Brentford’s Transition – For Better Or For Worse?
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A couple of useful comparisons which do give some perspective, it’s a shame that a wider sample isn’t possible, to include the likes of Barbet / KK etc. Also worth considering that Ryan Woods has had to do a job in an unfamiliar wide position at times, i’m sure without this accommodation he would compare to JD even more favourably.
I’ve had my criticisms this season, but nobody can honestly say that Woods, Colin and now Barbet have been poor signings – far from it.
For me the deficiencies have been elsewhere, the loss of pace and direct running throughout the side (Moses, Dallas, Gray) and the loss of the creative talents and goals of Pritchard and Jota. The side of 14/15 set a very high benchmark which will be hard to emulate. My hope is that we can find players that are able to take more of the chances we create, and for us to be tighter defensively at the same time. Do this and we’ll be a very good side.
Is the author suggesting with his ‘poultry’ description that he thinks Gray was a bit of a turkey? Strange view if so.
Absolutely not, not sure how you’ve drawn that conclusion from the article. The piece is about success is measured by more than results and by looking at bit deeper you can see that the system may be getting results.
Gray was very good for us and has been exceptional for Burnley. Nowhere in the article does it suggest he was a turkey at all.
You can ignore my last comment, as you can also ignore my rather alternative spelling of Paltry 🙂
There is one glaring problem that Brentford had last season and has continued this season – the defence ships far too many goals. The reality is that unless the defence works well as a cohesive effective unit and goals conceded are close to 30 per season and certainly no more than 35 then promotion is a bit of a pipe dream – no matter how many goals are scored. It is unlikely that the top scoring teams in the Championship will score many more than 70 goals, so the simple fact is that Brentford MUST concede less goals to have a realistic chance of gaining promotion and staying in the Premier League.
Therefore whilst the statistical comparison of players is relevant and correct the players must be a more cohesive unit that will break down and repel attacks better than now – to be more effective in preventing goals scored against. I have no doubt that one of the key strengths of Dean Smith is his ability to build such a defence because without that Brentford will at best be one of the chasing pack on the fringes of the top 6.
I will bore you with a couple more statistics:
– Brentford lost 9 games by 1 goal this season. If, in 50% of those games Brentford had not conceded a goal, say 4 games, there would have been 4 extra points gained.
– Brentford drew 7 games. Again if in 50% of those games Brentford had conceded one less goal, say 3 games, there would have been 6 extra points gained.
Based upon the above comments re a tighter defence and assuming Brentford had in fact managed to gain an extra 10 points by reducing the goals conceded to 52 then Brentford would be on 63 points and so much closer to the six.
Imagine where Brentford would be this season if then, the defence had only shipped 35 goals so far this season.
So……next season, hold goals conceded to 35 and Brentford will be champions and gain automatic promotion.
There really has been an enormous amount of progress under Benham – and it continues…..