Postivie pre-match: Neto back. Negative pre-match: Solanke out. I had a rant on here last season (or maybe the one before) about the amount of players we always have out. We went into the World Cup break with a slate of injuries, and somehow came back with more. Since then it's like it's one in, one out to the physio's room. Lewis Cook going off in the first half may mean we get another player back for Forest... If Foley wants to look at something that could do with immediate US expertise, perhaps it's our injuries as they've been an ongoing issue for many seasons now.
The Brentford bench were acting like a complete bunch of cocks again in the first half. Looks like it's standard behaviour when they play at home. Also, classy from the Brentford fans booing a player getting subbed off injured in the first half.
The good news is we didn't concede from a set piece. The bad news was that we reverted back to instead giving away a penalty. Most goals conceded from set pieces in the PL this season? Us with 11. The next worst team only has 7. Most penalties conceded in the PL this season? Us joint top on 6.
As for the award of then pen, Senesi was stupid. He made the first grab at Ivan Benjamin Elijah Toney (IBET)'s shirt, IBET then used his arm to keep it there and when Senesi was spun around instead of stumbling to the ground he reached out with his other arm so it looked like he had dragged IBET down. Slightly cheaty from IBET, but if Senesi wants to be a PL player he has to expect that. Throwing his other arm out was rank idiocy. It went from a free kick to us, to a pen to them.
I tried to think of a word to describe us. What single word sums up what we look like out there under GON. Drab. There is nothing exciting about us.
Trying to find some positive... we looked mildly more organised at the back.
Going forward though, we're offering nothing. There's no structure to try and overload or break things down. I looked at Anthony on the ball just past the halfway line in the first 45 mins and he had nobody around him, nothing to aim for. No runners. No support. At one point near the box in the second half he had to try and beat four defenders as there was nobody else near him, and when the ball fortuitously ricocheted to Moore in the box he fluffed his control. When a winger has to beat four men to try and get a cross in, the problem isn't the winger.
Having played almost exclusively down the left when we did venture forward, Dembele came on. Immediately he did two dangerous things and injected pace. We responded by switching to playing almost exclusively down the right. I'm going to glue a wig on this evening so I've got some hair to tear out.
Individually players are putting in effort but there's no group-think. No hunting in packs. One player will tear after the ball whilst those around him amble about. It's often mentioned the way to combat a disparity in quality is through hard work, but it isn't that alone. It needs intelligent hard work as part of structured teamwork. We'd be graded U in our GCSE Football Tactics the way we're going about it at the moment.
I looked at Brentford swinging in a cross with three or four men in the box. Then I saw us do it with one man in the box, against four defenders. Everyone seems to want to hover around the edge of the penalty area. There's nobody taking the chance, making that run, supporting the striker, pulling defenders out of position. Have they been told that they might leave a gap that exposes us to a breakaway and so not to do it? I've no idea, but I can't recall the last time I saw a team so full of players who seem so uneager to score themselves.
Brentford a decent side at the moment, in some very good form. They were **************** tonight by their standards. And they cruised to a 2-0 victory against us. Yet another team who we haven't given a game to when an opportunity arose.
Special mention to Kelly for one of the most random and pointless hoofed backpasses I can recall seeing. If anything tells the story of how much intent we have to get forward at the moment, it was that.
Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab. Drab.
--- Positive performances ---
Nobody stood out. I mean, it wasn't that they were all terrible but I can't say that anybody was good and worthy of a special mention.
--- Room for improvement ---
Stacey - Didn't look especially comfortable defending and times he did get forward the quality was poor.
Billing - He didn't have an anonymous night. He was actually pretty involved when we went forward. However, his touch and passing were so awry things usually came grinding to a halt when he got on the ball.
To be honest, there weren't any absolute howlers out there either. Pretty much everyone was just a bit below standard without being horrific individually. You can carry a few of those in a game, but when it's spread like norovirus across the whole team then you're in trouble. And it doesn't look or smell pretty.
--- GON watch --
He's got to go. Sorry but I didn't want him appointed and he's managed to undershoot even my worst fears. We look clueless going forward. There's no identifiable plan. No team ethic. No belief. Nobody wanting to take risks. No intent. Nothing I can point to and say "He's improved that", but a lot I can point to and say "We've gone backwards there". I look at us and I see a bunch of players who think they're already down, and that they're being led by a manager who doesn't know what he is doing.
Our worst run of results since pre-Redknapp. The lowest average number of shots on goal per game since the PL started recording that stat in 1997. And the problem is I don't see any green shoots that tell me things will change. There's nothing to build on. It's looks like Parker left after the last game and we're still trying to work out what we should be doing.
If GON is still going to be in charge next week, any chance someone could nip down the stadium on Friday and knock off a few of the signs so we can get it called off again?