7 hours ago, drjonesy1994 said:

Doom and gloomers out in full force tonight it seems. This was always going to be a tricky game, we weathered their early pressure and then settled into the game. Kepa made 2 big saves in the first half, really encouraging to see his form at the moment. I don’t know who Spain’s number 1 is but Kepa not doing himself any harm for the World Cup. 

Broja looked good but decision making let him down I felt. Think he was trying too hard to score on his own. Maybe Auba would have took one of those chances or put it on a plate for someone else, but was impressed with Broja nonetheless. 

Havertz was poor. Less said the better there. 
 

Thought we looked much better after all the subs. Pulisic and Chuks I thought done well when they came on, Sterling is arguably one of the best wingers in the league. Must be annoying he keeps getting shunted to play wing back. He needs to be as high up the pitch as possible. 
 

We really went for it in the last 25-30 mins and Brentford defended really well. I thought a draw was probably the fair result overall but certainly don’t see it as negatively as some on here. 

 

Just about how I saw it. Hard local derby, we weathered their attacks and by virtue of the bench we grew stronger as the minutes ticked on. Unfortunately we had to rotate heavily, which will disrupt overall play , given our heavy match schedule and having f**ked up the first two CL games. I thought Chucky on the night showed he has something about him, hope to see more of him. Broja had a decent full debut, though is very raw, his left foot needs work and decision making improved…we should have used his pace more by being more direct. The one thing we are missing though is a creative midfielder, who sees the pass executes it before there is time for the opponent to react.

After this performance, GP will probably be accused of too much rotation or not knowing his best side, but with the number of games we have to fit in before the World Cup break, rotation is essential if he is not to burn out some of the starters. It honestly wasn't great last night and I am still concerned by the lack of real firepower in the final third. But only a few months ago TT and Chelsea lost 1-4 at home to Brentford and Brentford were again the better team so I think a point is about fair. Having watched the highlights of Utd v Spurs, I am slightly more worried about the United game on Saturday. They looked very good, their work rate was very high, their pressing colossal and their football fast and flowing. Saturday is going to be another very tough game.

This was always going to be a tough match. We are in the middle of a heavy run of games. We could well have won it in the last ten minutes or so,. However another clean sheet is a positive.

xG had Brentford at 1.45 and us at 0.56, which supports what was said in a previous post about this being a point gained rather than two points dropped.

Potter still feeling his way I guess.

Think we are stuck with Havertz, as I can't see any other club matching what we are paying him ...

Havertz really is an enigma. There is a very good footballer in there somewhere, but how many chances doe we give him to prove it? I can't remember a really good performance for a long while.

11 hours ago, Gol15 said:

We won cause we were better, in fact we won 3 times in a row against Man City at that time period so it has nothing to do with Pep, we were better than them.

not in all 3.. Aguero missed a penalty and Sterling wasnt given one in the same match when zouma wrestled him if my memory serves me right.

2 hours ago, erskblue said:

This was always going to be a tough match. We are in the middle of a heavy run of games. We could well have won it in the last ten minutes or so,. However another clean sheet is a positive.

I think pretty much every game is going to be a tough match for us. I think we are currently at the level of a mid to upper quartile team and therefore pretty much all games are going to be tough. Relegation fodder will fight us and top 4 - 6 will have more about them or have more confidence. Until we gain some confient momentum in our domestic league matches every game will look tough on paper.

I don't blame Potter rotating at all. 

I do blame him for starting and keeping Havertz on the pitch when we had a genuine chance of winning it in the second half. 

5 hours ago, coombsie said:

Havertz really is an enigma. There is a very good footballer in there somewhere, but how many chances doe we give him to prove it? I can't remember a really good performance for a long while.

Not sure there is. At his very best he's the equivalent to 2017 Dele Alli. 

8 hours ago, Jangz said:

not in all 3.. Aguero missed a penalty and Sterling wasnt given one in the same match when zouma wrestled him if my memory serves me right.

You sound like a deluded Man City fan, I couldn't care less if they missed one penalty in 1 match, Werner had 2 clear cut chances in the CL final in the first 25 minutes of the game, we could have had an easy 3:0 at half time and we won 3 matches in a row with Pep playing with different players so the fact remains he tried all he could and he ended up with L L L

Edited October 20, 20223 yr by Gol15

Still disappointed with the modern way of trying to score without giving the ball away. We had a target man last night, but we play triangles outside the box wide without crossing. If we hit the far post every now and then we have a chance of scoring or recycling the ball on the other side we can impose pressure a different way.

20 hours ago, USATim said:

Dude could score twenty and you would say he sucks. Kind of shoots any credibility you have when you can't acknowledge when someone plays well. Called hating. You are the best I have ever seen at it. And it's one of your own, which makes you a very sad individual. 

I think Hazardous is just pressing buttons, he's very good at it , and if you don't take  him too seriously, he's quite funny

20 hours ago, HazardousChoice said:

We wish.  It takes him 4 seasons to score that many!

I haven't criticised Pulisic today, he wasn't bad but it simply wasn't a good performance by any metric.  Standards are rock bottom amongst anyone who would argue otherwise.

I'd say you'd praise Pulisic every game he managed to keep his balance but given you praised him after the Southampton game even that's not a requirement apparently!

I sa t near a bloke who was obsessed with Rocastle in a Cup winners game I think. He focused on him all game even when he was nowhere near the ball he was doing something wrong apparently.

