Brentford 2 v Aston Villa 1 Post Match Thread

[The Edge]

Let's not dress this up or find mitigation.

Brentford were awful and we lost to them. We have too many nothing players. Constantly giving the ball away, little creativity, no urgency.

11 defeats out of 19 games tells it's own story.

A horrible, horrible defeat.

That’s how I see it.
They didn’t ‘want it more’ or anything like that.
We should have had more than enough to win but we didn’t have the nous, fluidly, pace and speed of thought.
Misplaced passes, giving the ball away cheaply and not quality from 30 yards out.
The team looked like a team where everyone was recovering from either being ill or on the piss last night.

And trezeguet can fuck right off, the cheating bastard.

I totally agree about Trez. Besides his embarrassing theatrics today he's just not good enough for what we need right now. You say they didn't want it more but I saw different. Last ditch tackles,scrapping in midfield for every loose ball. Ghoddo their left back was so determined to win every tackle, wanted every decision and epitomised their desire to win. Compare that to our left backs limp performance and it sums it up for me. Maybe we "wanted" it just as much as they did but we did not match their determination to achieve it.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Puzzled by our second half.Seemed like we were happy to play for a draw with not enough bodies in the box. Expecting a reaction against Utd.

[levico]

What happened to the old fashioned grinding out a draw. It’s either win or lose these days.

[sid1964]

That is fans for you, when we win the team are great, when we lose everything is shit

[Monty]

This will happen sometimes, they're a jammy side and I don't hold that against them, they know how to spoil and harry and can be impressively ruthless with finishing what chances they get. For us, time to get up in the morning, keep working hard and trust that the approach will yield more good than bad going forward.

Of course I agree here Monty but I’m so incandescent with annoyance I won’t reach your Zen like level of calm until at least tomorrow morning.

My super secret formula is to get slightly drunk and eat a really nice ham sandwich.

[Mister E]

Soooo frustrating!!

• Targett gave the ball away with regularity.
• Hause has positioning problems: both goals were really his to deal with – the first was an issue of ball-watching; the second saw his reflexes and alertness wanting.
• Luiz had a stinker, giving away the ball far too frequently.
• Traore should have been subbed earlier than he was.
• Meatball had a quiet game; didn’t assert himself on it at all.
• Buendia became increasingly ineffectual and his passing became a liability as the game wore on.
• Why the hell did Trez come on? – we were crying out for a player who can beat his man and create space – Chuky, Archer or P-B would have been a better selection.
• Not capitalising on possession often comes back to haunt you – it did again.

Poor game management, IMHO.

[CT Villan]

First half I thought we played some ok stuff, nothing too spectacular but were not in any trouble from Brentford. The occasional sloppiness we displayed before HT was on full display in the second where we also seemed to revert to our don't pass, don't move, give the ball away style. It was particularly disappointing at the end to see Trez opt for a dive rather than pursue his cut inside that had unbalanced the defender.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Missed opportunity through naivety. 1st time we've never taken maximum points from these at their place in the top division. Poor end to 1st half and generally poor 2nd half despite some half chances. Ramsey lost their man for 1st goal who put in decent cross. Poor substitution bringing Trez on. Diabolical dive at the end. Youngsters on the bench and El Ghazi must be very disappointed not to even be given a chance. Buendia easily motm.  Hause good in the air but doesn't read the game well and generally uncertain when the ball is at his feet. Splashing more good money after our recent spends is not the sole answer. Much to improve on all round. UTV!

[AV82EC]

Better side and should have got a point at least out of that. The reaction on here is as ever way over the top.

Nobodies disagreeing we were the better side Ads or that we should have got a point or more but it’s the sloppy individual performances that are being criticised. I don’t mind losing but the poor play by several individuals has really ticked me off. 

[charleeco7]

Targett and Hause were poor today. You can’t have Hause as the only back up centre half as he isn’t good enough so doesn’t put any pressure on those ahead of him. Same with targett.
Still should have won today and thought they got a bit of luck when the ball dropped to the lad after Emi saved his first shot and the the Ings chance the opposite happened.

[Bobby Boy]

That is fans for you, when we win the team are great, when we lose everything is shit

Won 7, lost 11.

We've got a long way to go.

Brentford were lousy today so I'm not sure what reaction is expected?

[ez]

Has to be on Gerrard. Brentford are rubbish and they found a way to win. Was anyone suprised by the late goal.

[PaulTheVillan]

Poor. Big calls for Gerrard to make coming up.

Targett
Luiz
Hause
Traore

Not good enough if we aim to be a top half side.

[supertom]

What a disappointment. In control for so much of it. Well on top after the goal but we started pissing about a bit too much, getting sloppy, overplaying, thinking we're Ron/Riv era brazil ffs.
Trouble is, once again we're not creating enough. We're good up until the final third but that final decision, final ball is often wrong. If we can get some uninterrupted training and games we can hopefully sort it, but Gerrard will also need to be ruthless in the window as far as sacking people off and we need 2-3 good additions.

On the plus side, our goal was top quality. Ings was a lot sharper today. Beundia showed quality (but ran out of puff in the second half, and is also still very sloppy at times). Their first goal was excellent. We were sloppy in defence second half, we had warnings but their second goal was annoyingly avoidable.

We were short on options sadly. Hause isn't up to par beyond being a fourth choice. We need a CH because we also need someone as good as Esri and Ty to push both of them. We need cover for Targett too. I felt like he was tiring toward the end, and inevitably will feel pressure being the only option (and Ash should only be emergency cover at LB).

Another aspect which is clear. It's gonna have to be Ings or Watkins. Both look better without the other.

Traore was frustrating but I suppose you have to account for fitness and ring rust. You could say the same about Trezeguet but that dive was  inexcusably pathetic.

And I also think missing the Burnley and Leeds games killed the Gerrard bounce. We had a lot of momentum after Norwich and could really have done with facing Burnley and Leeds either side of Chelsea. Maybe it's overstating, but it could be a season killer. We're not in danger but at the same time, we're now a country mile from maybe a top 8. 4-6 points off Leeds/Burnley would have kept us on an upward keel. We're now in the difficult position of needing a positive result after what is likely gonna be a Utd defeat. I also think we're missing Nakamba a lot. Douglas is very lackadaisical at times.

What was playing out as an easy game has been thrown away.

[puppyfeat]

Let's not dress this up or find mitigation.

Brentford were awful and we lost to them. We have too many nothing players. Constantly giving the ball away, little creativity, no urgency.

11 defeats out of 19 games tells it's own story.

A horrible, horrible defeat.

That’s how I see it.
They didn’t ‘want it more’ or anything like that.
We should have had more than enough to win but we didn’t have the nous, fluidly, pace and speed of thought.
Misplaced passes, giving the ball away cheaply and not quality from 30 yards out.
The team looked like a team where everyone was recovering from either being ill or on the piss last night.

And trezeguet can fuck right off, the cheating bastard.

I totally agree about Trez. Besides his embarrassing theatrics today he's just not good enough for what we need right now. You say they didn't want it more but I saw different. Last ditch tackles,scrapping in midfield for every loose ball. Ghoddo their left back was so determined to win every tackle, wanted every decision and epitomised their desire to win. Compare that to our left backs limp performance and it sums it up for me. Maybe we "wanted" it just as much as they did but we did not match their determination to achieve it.

Yep, totally