Brentford v Derby County

[lukedcfc]

Not long back good atmosphere credit to our fans again. The performance on the other hand was not good enough it must be said. Brentfords goals should have been dealt with especially the 1st which was poor defending. The mac got it wrong today eustace should start away games. Glad this blip is happeneing early, but I hope it doesn't affect our confidence.

Butland - No chance with both goals but his distribution is woeful. Who is telling him to boot it into the stand all the time?

Christie - Not very good today

Keogh - Best defender again

Bucko - Played ok

Forsyth - Good cross for our goal but not very good overall again

Russell - Ran his socks off again and looked up for it

Bryson - Anonymous all game

Macarell - Played ok and passed it well but can't defend at all

Hendrick - Poor game looked slow and tired

Dawkins - Kept it well didn't do much he's inconsistent

Martin - Another goal but overall didn't see much from him

Ibe - did ok when he came on but like every game he gave it away too much. His mistake lead to the 2nd goal I think.

Hughes - Why isn't he starting. We played a lot better whe he came on.

Coutts - some decent touches good for him to get more minutes

[Thorne]

6 goals in 3 games conceded too.

[strawhillram]

Disappointing result. Performance average. Not incisive, not enough tempo. Brentford showed both of those qualities in second half. Ist half they showed us too much respect.

Teams know how to close us down and prevent our build up play. we eed to put in a shift and work hard for 95 mins every game. And not assume we are the better team.

Bad day at the office . Again

[top 6 finish]

Got back from "The Wristslashers".The verdict is that too many clubs are abandoning hoofball

 

and playing our game and doing it better or at least matching us enough to panic us enough to

 

put us off our game.We have to up our game and strengthen in the new year transfer window

 

or else promotion won't happen.We need an infusion of at least a couple of class players.

[Guest]

Only watched Derby 4 times this season so far including today and each time we've been pretty poor and has left me wondering how on earth we've managed to lead the the table. Very disappointing and unless there is some consistency in our play then I can't realistically see how we can be promotion contenders

[peakram]

We cant keep playing Buckland again if all he keeps doing is kicking it straight out, might as well write off the time till he goes back to Stoke if this is going to be the case, we will be about half way up by then the way things are going.

[Srg]

Only watched Derby 4 times this season so far including today and each time we've been pretty poor and has left me wondering how on earth we've managed to lead the the table. Very disappointing and unless there is some consistency in our play then I can't realistically see how we can be promotion contenders

Knew exactly where that was going when you said you'd only seen us play 4 times.

Can Buxton get injured again? Flukey or not, I liked the clean sheets.

[Ambitious]

Bad result; really bad result considering the month we have. 

 

We're likely to drop out the play-offs this month, I just hope we don't lose sight on what makes us so good. 

 

We need to get back on track. Huddersfield is a big game now, they'll come here and know they can win. If we lose that then we're out the play-offs. We've also got Wolves and Watford this month - worrying.

[Ovis aries]

Bad result; really bad result considering the month we have. 

 

We're likely to drop out the play-offs this month, I just hope we don't lose sight on what makes us so good. 

 

We need to get back on track. Huddersfield is a big game now, they'll come here and know they can win. If we lose that then we're out the play-offs. We've also got Wolves and Watford this month - worrying.

Fact is if we do not do well in those games it will be because we are not good enough.

[Alph]

Said it loads of times. Hughes can do what neither Hendrick nor Bryson can.

When we're having an erratic few moments and losing control a bit, if Hughes isn't there then neither of those can restore order.

8 times in 10 if Hughes is on the pitch then we have control for the majority of the game. It goes wrong when he's below his average or he's not playing.

Has to play.

We miss him less against inferior opponents because they struggle for control anyway. But any team that's comfortable under a bit of pressing then he'll be needed.

It's the only change McClaren makes sometimes that I argue with.

Today, away at side comfortable on the ball with a good home record?

Soon as I saw Bryson and Hendrick I was slightly worried.

How many appearances did those two make together under Nigel? They struggle to regain control when they lose it. They don't see the patterns. They can't consistently pick the right pass. They can panic. They just haven't got that picture of all that's going on.

There's 3 players that are untouchable imo. Grant, Hughes and Martin. That's control right down the spine.

No panic, we'll still be fine. Just play Hughes. He's better than the other two

[Ovis aries]

Do you think maybe that Mac keeps chopping and changing depending on who we are playing , instead of picking our best side and letting the opposition worry about us, as he did last season.

I know he has different personnel and maybe he thinks he has to change his approach .

[Ovis aries]

We cant keep playing Buckland again if all he keeps doing is kicking it straight out, might as well write off the time till he goes back to Stoke if this is going to be the case, we will be about half way up by then the way things are going.

Thought we had the best goalkeeping coach in football ?

[peakram]

I think it was Steele's idea to bring Buckland in wasn't it, its disappointing he was still kicking it straight out as that was the first thing I would be working on round the clock after the Wigan game to make sure it was somewhere near acceptable for the following week, no excuse for it to still be happening a week later, and probably now on Tuesday as well as seems we will be committed to playing him for the duration of his loan I'd guess.

