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Ricardo's report v Brentford

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A bit of a novelty today for Ricardo. I have been dragged off to Centre Parcs for a family weekend so the usual half hour stroll turned into a seventy mile round trip.

when the team ran out I was wondering what sort of formation we would see but my flabber was truly ghasted when it looked like just Whits and Johno in midfield. It didn''t look like a winning formation and this was almost confirmed in the opening minute when a through pass caught a static defence square and Grey made a real hash of a gilt edged chance.

City did at least reply when Hooper tested Button at the expense of a corner. City didn''t look comfortable and twice more before the quarter hour only wayward finishing kept Brentford from going ahead. It couldn''t last and it didn''t when on twenty minutes, Whits faffed about too long and lost possesion. Within three passes the ball was in our area where Potter beat Ruddy with an angled drive.

Fortunately CIty got back quickly when Redmond cut inside and beat the keeper with a low shot at the near post. That was about as good as it got for the rest of the half with the City midfield being outnumbered despite JOhnson doing a manful job of trying to be a three man midfield. The tactic of long balls over the top for Jerome was just not working.

At halftime the ineffective Lafferty was replaced by Bennett and for a while it looked a little better although City found it hard to sustain any pressure. The ref wasn''t helping things with his over fussy approach and the game seemed to be crying out for Wes and some creativity.

The change was made on the hour but it was amazingly Hooper who made way and the crowd made their displeasure plain with a storm of booing.

The ref was obviously out to make his mark and duly obliged on seventy minutes when a Brentford player went down over nothing very much. Needless to say Pritchard netted easily and those with long records of attendance ar CR knew that the writing was on the wall when minutes later the bar denied Johnson and the keeper produced a great save from Jeromes follow up.

All that remained was for Whits to be booed off as Grabben was thrown on in a las ditch effort. Grabben ought to have equalised in time added from Jeromes head on but once again Button was there to bring off a match winning save.

What a chance thrown away. I don''t know if it was down to injuries but if Neil Adams had started with those tactics and that line up he would have been swinging from the rafters under Carrow bridge tonight. I am almost as angry as after the Colchester debacle because surely we were the architects of our own defeat today.

Sorry for the delay but had to wing off back to Breckland

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Excellent report and worryingly your observations are made with the usual accuracy.

Did you bump in to Caughtwanking at Centre Parcs, he''s been there for several weeks by all accounts.

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[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Excellent report and worryingly your observations are made with the usual accuracy.

Did you bump in to Caughtwanking at Centre Parcs, he''s been there for several weeks by all accounts.[/quote]

The last thing I need this weekend is to bump into any Binners.

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Have to agree with almost everything Ricardo.....I know its only one game but I''m not keen on Neil, after today I have to question if hes a worse tactition than Adams ever was......that sub to take off Hooper for Wes was awful.

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It was awful all round, russell martin really struggled i wondered if his colitis was troubling him cos he looked so out of sorts. The whole team looked like they were running through wet cement and couldn''t even make the simplest pass reach its intended target... Whits in midfield was an absolutely stunning decision i am still angered by it... Have to say that Brentford were the best side i have seen at Carrow road this season we couldn''t get near them at times, Alex Pritchard looked like lionel messi compard to anything we had to offer.If this is a sign of things to come then we are in the championship for a good while yet. The players put in a dishonest performance they are very well payed proffesionals and today was a disgrace al round!!!

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Got to agree Ricardo - If Neil Adams had sent that team selection out, he would have been booed from the first whistle

I was also a little dismayed by AN''s substitutions against Cardiff if I''m honest but luckily we held on.

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Perhaps the manager should have picked himself to play centre midfield as then we would at least have had one player with a modicum of communications skills on the pitch.

I cannot remember a more inept display by our centre back and centre midfield pairings at this level of football before.

