Brentford (h); The Review

Random star performer

Err… Gunn and his crossbar stopped it being 4-0 at half time. Harrison Reed worked tirelessly although was hopelessly exposed by the shape we were playing and the fact his colleague Mario offers nothing in defence at all.

Moments of the match

The Barclay singing “We’re fucking shit, we’re fucking shit…”
Obviously singing that won’t motivate your players – but that’s the point, it heralds the point of no return. To sing that is to acknowledge that your team are beyond the help that a rousing chorus of “Duh duh duh duh duh duh, Cristoph Zimmerman” would provide.

To add to that, we scored a late goal with a minute or two left to chase an equaliser. And those already on the steps and concourses to leave didn’t turn round and retake their seats, they were joined by others who just shrugged and followed them out.

Both these moments summed up where I and audibly the majority of the vocal sections are at with this state of a season.

A lot of these new boys haven’t won us over, or proven their worth of the shirt. They don’t entertain us. They play slow plodding possession football in over-elaborate U shapes and any well-organised opponent will be as comfortable to watch it play out as Brentford were tonight.

All visitors to Carrow Road need to do is be patient, shuffle side to side then converge in numbers as every attack grinds to its predictable halt where either Pritchard or Maddison try to dribble through 3-4 players to create room for a shot. Then there are the 6-8 times every game Pinto will smash a cross way beyond the sole yellow shirt in the box.

Weekly whinge

The misuse of the talent in Pritchard and Maddison’s boots alone is an indictment of how dreadfully this team is being prepared. They’re being wasted as the current coaching staff appear ill equipped to play to the strengths of two of the finest players in the league.

Signs of good coaching would suggest that a team or player regularly seeks to repeat what has brought them success previously. Our players currently seem doomed to pass sideways slowly and ponderously all the way into a relegation battle.

And how many of tonight’s matchday squad have shown any hint of the desire needed for that? Maybe 3/4?

Farke watch

Fairly motionless, looked like some nail biting going on. Perhaps he’s planning where/how to spend his redundancy money.

Atmosphere/Attendance watch

Why have we started this state controlled media approach of lying about the attendances? The announcement of 25k+ was openly jeered tonight, no way there was close to that through the turnstiles, makes you wonder what the motivation is to base it on tickets sold rather than folk who can still be arsed to watch Farke’s awful football.

Biggest positive to take

We are away on Boxing Day and I don’t have a ticket.

Summary

I believe that this squad (and I certainly don’t think the best eleven is currently being played regularly) has enough quality to finish top half, but that without seriously reinforcing the striking department, any manager would struggle to get them into the top 6.

When we were nicking ugly wins in that great run and nearly beating Arsenal, it felt like winning the league was possible. It also hid the fact we weren’t very nice on the eye. What 1 win in 11 has shown since is unless we do nick that goal and go ahead, we are just far too predictable and easy to contain. That is unless Pritch or Maddison do something special off their own back to pick the lock. The only pattern or shape evident in our play is slow and awful to watch and it doesn’t even work.

We have all seen how it plays out when the fans have lost faith in the team’s approach to the game, it’s going to get nasty quickly, with poisonous atmospheres and dropping attendances.

My 2 Christmas wishes:

1. Roll the dice now, before January is here, and sack the manager. I don’t know who we can get and if our structure would put off up and coming managers looking for a chance at a bigger club.

2. Get any cash we can for Klose and Nelson and hope Webber and the new boss will wisely invest that in hungry young goalscoring talent.

The revolution won’t be televised, and can you blame Sky for not wanting to broadcast that shit?