked like scoring once, when we actually did. Defensively we looked vulnerable against a hardly prolific Brentford.  

We have largely looked harder to beat under SG but today that just wasn’t the case and SG has repeated his mantra, after the match, that we have to be hard to beat. We are still in the early stages of the new managerial regime and it takes time to instill a mentality just as much as tactics. There will be bumps in the road and today was one. 

As fans some have got carried away, perhaps some of the players have too. People moaning about not taking the game to Liverpool etc. The fact is we forgot the basics today and we’re punished. The good news is SG hasn’t forgotten the basics and the need earn the right to play a more expansive game before playing it. That applies as an overall approach but equally in every game. We’re a mid table team we have to work hard in every game or we won’t get the result we want. I’ve heard people say we should be beating the likes of Brentford, I doubt you’d hear that from the coaches at BMH. 

We’ve suffered a set back and it’s disappointing but not the end of the world. Some of the reactions in here, whilst no longer surprising are as ridiculous as expecting us to sweep aside everyone but Man City. We’re a work in progress, players will need to improve, mindset will have to get better and some personnel changes will happen over time. We lost a game, reading this thread,  if you didn’t know better,  you’d think we’d just been relegated.

Edited January 2, 2022 by DaveAV1

[rjw63]

3 hours ago, Badgerbee said:

Didn't say it was a "Good performance". You probably deserved a point, if not all 3. Like we did at home to Chelsea earlier in the season. Shit happens.

Just don't like fans being condescending about my team.

[rjw63]

1 hour ago, flashingqwerty said:

Sansom- A bit old and fat and likes a beer before the game. I hear he has a gambling addiction too