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Most worrying for me was the naïve tactics of our rookie manager. To bring in Whittaker as our defensive midfielder, or whatever he was supposed to be doing, coupled with four up front including two widemen, left us dreadfully exposed in the "engine room". Johnson battled manfully in an attempt to plug the many gaps. It was blindingly obvious from the start that Lafferty wide left was a luxury we could not afford. Bringing on Bennett in a wide position made no difference and indeed it seemed Redmond was slightly withdrawn to accommodate him. To sub Hooper with Hoolahan and then shortly thereafter bring on Grabban did not make sense.

However overriding everything it is clear AN in next to no time has passed over our passing game with the long ball approach. It is OK now and again to mix things up, but not as our only form of attack.

The defeat was not a lack of hunger, it was our lack of quality particularly the number of offsides we walked in to. Overall Brentford with their attacking instincts and quick thinking thoroughly deserved their win.

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Shackell/Doherty and Russell/Fotheringham was the last time I saw such poor communication between centre mid and central defence.

Good report as ever Ricardo. Enjoy the holiday.

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[quote user="Bor Bor Bor"]Shackell/Doherty and Russell/Fotheringham was the last time I saw such poor communication between centre mid and central defence.

Good report as ever Ricardo. Enjoy the holiday.[/quote]was it roeder whoonce played the doc in the central midfield holding role ? todays selection was on a par with that

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Shocking performence from the players on the pitch today, Adams really pissed £2 million up the wall on Lafferty. Baffling team selection and tactics but not as bad as some are making out. Let''s see how Neil fares with more of his squad available to him before making snap judgements.

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Won''t be judging Neil on today''s result. The Whits thing was a failed experiment but he has been left a real disjointed and inconsistent squad. He desperately needs to bring some fresh blood into the team. Its annoying that our best two centre mids are so injury prone (Tettey and Vadis) perhaps its time to replace them with some more reliable cms. Hopefully it spells the end of Whittaker and the return of bassong. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to this shambles. Honestly hope Whittaker never plays for us again. Not forgiven him for the boro and Preston games.

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[quote user="ricardo"] It didn''t look like a winning formation[/quote]this is my biggest concernasides from the cb and cm letting brentford walk straight through them, as well as the speculative hoof ball up to the wide men and strikers, i really do have to wonder what sort of manager with even an tiny amount of knowledge of the championship or our squad would think selecting the players he did in the positions he did was even a slightly sensible idea!?!!?!?!!!!

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Thanks as usual Ricardo and you sum up how I feel. Even taking in to account the injury situation that set up was wrong and I guess every City supporter yesterday could see that. Whilst the CB''s, Turner in particularly didnt have good games, its no wonder when they were exposed like that. I liked the look of Brentford, but we should have done better, much better. Feel a bit for Whittaker getting booed, he was stuck in a position way out of his comfort zone and amazing to read somewhere that he had played in a similar position for Rangers, clearly he had forgotten what to do. OMG I am getting very worried now........we just saw the ex coach of Man U walk out the door and then witnessed one of the strangest tactically set-up City teams for years, what a mess.

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Thanks Ricardo.A truly awful performance today. The worst for years. My only crumb of comfort was the fact that we had so many central midfielders unavailable so it might not be a true reflection of what is to come.I won''t slaughter the manger over Whittaker''s inclusion as I''m not sure that he had that much choice. Wes in a central midfield of two has never worked and playing the youngster was just as much a risk as playing Whittaker. Obviously the decision didn''t work though. I don''t even think moving to three in the middle and only one up top was such a bad decision either - it might have been better if we had started like that, given the central midfield shortage.What really worried me was the way that we stopped playing football and just lumped the ball forwards all the time in hope more than expectation. I don''t mind it as an option but to do so all the time just seems bereft of all ideas. If we are going to do this, which hopefully we won''t, surely better to start Lafferty up top with Jerome?I am just hoping that today''s performance was an aberration rather than an indicator of things to come. Dare I say that that Hughton might have been a better option for the Championship - although fans'' views would have made it impossible!

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[quote user="Indy"]Have to agree with almost everything Ricardo.....I know its only one game but I''m not keen on Neil, after today I have to question if hes a worse tactition than Adams ever was......that sub to take off Hooper for Wes was awful.[/quote]

This ^^ and it''s the second time he has done it !!!!

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