Brentford 2 v Aston Villa 1 Post Match Thread

[gpbarr]

Today did not surprise me - it just confirms (again) what we know. We are a mid table team that will win some, lose some. We have not a hope in hell of getting anywhere close to top 6 without major upgrades to the squad.

The real problem we face is that the big boys may cherry pick our true PL quality players before Gerrard has a chance to perform surgery. Emi M, SJM, Watkins, Konza, JR will all attract bids if we don’t get a shift on.

Players like Trez, AEG, Targett, Hause belong in a mid table side. Not in one pushing to compete at the highest level.

Mings, Cash, Ings, Doug, Bailey, Traore - jury out. Big decisions needed.

Gerrard has the rest of this season and two transfer windows to stamp his mark - he will be judged on what happens at the start of next season, not what happens the remainder of this.

[Beard82]

I agree we don’t have enough leaders. When you look at those decent seasons under O’Neill we had Friedel, Dunne, Barry, Petrov & Reo Coker to a certain extent. Whilst Mings is captain and You g shouts and points on the pitch I don’t really see anyone else being a leader.

This is something I have said for a while.  Think too many go missing when we are up against it

[richtheholtender]

Today did not surprise me - it just confirms (again) what we know. We are a mid table team that will win some, lose some. We have not a hope in hell of getting anywhere close to top 6 without major upgrades to the squad.

The real problem we face is that the big boys may cherry pick our true PL quality players before Gerrard has a chance to perform surgery. Emi M, SJM, Watkins, Konza, JR will all attract bids if we don’t get a shift on.

Players like Trez, AEG, Targett, Hause belong in a mid table side. Not in one pushing to compete at the highest level.

Mings, Cash, Ings, Doug, Bailey, Traore - jury out. Big decisions needed.

Gerrard has the rest of this season and two transfer windows to stamp his mark - he will be judged on what happens at the start of next season, not what happens the remainder of this.

Pretty much

[Beard82]

Today did not surprise me - it just confirms (again) what we know. We are a mid table team that will win some, lose some. We have not a hope in hell of getting anywhere close to top 6 without major upgrades to the squad.

The real problem we face is that the big boys may cherry pick our true PL quality players before Gerrard has a chance to perform surgery. Emi M, SJM, Watkins, Konza, JR will all attract bids if we don’t get a shift on.

Players like Trez, AEG, Targett, Hause belong in a mid table side. Not in one pushing to compete at the highest level.

Mings, Cash, Ings, Doug, Bailey, Traore - jury out. Big decisions needed.

Gerrard has the rest of this season and two transfer windows to stamp his mark - he will be judged on what happens at the start of next season, not what happens the remainder of this.

I broadly agree with that - but would say three things

1 - there is a big difference between lower and upper mid table - if we can finish 10th or above I think that would have been the target at the beginning of the season.  Personally feel we have a squad better than at least 10 of the teams in the divisions

B - leading on from that I think SG needs to get 12 or above otherwise the pressure would already be on and it would make us more likely to lose our better players.

iii - personally, I think some of the setup at the club need to take a look over their shoulders as the last 2 windows haven’t worked out well and we went into this season massively under prepared -  and whilst I think the benefit of the doubt is still with them - too much longer and we may have to look beyond the managers and the coach

[brontebilly]

Ramsey had a yellow card. I think that's why he was subbed.

He wasn't great anyway. Started well but lost the guy for the first goal and second half was disappointing. I would have taken Traore off first though.

[rougegorge]

Ramsey had a yellow card. I think that's why he was subbed.

He wasn't great anyway. Started well but lost the guy for the first goal and second half was disappointing. I would have taken Traore off first though.

Like the rest of the midfield, he is inconsistent at the moment, very good one moment and then average the next, although in fairness, he has age on his side. The fact that he had been booked already may have influenced his actions for their first goal.

[Villatillidie1982]

Watching the Chelsea/Liverpool game to get the taste of the Brentford game out of my eyes.

That was a different level. May as well be a different sport.

[eamonn]

Ramsey had a yellow card. I think that's why he was subbed.

He wasn't great anyway. Started well but lost the guy for the first goal and second half was disappointing. I would have taken Traore off first though.

Probably was spooked to put in a challenge for the guy on the first goal cos he had already been booked.

[eamonn]

Whos that coach that need a haircut that is always standing around murmuring in the ear to our head coach whenever we play like shit?
Was the same with the last days of smith and when Gerrad came in he was sitting down in the background. Now he is back and yapping, pointing and giving directions like he was head coach or his assistant.
Didnt we get rid of all the Smith entourage?

Austin "Nanny" McPhee. Set-piece coach.

Brought in by the club in the summer, survived the Smith sacking and related coaching-staff cull along with Neil Cutler, the goalkeeping coach who has also remained in-situ.

[eamonn]

I blame our shit record against Brentford on Dean Smith. It all started with his team first nicking a draw against us at Villa Park in our first season in Serie B before schooling us in the return game and since then we've given them too much respect any time we've come up against them.

[Axl Rose]

Too many average players ambling around.

Tried to watch some of the game, found it incredibly tedious. Brentford fouling, fouling, fouling. Us with a lot of slow, tedious passing and poor decision making. Midfield is a massively average area for us.

Got bored, turned it off.

[ROBBO]

For forty minutes we dominated them. they score against the run of play and heads drop. I didn't understand Triore starting as he was out for so long and would be short of match practice, he was poor when he came on a few days ago and was probably worse today. Agree with most that we are short of genuine quality across the park, I look forward to a clear out of players who have been given every chance, I include Doug in that list. Give me a few that hate to lose.

[Des Little]

Whos that coach that need a haircut that is always standing around murmuring in the ear to our head coach whenever we play like shit?
Was the same with the last days of smith and when Gerrad came in he was sitting down in the background. Now he is back and yapping, pointing and giving directions like he was head coach or his assistant.
Didnt we get rid of all the Smith entourage?

Austin "Nanny" McPhee. Set-piece coach.

Brought in by the club in the summer, survived the Smith sacking and related coaching-staff cull along with Neil Cutler, the goalkeeping coach who has also remained in-situ.

Would it be McPhee that coached us to try and pick out Buendia at the far post from a free kick like yesterday? Hopeless.

[PaulTheVillan]

Whos that coach that need a haircut that is always standing around murmuring in the ear to our head coach whenever we play like shit?
Was the same with the last days of smith and when Gerrad came in he was sitting down in the background. Now he is back and yapping, pointing and giving directions like he was head coach or his assistant.
Didnt we get rid of all the Smith entourage?

Austin "Nanny" McPhee. Set-piece coach.

Brought in by the club in the summer, survived the Smith sacking and related coaching-staff cull along with Neil Cutler, the goalkeeping coach who has also remained in-situ.

Would it be McPhee that coached us to try and pick out Buendia at the far post from a free kick like yesterday? Hopeless.

Sometimes I feel like he can try and coach all he wants but when Luiz is putting in terrible corners then it’s a total waste of time.

[Luke8]

I think it’s always hard to comment on coaches when in reality we see so little of what they do. Have to just trust that the manager feels they are contributing really.

We’ve also, off the top of my head, scored three goals and conceded none from set pieces in the last eight games so, from that very basic metric, it seems like he is making at least a reasonable contribution.