Tom12345

Why replaces Vesty (I thought he has done brilliantly today) with Faes???

20 shots against us in one half … doesn’t look good. We do really need to control the ball though. Also, we need to play on the other side of the pitch rather than trying to have Ndidi whose role is simply to defend. Keeping the ball and attacking is the best way to stop the opposition playing in your half and taking so many shots. Still therefore the key is to drop Ndidi.

Stop blaming Soumare and be fair about it. It is not Soumare. He has gotten into positions to receive the ball and pass the ball forward. Ndidi just avoids the ball or when he gets the ball he just immediately bounce passes it back to Vesty or one of the other defenders putting them under pressure. A pass later and one of Justin or Kristiansen hoofs it up. No wonder it looks like we can’t control the midfield. This is why Enzo didn’t play Ndidi there and even Cooper saw this! We want control and keeping the ball, drop Ndidi. I am sick of saying this and I will give RVN a few games to see this. If he doesn’t, I will lose respect for RVN.

We just need to drop Ndidi! He is clearly not contributing toward us keeping the ball with confidence.

Indeed. Justin, Kristiansen and Ndidi But Ndidi is a midfielder! First off the pitch for me. But you are right too about Justin (and also Kristiansen).

There are so far 3 weak links in our team where when the ball gets to them, we will turn over possession pretty soon thereafter: Kristiansen - tends to hoofs it up to the opposition Justin - ditto Ndidi - bounce passes to defenders and puts them under pressure before turning over the ball Given unless we change shape we are not going to get rid of Justin or Kristiansen, we have to drop Ndidi

Winks, Ricardo and Fatawu for sure Mavididi to be fair has been poor when he came on in previous games

Ndidi keeps doing bounce passes only back to the defender putting them under pressure. Can we please have Skipp in for him in the second half.

Soumare is. And he is getting into position to get the ball. Ndidi does nothing. Disappointed with RVN to pick him. Rather Skipp.

If there is one thing I like about RVN, it is that he is a winner.

I hope RVN can teach them how to pass forward so the recipient can receive the ball while moving in his stride and in the right area. We are very bad at this 90% of the times.

Have to say, Faes’ mistakes have costed us quite a few points this season and Cooper’s job. We had a few decent games when we lost thanks to Faes’ (or Justin’s) defensive mistakes. As I said before, I thought Cooper wasn’t that bad and he was on to something. But he suffered from these mistakes and also the Enzo effect (ie. having a mountain to climb after the success of last season).

Teams just worked out how to play us. Press and give us no room then we need Enzo like tactics by having more players in an area to pass through the press. Can’t do that when one of them is constantly absent, breaks down play or bounce passes to his teammates at bad speed/awkward angle.

Why select a player for that important role when we are concerned with his passing, or positioning, or keeping the ball, or not breaking down play, or making himself available for the pass? Just drop him. He was terrible today. He made Soumare did all the work. Then Skipp. He made them look bad because he was way off from receiving the ball, strolling about 30m away or behind an opposition player. Sick of seeing this now that it has been like this for 4/5 years now.

Needs to be sold ASAP in Jan so RVN does not even need to think about selecting him.

At the end of the match, RVN was seen texting his lawyers to rescind the contract on the basis of misrepresentation.

Just don’t play Faes and stop using Justin as a flying RB. Tell Justin to just stay if he plays. And drop Ndidi so we can pass it up to pitch to play in the opposition half.

Wasn’t Barca eyeing him. Please have him.

One thing though was that he put Thomas and Soumare in front of RVN. Otherwise the two of them could be out of sight. I still believes both of them have development potential. Also Coady. Surely he has to start before Faes now. Anyone but Faes.

At least we were always in games with a chance to snatch something with Cooper. What the hell was Dawson doing? Unless it was a deliberate middle finger.

Agree with you. Faes is an example. But he has really turned it up this season with his calamity defending. Anyone has to be better. Souttar has to be better. Another one is Ndidi. Constantly picked by our managers but his negative effect on the rest of the team is significant. Him being picked was a prime reason for our relegation and why today we could not string a few passes today in midfield until Vesty stepped up. He is regularly picked by our managers but he is certainly not Zidane. I don’t care if he is a destroyer (he is not now anyway), but you cannot play in any midfield pivot in the Premier League with his League One ball skills and poor positioning. There was a reason no single team came in for him when his contract expired.

Thomas was our best defender! But Vesty was ok too. His was also our best passer today.

It was definitely the worst performance of the season. We barely kept the ball.

Game summary: - Brentford totally dominated. All loose balls went to Brentford. The amount of times we just hoofed it and gave possession straight back is embarrassing. - One of the two predominant reasons for today’s failure is the system of playing 3/5 at the back leaving us badly exposed on the right again. Coincidentally, it is Justin’s side again. - The other reason is playing Ndidi as a pivot. How many times does he have to play there for anyone to see that he is a handicap. We cannot afford to carry any player in the Premier League. His lack of technical skills, poor passing, poor control and not making himself available for a pass is unforgivable at this level. Both Cooper and Enzo don’t play him there. Why did Dawson? Clueless. Sell Ndidi in January while he still has some value. - Despite such a poor first half, Dawson made absolutely zero change to his tactics. - Faes did his best to showcase his awful defending today. - Justin is not a good defender anymore and his attacking plays do not make up for it. - Thomas offers nothing going forward but at least he is ok defensively and he turned decent in the second half. - No idea why Bounuoette came off when he was the only player doing something. - The best pivots we have right now are Skipp and Soumare. Wait, we just have two. - RVN might be asking Top whether there is a cooling off period.

No … that is a waste of a player. We need him off the pitch. In this day and age, we can’t afford to carry a player on the pitch. Managers have all sorts of tactics to have extra numbers in an area and creating triangles in order to increase passing options. Playing a player that reduces the “numbers” and breaks down play is not the way to go. Our lack of ability to bring the ball up is not because of Soumare. It is because of Ndidi. Bringing Skipp on for Soumare is not going to solve this. Dawson has no clue.