Whether or not you agree, or joined in with, the boos that echoed around Griffin Park at the final whistle, it would be fair to say that the loud din and insult hurling encapsulated the feelings of frustration and disappointment among many fans at Griffin Park yesterday afternoon.
The win at Coventry last weekend had blown away the cobwebs it seemed, raising hopes that the team could kick-on and put a run of successive wins together – yet more tinkering with the team, and another below par performance, has caused more head scratching than a scalp full of lice.
Everyone was asking the same questions before kick-off: Why change a winning team? Why play McCormack on the wing when you have Fillo on the bench (and Dallas at Northampton)? Why drop Richard Lee? Why play Trotta when you’ve just shelled out £500k on Grigg?
Yes, there are no doubt answers to all of those questions, and at the end of the day, Uwe Rosler is rightfully the man who picks the team, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to make sense of the constant urge to change. Especially as there are clear consequences. I don’t think the players know how they are expected to play… there is no definable ‘Brentford style’ (both problems that lead to Andy Scott’s ultimate departure) and it is a self perpetuating spiral… changes that don’t work lead to more changes the following week, with stability and consistency flying out the window.
Rotherham were well organized, worked (and fouled) their socks off, but in truth, were nothing special – yet Brentford would have been fortunate to have taken a point from the fixture. There was no width to the Bees, and despite another first class display from Adam Forshaw, he was played too deep and his sharpness and vision were just not matched by his teammates’ further up field.
Maybe there lies a cause for one of the unfathomable ‘why aren’t things clicking this season’ conundrums – perhaps the forwards aren’t making the cleaver runs that Forshaw is capable of delivering to – are we too predictable up front? Trotta was given a full half, as was Will Grigg, but neither looked a real threat. How can that be? The Bees failed to score in their third-successive home game, a fact that points to either lessons not being learned, or the players that have been brought in, who have been described has possessing the extra ‘magic’ to unlock stubborn defences, aren’t quite as good as they would have us believe.
The game’s only goal came with a little under 15 minutes played – the Bees’ defence failing to cope with a cross into the area, which allowed Mark Bradley to head home from close range. Yes, the goal came against the run of play – but that is another familiar story.
Uwe Rosler spoke honestly after the match and took full responsibility for the defeat and his team changes (he took responsibility but didn’t explain the rationale) – but more worryingly his admission of the side’s inability to match teams like Rotherham physically is puzzling me. “We are failing to compete physically and making stupid mistakes,” the Bees boss said. Perhaps there lies another problem; we are in the third tier of English football, not La Liga.
It feels like some have been brainwashed into almost sneering at ‘workmanlike’ teams, as if we are some lar-de-dar football purists who are above rolling up our sleeves and battling for three points. But it wasn’t even as if we played delightful football yesterday and were just undone by one sucker punch… Brentford were very, very average. Which leads us back to the boos.
Now is not a time to consider big knee-jerk sackings, Uwe is a hugely likeable manager who will no doubt achieve great things in the game, hopefully with Brentford, but he is giving more and more ammunition to those growing band of fans who have had enough already. Because the fact is that, for whatever reason that nobody can quite put their finger on, Uwe’s team is seemingly unable to produce the level of performance or results they capable of this term.
Rosler is a very intelligent, tenacious and ambitious man, one who is capable of putting this bad patch behind him and resurrecting our promotion hopes – that League push starts all over again at Stevenage next Saturday – with a very awkward fixture at Peterborough in midweek.
This is a very big week for Uwe.
Dave Lane
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