Wasn't you was it ?

22 hours ago, axman2526 said:

That was a boring game. Don't think we made a single clear cut chance.

Poor final balls in to the forwards, and poor choices made by the forwards when they got in to any decent position.

Our production out wide was useless as well. Between Cucurella, Sterling and RLC they offered no attacking quality.

Disappointed to see the normal effort but Broja offer no quality or cutting edge.

Well a point is better than a 4-1 loss eh? Lol

For a 0-0, I don;t think it was boring. We were frustrating yes, but it was quite a good game of football, especially later on with subs up against tired legs and it was very end to end with a fair few chances.

Happily take a point at a tough ground to go to and Brentford will be difficult opponents for many. IF we had a midfielder who could play the killer through ball or if we had a half decent attacker rather than the totally ineffective Havertz, we would have come away with all 3 points. Still some good performances- Chalobah, Broja, Pulicic and Carney. 

Thought Broja did well enough but very raw and I think for now, he is a better option to throw on for 30 minutes against tired defenders, rather than starting. Carney looked very exciting but looked tired by the end and clearly needs more minutes and to improve fitness. Pulicic showed what he can do when he has his mojo. Was great to see him run with the ball and take players on and try and get into the box, where our other attackers seem to have a phobia of the opposition box. At least the subs who did well will have given Potter thoughts for selection in upcoming matches. 

35 minutes ago, Nibs said:

For a 0-0, I don;t think it was boring. We were frustrating yes, but it was quite a good game of football, especially later on with subs up against tired legs and it was very end to end with a fair few chances.

Happily take a point at a tough ground to go to and Brentford will be difficult opponents for many. IF we had a midfielder who could play the killer through ball or if we had a half decent attacker rather than the totally ineffective Havertz, we would have come away with all 3 points. Still some good performances- Chalobah, Broja, Pulicic and Carney. 

Thought Broja did well enough but very raw and I think for now, he is a better option to throw on for 30 minutes against tired defenders, rather than starting. Carney looked very exciting but looked tired by the end and clearly needs more minutes and to improve fitness. Pulicic showed what he can do when he has his mojo. Was great to see him run with the ball and take players on and try and get into the box, where our other attackers seem to have a phobia of the opposition box. At least the subs who did well will have given Potter thoughts for selection in upcoming matches. 

Boring for me with out lack of ability to create decent chances for most of the game.

2 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

I think Hazardous is just pressing buttons, he's very good at it , and if you don't take  him too seriously, he's quite funny

I agree. He makes me laugh with everything he posts.

 

2 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

I think Hazardous is just pressing buttons, he's very good at it , and if you don't take  him too seriously, he's quite funny

Probably a likeable chap.  Would have a difficult time in the US.

19 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I think pretty much every game is going to be a tough match for us. I think we are currently at the level of a mid to upper quartile team and therefore pretty much all games are going to be tough. Relegation fodder will fight us and top 4 - 6 will have more about them or have more confidence. Until we gain some confient momentum in our domestic league matches every game will look tough on paper.

i also believe we have regressed quite a lot in midfield. At so many points in the previous few seasons one has felt we have become the arsenal of the early 2010s. Soft in the middle. We have neat footballers and good ball carriers but simply no bite. As a result we struggle the moment the game becomes physical.

Even against brentford it was the same problem.. we simply dont have the physicality. Yet season after season we havent fixed it - really surprising. Liverpool have Fabinho, City had Rodrigo and before that fernandinho, Madrid thrived with Casimiro  - we always had a Makka, Mikel, Matic when we did well.

Jorginho is great at what he does but we always struggle with him against fast paced teams. A simple case in point - early during the first half there was a counter and Jorginho got dragged out wide and completely roasted. As a result the team had to change tactics and our wide CBs had to start covering for him leaving huge gaps. KK looked horribly out of position all game - You can actually see him pointing to cover the wide midfield runner so many times. Wth Azpi as the 3rd CB if not for chalobah and kepa heroics we were vulnerable with almost every cross. 

Jorginho is a luxury that we cant afford his is the first position i would update the moment we get a chance.  While it is absolutely incorrect to say he is to blame for the 0-0, cause had our attackers done a better job of finishing we could have still won. But i also feel with him as a pivot we will never quite dominate consistently.

 

 

 

My favourite part of the whole game was the first shot on target by Ivan Toney 8 minutes in to the match.  

On 20/10/2022 at 05:05, axman2526 said:

If we don't have two players who can play well as a wingbacks then don't use a system that depends on wingbacks surley?

I think the more important question is why both Tuchel n Potter insist on playing this system. 

Surely potter n Tuchel are not stupid. We have tried back 4 formation under both but we kept going back to 343. 

Last time our manager didn't use back 5 as his primary formation. A lot of people here said that Rudiger and Christensen are championship level defender. 

 

Edited October 21, 20223 yr by Bob stark

On 20/10/2022 at 19:45, The Rising Sun said:

I sa t near a bloke who was obsessed with Rocastle in a Cup winners game I think. He focused on him all game even when he was nowhere near the ball he was doing something wrong apparently.

Wasn't you was it ?

Maybe he was nowhere near the ball because he was doing something wrong?

But no that wasn't me

Aston Villa have, so far, put 4 past Brentford. They are not that good, certainly defensively. We made them look good by how inept we are offensively.