Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
lake district canary

The Brentford Goal

Recommended Posts

Bit late I know, but I just looked at their first goal again and it was ridiculous - not cos of Whitt''s mistake - but the space behind him was frightening.  The gap behind Whittaker was right across the field to the half way line where Cuellar and Turner were patrolling.  Everyone else was committed forwards.   Its happened time and time again this season.   Huge gaps behind the attack, no-one closing down or apparently aware of the danger.  And as for the chasing back to help...............pathetic.  Martin tried his hardest to get back, Lafferty just about made it, but where were the rest? Whitts was basically given the ball by Johnson, who immediately ran into

the penalty area, leaving Whittaker completely exposed and under

pressure. He had no outlet and although he shouldn''t have given the ball

away like he did, he basically was sold down the river by the rest of

the team.  Martin didn''t run in to offer support, Johnson had

disappeared.......but more to the point - where was the awareness of the

situation?    Where was the player who might have noticed there was a

risk there?   Frightening lack of awareness and communication.  An apparently almost casual approach to the football.  

Hope this has been addressed this week.........

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Alas it hasn`t Ldc with Tettey again being doubtful it looks like a square peg in a round hole yet again, signing a centre mid and left winger should have been a must, Jarvis and Dorrans in now and save our bl00dy season !!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Booooo the Whitts....Boooooo the Whitts..............phew that''s better.

I will always exercise my right to express myself at a game.

Booooooooooo.

He was too far forward though wasn''t he, rush of blood to the brain cell.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I didnt even notice he was booed. Thought they just cheered when he came off. And that was more jeering the situation that he was playing centre midfield and that it took 78 minutes to change it rather than booing personally. But i suppose theres a band wagon to jump on which slates the fans at any opportunity.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The thing that absolutely teed me off about the Brentford goal was the absolute lack of game awareness (professional cynicism) which we showed. The moment Whittaker lost the ball he should have just hacked the bloke down. He would have been booked, but it''s called taking one for the team.

Even when Brentford broke and moved the ball into our half there was the opportunity for Turner or Cuellar to halt what was obviously a very dangerous counter attack by a well judged foul. Did they do it - did they heck?

We saw exactly the same farcical lack of game awareness when we conceded the winner to Forest in the 93rd minute.

And before some Corinthian minded prig comes on and condemns me with some ''spirit of the game'' waffle. This is PROFESSIONAL football and everybody else does it!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The point if the thread was not to attack Whittaker, but to highlight a fault that has existed all season. One mistake leading to a goal to the opposition - not just because of a mistake by a player - but because of a lack of awareness/readiness of other members of the team.   Its a team game and the best teams are nearer the top of the table.  We are not yet a team - not consistently, anyway - and we are exposed for it at times, almost to the point of stupidity.   Whittaker should have had better control, but the mistake having been made, the cover was not available as it should have been - as has happened too often this season.  Scary stuff and still needs sorting.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Conceding easily has been a problem for most of the season, don''t know how much of the game you have seen but we were cut open time after time, we were lucky not to be one nill down after a couple of minutes.

It''s hard to imagine what instructions Jonno and Whitts were playing to, I can''t believe they had both been told to get forward as they did, it''s lack of discipline isn''t it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Conceding easily has been a problem for most of the season, don''t know how much of the game you have seen but we were cut open time after time, we were lucky not to be one nill down after a couple of minutes.

It''s hard to imagine what instructions Jonno and Whitts were playing to, I can''t believe they had both been told to get forward as they did, it''s lack of discipline isn''t it.[/quote]

It certainly looks like lack of discipline and to me more worryingly, a lack of awareness.   Its almost as if one or two players are still thinking that all that matters is attacking and scoring goals - at the expense of team shape and defending properly.  Its like the opposite of last season.  Perhaps AN will be able to get the balance right and in the process get the players focused on what they should be doing/thinking about in a match.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I was quite pleased with the appointment when AN was announced and hoped that we had gone for a guy with a bit of experience and a bit of success and that Norwich would provide him with a vehicle to continue his journey. And so, hopefully, that will prove to be the case.

I was however, most concerned about the way the team was put out against Brentford. We realise the availability problems with injuries and a suspension and that accounts for Whittaker in mid-field but as LDC makes clear, it was not Whittaker''s error that was alarming, more the total unpreparedness of the entire team.

