Brentford Need More Steel To Toughen Up Their Soft Underbelly

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6 Comments

Brighton Bee on November 29, 2017 at 12:26 am

I couldn’t agree more with you Jim about a seasoned pro, well schooled in the dark arts. I have been saying all season that we need a grizzled, seasoned professional to cajole and inspire the younger players whilst at the same time knowing when to leave his foot in to protect them and stop the opposition from getting above themselves. To my mind, we have still to adequately replace Douglas and McCormack.

David Carney on November 29, 2017 at 8:36 am

I think you are off target for once. What is missing is leadership on the field from two or three players that have expressed aspirations for the captaincy and responsibility. That small group needs to stand up and lead the team both by example and instruction. There is no lack of ability in the Brentford playing group but from where I see it no one is standing up on the field of combat to lead the players.
18 points is a lot to lose through lack of on field leadership. I have no doubt they have all been drilled by the coaches, all players obviously want to respond, but there must be leaders who will stand up and set the example.
This one is down to the players and they need to collectively look in the mirror and overcome the problem.

grevillewaterman on November 29, 2017 at 8:40 am

There area lot of us who have been saying the same thing ever since we were promoted back in 2014. Nothing seems to change. I once wrote a blog contrasting the strength of our midfielders to Bradley Johnson and the comparison “Pitbulls and Chihuahuas” was not well received by the club!

I think we can go on until we are blue in the face and that nothing much will really change. We have our style – memorably described as “The Brentford Way” on Monday by Mokotjo and that is how we are going to keep on playing come hell or high water.

I am sure that Dean Smith talks to them all the time about game management and I doubt if we will see many more long corners when we are winning deep into injury time but the style is set. We play with a quick tempo, the goalkeeper distributes the ball as quickly a possible and we go relentlessly forward.

The type of player we sign will also not change much – young, promising raw and wet behind the ears as that is what we can afford. We might sign the odd older player to help set an example as I doubt if either Bjelland or Vibe will remain after the end of this season (if not before). Maybe one of them might provide some leadership if the right player with the correct skill set can be identified at the right price (ideally a Bosman free),

I believe we have made an error in putting so much trust in Egan as I do not see him as a long term solution unless he really kicks on and I am sure he tries to lead by example rather than by force of personality.

WE have no idea what goes on ion the dressing room or at the training ground but there certainly does not seem to be an natural leader amongst the squad Perhaps Woods at a pinch – who knows – and we will just have to wait for one hopefully to emerge.

So there we are, we will continue to both delight and frustrate and hopefully learn the odd lesson along the way but I do not see much really changing.

Charlie the bee on November 29, 2017 at 9:15 am

Spot on the loss of Alan McCormack and Johnathan Douglas in recent times has never been replaced with an up and at em player maybe it will come from the inner anger the players will feel after Monday come on you bees

BORU on November 30, 2017 at 2:02 am

Next match; Fulham, great result at The Blades. A draw, at least, maybe a win for Fulham.
BFC; very inconsistent team, can’t trust them to get a result, from one game to the next, which is a shame, given the individual talents of some of the players.
Smith, not tough enough to progress; blog silly to attack Cardiff and their management, for success. Just sour grapes.

Adrian on November 30, 2017 at 7:33 pm

I hesitate to say this, but I believe much of our troubles (not really troubles, given where we are and the available budget) may be in the goal keeping area. We have conceded roughly half of the shots that have been on target in the championship this season. Given that quite a few of those will have been blocked and not saved, that means that our keeper is saving well under half of the on target shots. When you add to that the dropped crosses and seeming lack of confidence to come off his line and dominate the area, this is not a happy picture. There are many really good aspects of Daniel Bentley’s game, such as distribution and the occasional blinding performance, but overall, really since the latter part of last season, his errors have been frequent and quite costly.

Daniel Bentley has huge potential, but at the moment is costing the Bees a lot of points. There are of course other issues in the defence, as highlighted in other comments and with which I agree, but with an error prone goal keeper, these issues are made even worse.