[EastKentRam]

Agree with Alpha, Hughes has to play, he done more with the ball in the time he played than Hendrick and Bryson did all game.

Dawkins and Martin done OK, Russell pretty anonymous.

Bit unsure about Mascarell in this holding mid role. I don't really think he knows where he should be a lot of the time. Today definitely showed he's a hot head with some of the fouls he made. Hasn't got the nous for the position imo despite obviously being far more talented than eustace.

Overall, deserved a point and was a bit unfortunate with the second goal I think. Ball in the box was pure fluke how it ended up where it did, and can't do much about that finish.

[shakey]

Just back from game. Agree with Hughes comments ... We were significantly better after we bought him on.

[Rambling]

Said it loads of times. Hughes can do what neither Hendrick nor Bryson can.

When we're having an erratic few moments and losing control a bit, if Hughes isn't there then neither of those can restore order.

8 times in 10 if Hughes is on the pitch then we have control for the majority of the game. It goes wrong when he's below his average or he's not playing.

Has to play.

We miss him less against inferior opponents because they struggle for control anyway. But any team that's comfortable under a bit of pressing then he'll be needed.

It's the only change McClaren makes sometimes that I argue with.

Today, away at side comfortable on the ball with a good home record?

Soon as I saw Bryson and Hendrick I was slightly worried.

How many appearances did those two make together under Nigel? They struggle to regain control when they lose it. They don't see the patterns. They can't consistently pick the right pass. They can panic. They just haven't got that picture of all that's going on.

There's 3 players that are untouchable imo. Grant, Hughes and Martin. That's control right down the spine.

No panic, we'll still be fine. Just play Hughes. He's better than the other two

Spot on Hughes has to play he's our creative spark in midfield that makes things happen....

 

Mac's problem for me is that he'd like to play Hendrick, Hughes & Bryson.... (+ CDM), we seem to play our best when the decision on one of those 3 is forced upon us, e.g. Hendrick injured recently = good run of results with Bryson & Hughes knowing they were playing almost a full 90, a tough decision to make as all 3 are good to have in any team

 

We had a stuttering start to the season until we realised that the Eustace type player we were looking for was... John Eustace (Until Thorne returns) and he needs to play with Hughes and either Hendick or Bryson (Bryson for me)...

 

We are the best footballing team in this division and this is the best opportunity we've had for ages to go straight up, a settled team and confidence in what we can do will see us home.. no need to panic just stick to what we are good at with the players who can do it

[Anag Ram]

Hughes is still young and every week is targeted by the opposition. If we play him in every game, we will ruin him. The team's challenge is to learn from him and to demand the ball. 

No-one has his touch and calmness on the ball, but keeping possession has been our strong point for a couple of seasons now. Hendrick and Bryson have to use their fitness to support Martin, make sure he gets it to feet and be there to get the return. I'm afraid that despite have a bucket load of wingers, we still don't have one who is truly effective on a regular basis. 

All of them are happier moving infield and that sometimes stifles Martin's effectiveness. Of the ones we have, Russell seems to have the best relationship with Martin and he's worth picking for that reason alone.

[ariotofmyown]

I was in the Brentford End so perhaps had a different perspective from the rest of our fans. It was also difficult to see what was going on with our defending 2nd half as I was quite low down.

We looked the much better side in the first half. Lots of joy making things happen down the left with Forsyth and Dawkins. My Brentford mate was annoyed with Gray up front for them as Buxton won everything. Our fans were making lots of noise and we looked like a top of the league side.

We then started the 2nd half well and were perhaps trying to kill them off too quickly and got caught massively on the break when Forsyth was attacking. There should have been more cover but it happens when you are an attacking team.

This revitalised Brentford and they started to get a grip on the game. Both teams were up for 3 points and it could have gone either way. Surprised Dawks was subbed off but Ibe did very well and unlucky not to score. We looked better with Hughes and his control.

There were chances for both teams, our best one was when Martin was through on goal but the defender managed to block him/hold him. A few of our players were going crazy for a pen.

I though the ref did pretty well om the whole, especially when it got feisty towards the end. My mate saw the Martin off the ball incident and reckoned there was a slight tangle abd their guy made a meal of it.

We could have easily nicked it and the forum would have been elated. Instead, a great strike by them won it and we've lost 2 on the bounce. No one ever said it was going to be easy.

Ps sorry to mention this but I thought our fans could have given more in 2nd half.

[eddie]

The only comment I will make is that the seats could do with a tad more legroom.

[Alph]

Do you think maybe that Mac keeps chopping and changing depending on who we are playing , instead of picking our best side and letting the opposition worry about us, as he did last season.

I know he has different personnel and maybe he thinks he has to change his approach .

I think he likes Hendrick's power and his aggression and he likes Bryson's energy where he can go and support the play wherever the ball is for the full 90.

They can both score goals. One by running early beyond Martin and the other by arriving late.

You can see why he likes them can't you? But neither can do the clever bit that enables all that though.

I'd be surprised if Hughes doesn't start the majority of games from now. Be crazy if he doesn't start vs Wolves who will be happy to sit on the ball and probe. We don't want that!