So many players seemed clueless as to what they so do in any given circumstance and little guidance was forthcoming from the bench. At one point in the first half, we won a corner, big boys went forward, leaving just two back. Brentford put three guys across the pitch and despite Ruddy screaming at the bench to get more help, the management team were oblivious. Eventually, it was resolved amongst the players and Redmond dropped back but it was just another example on a day where we seemed to lack any formation and plan.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
You''d certainly hope we''ll have Tettey back tomorrow, as we''ve not brought anyone in to cover what was a pretty big hole (though looked better in the second half after a few tweaks); we''ll have a refreshed Howson to come back next week, too....we were rather unlucky to have that injury/suspension pile up when we did, against a lesser side it probably wouldn''t have shown.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

while the fans went for the obvious and blamed whit (who did have a poor game) Neils post match assessment that whits was the least of his problems suggests that he had seen what had really happened .

Whether in 5 working days he can resolve both full backs attacking headlessly at the same time without bothering to work back, introduce some discipline into the equally gung ho bj or some sense of understanding in the cbs is a tad optimistic.

To be fair to the cbs, they spent too much time covering the wide areas vacated by their full backs so perhaps its no surprise they struggled to be an effective pair.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]while the fans went for the obvious and blamed whit (who did have a poor game) Neils post match assessment that whits was the least of his problems suggests that he had seen what had really happened .

Whether in 5 working days he can resolve both full backs attacking headlessly at the same time without bothering to work back, introduce some discipline into the equally gung ho bj or some sense of understanding in the cbs is a tad optimistic.

To be fair to the cbs, they spent too much time covering the wide areas vacated by their full backs so perhaps its no surprise they struggled to be an effective pair.[/quote]Tend to agree with this. The Brentford game was littered from start to finish with poor decision making, lack of organisation, low commitment, sloppy passing,and failure to deal with dangerous opponents at source. I guess Lakey has only highlighted the goal because these sort of errors because...well...it resulted in a goal against. He could have pointed to many other examples. The defeat would have been heavier had Brentford''s forwards not been so profligate.AN hit the nail on the head by suggesting that ''the hungrier team won'' . Like you say, it''s a big ask for him to deal with this in 5 days . By this time tomorrow we''ll have an idea whether he''s been able to do it or not.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Interestingly LDC for me all you''ve done is further highlight how at fault Whittaker was for that goal. You highlight the space behind him, this is exactly the space Whittaker should have been filling. There was no need for him and Johnson to boh be on the edge of the box, Whits should have stayed deeper in case of this sort of break. His absolute lack of positional disciplin (quite an important part of a holding midfield role) was on show throughout the game- he was constantly 20 or 30 yards ahead of where he should have been leaving Johnson to deal with two men and allowing Pritchard to run the game. A couple of times he was on the shoulder of the defender making runs in behind! Why? We had Redmond, Hooper, Jerome and Lafferty all on the pitch to do that, not only was Whittaker not doing his own job, he was also getting in the way of others doing theirs. It was a masterclass in how not to play that role.

Clearly this begs the question of why Neil thought he would work there- obviously injuries forced his hand but you have to ask was nobody else better suited?

Whittaker wasn''t the only reason we lost but his lack of positional discipline did allow Brentford the chance to dominate our midfield. I''ve heard a lot of people talking about how hard he worked but to be honest I''d take a lazier player with a better idea of how to do his job than a hard working headless chicken any day of the week.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
King - you are wrong in thinking it was whittakers responsibility to fill the space behind him. Firstly Whit was first on the attack and bj joined him later - so it is BJ who needs to think before engaging his legs and not abandon his responsibility instead of seeking glory.

Also it was clear that BJ was the designated deep cm, not whittaker. At restarts (goal kicks) it was a clear strategy to sit 4141 with bj the deep 1 and hooper and whittaker in the more advanced position.

And equal responsibility sits with the full backs, only 1 needs to attack at a time so that they are both ahead of teh ball just 20 or so yards from their goal.

Yes whit was weak in losing possession and plays his part, but the prime reason we lost that goal was poor discipline by bj, rm & mo and then their equal lack of effort in getting back over the 75 yards back to goal

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ZLF- must say thats not how I saw it.

Firstly wasn''t it Johnson who passed the ball to Whittaker? Whittaker was up first yes but once Johnson gets the ball he has to drop a bit deeper knowing his partner is that high up the pitch and also has the ball. He doesn''t need to spring back to his own half, just drop off 10 yards.

Secondly I thought we looked more set up to play 4-2-3-1, Hooper further ahead than both Whittaker and Johnson. I don''t disagree that Johnson also lacks some positional discipline though- he looks much better next to someone like O''Neill who has that or Tettey who has the speed to sometimes make up for his lack of it.

Must say I didn''t pay much attention to the fullbacks and you are right that both are two high up, one or the other can go. Again this is where a disciplined DM comes into play- offering cover while a fullback goes forward.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...