The Beesotted posse assembled at Lovesport HQ to pick the bones over the Bees’ defeat at Nottingham Forest at the weekend, and discuss the Thomas Frank chatter on social media – we hear from the fans after the final whistle at the City Ground, as well as the Brentford head coach himself.
There’s some really interesting and contrasting thoughts on where Thomas Frank is taking this squad, and the start to the season so far, and we’d be interested in hearing your views too, either as a comment to this post of via Twitter @beesotted.
We also discuss a great new book that focuses on the great Harry Curtis – Brentford’s finest ever manager.
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Agree strongly with The Robin Hood regarding the woeful set pieces. Actually Thomas Frank mentioned this in his post Forest round up. I will add to woeful set pieces by mentioning our woeful shooting as well. Canos (one of our best olayers this season) can’t hit a barn door from 5 yards out, and Benrahma the same.
I’ll level a little cricism as Frank. Why has it taken so long to start integrating Mokoto post African Nations cup? Plenty other African players went and were integrated back into their clubs quickly.
I think the pre season was a bit of a mess. Partly the uncertainty around players, but some where alk the B team were played; no opportunity for getting contunuity.
Finally, we have a few interesting players that haven’t had a chance yet. Maybe Valencia, who doesn’t necessarily have to play down the flank. He looked pretty creative in the Polish clips I’ve seen, and was match ready having been playing in pre Euro qualifiers.
I’m not quite sure we are getting the best out of the players we have….
I’m going to try to be really objective and fair. Last season we were watching a team that may not have been the finished article, but were often exciting to watch particularly at home. Away from home they were very poor. I have been to see Brentford about 6 times this season and feel we probably have raised our expectations too high. This is such a tough league both in terms of the number of games and the physicality of the players. We can on occasion still play very good football, but very often we don’t. I think there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly we are not that good. We still have a number of players who have either not yet settled into the hurly burly of the Championship or just cannot live with the physicality of this league. We miss a proper center forward. Watkins in my view is not the answer. We are ‘light’ in midfield and miss Sawyers consistent and imposing performances. I suspect due to the leaking of so many poor goals last season Frank has concentrated on our defence at the cost of our midfield and attack. I do believe Frank should shoulder some portion of responsibility for our current situation. I am not sure how good he is tactically and sometimes despair with his use of the word ‘bang on’ and ‘clicking’ fingers. I worry that he has preferences for certain players. Leaving Said and Mokotjo on the bench this week was a worry. So Summing up I think it is going to take a good while longer and perhaps some new blood to get this team to where our expectations lie. I really like the way the club is set up in the broader picture and I have an ultimate belief that we will be play off contenders, if not this season then within a couple of years.