Our performances so far this season have been poor, there’s no getting away from it.
Yes, we’ve mostly got the right results and I could happily live with that.
I haven’t looked at the table yet, but I think we’re 5th with a game in hand on at least a couple of the teams above us.
You quite simply can’t knock that.
But I think I’m in the majority when I say that it isn’t good enough.
Even though it’s very early in the season, I find it at least a little concerning that we can’t dominate what on paper ought to be inferior teams.
And I’ve seen nothing to convince me that we’ll be able to dominate teams more akin to our level either.
My big fear is that even if we were to get to a play-off final again this season (I really don’t believe we’re going to get automatic promotion as it stands) , we’d bottle it because of Bruce’s tactics, a la Fulham.
Which is where Brentford come in.
They play very good football and with our defence, I suspect they will be well capable of playing through us if they’re on their game.
There is the fact that we often tend to up our game against the better sides (and I’ve often wondered if a subdued atmosphere against lesser clubs mostly works against us) but Brentford are a bit of an exception and we have a very poor record against them.
There aren’t any major injury problems on either side, the usual apart.
So it mostly revolves around how Bruce is going to play this.
We all know that Bruce has criticised himself for not changing it up enough last season.
Yet it’s blindingly obvious that he also has massive favourites and he’s loathe to change them up.
I’d suggest Adomah is a good example.
Yes, he’s been great for us and you should stick with players who have done the business and give them every chance.
But there comes a time when a player needs taking out of the spotlight for a while.
Will Bruce do that with Adomah?
I very much doubt it.
So I don’t expect any changes really.
Which means I don’t see much change in how we approach the game either.
We’ll have a defence with players playing out of position in front of a dodgy goalie (when we let Steer go out on loan????).
With McGinn, we might well have the midfield sorted in the middle, with Grealish and Hourihane involved.
There’s still the nagging doubt about Kodjia, but scoring doesn’t seem the major issue.
It’s creating the chances in OPEN play, or rather, not, that concerns me.
I see Brentford definitely getting a goal.
Which puts us at a one goal disadvantage, because I worry that Bruce will try to contain Brentford and we might struggle to score.
Winning this would be a great result, even though it really shouldn’t be anything special, given that we’re at home.
And I’d go so far as to say that a draw will be a better result than that against Ipswich.
We really don’t want to see our home record go this early into the season.
I’m going for an optimistic 2-1, but more realistically predict a 1-1.
Which probably says a lot in itself.
The resources available to both clubs are incomparable, as much as we’ve been in trouble lately.
Game 4 of my predicted 10 or so.
We either keep scratching the results or Bruce changes his game.
Which only leaves him one option, I’d say.
Because I don’t see him changing anything much.
He doesn’t know any different.
McGinn seems way too deep to me.
Yes, Kodjia!
i knew he’d come good.
1-1
Finding form right when we need him to…
Goal Kodjia! Brilliant
stamp on mcGinn.
Dirty bastard.
Should have been red for Maupay – dirty bastard
best first half I can remember in a very long time.
Great game, up to now.
Said the same Badger, absolutely first class, keep that up all seasons we’re up.
If the ref isn’t advertising Specsavers then he should be!
Lol š
Impressive first half. Energy levels where we need to be if we are to win this game. High pressing as well. Possibly two red cards could have been given. Especially the one on McGinn was dreadful. Maybe a penalty we should have got too. I predicted 2-1 to Brentford but if we can maintain that tempo second half we should win. Still not convinced with defence when they break. Tuanzebe has done well to be fair.
Tuanzebe our best player, imo.
i think we have room on the right.
And McGinn will be pushed up.
Green?
Maybe, if Bruce has any confidence.
That stamp was disgusting and i hope it can be looked on after the event.
That has 5 match ban written all over it for me.
And I like to think it’s a man’s game!
wigan 2 up at stoke!
a pleasure to say good goalkeeping from nyland then
How often are we winning the scond ball?
This is the difference to me.
Whatever happens, we are scaring Brentford.
Green for Adomah.
Come on kid, turn it on.
Good reaction save from Nyland.
Unbelevable.
We suddenly stop winning the second ball and that dirty bastard scores.
Game over
He shouldn’t even be on the pitch.
RHM coming on for Whelan.
Was unlikely we could maintain the tempo throughout. We needed to score when on top early second half
Green is woeful
Jedi is not a CB
1 up top is proving to be a disaster with the amount of crosses we’ve put in
Going to be a bloody long season if Brucie continues to not address the obvious issues
Smash and grab by Brentford. We need to be more clinical. Final ball has been awful. Hopefully new signings will improve us. Game over though now no coming back in to this.
No f***ing justice – another stamp completely ignored by a crap ref more interested in booking for dissent or time wasting and the dirty sod scores the winning goal.
Iām completely pissed off with football.
Kodjia!
Get the fuck in!
Fucking yes!!!!!!!!!
(Sorry for the language). Mistakes were made, but that feels sort of like a win as we’d have been cheated by a dirty wanker. Resilience!!!!
The Scum lost too!š
What a game!
Dog walking time and my thoughts later.
I’m happy š
Off Dogging Badger?
Dog walking mate.
I’m past that stuff š
We deserved at least a draw. Best performance so far although defence needs addressing. Officials are poor in this league. Time for VAR because they miss every vital decisions. Good to see Kodja getting amongst the goals again. We do seem to have shown more resilience this season.
Fantastic game! If Brentford keep that up they’ll be there or thereabouts. Even though it was a draw Villa played some great football Jack and McGinn were immense and best of all Kodjia’s back.
Looks like we’ve got two loanees as well so things are looking up.
Happy too
My nerves have gone, he’s me kicking the cat because we have lost it then we score had to pick the cat up and opoligise, well I would have done if we had a cat, what a game ,Was it Hutton or was it our other defender, Jedi is not a CB to many gaps in our defence, this is where J T would have helped us. a draw is what I said .have to say we ripped them apart in the first half but paid the price with us not scoring from corners.still we didn’t lose.