Brentford (A) - Saturday 5.12.20

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

33 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

If Brentford are on great form then so are we, in fact slightly better depending on which form table you look at.....

Oh yeah we're getting the results, no doubt. But we're not playing well, which is something we haven't really done under Mowbray and actually very encouraging.

However my worry is that we've got form in going on terrible runs when within touching distance of the play off, and are also still to beat a team above us in the league - hence the pessimism. 

Desperate to be proved wrong though and if we win today I'll genuinely start believing. 

[J*B]

I’ve seen this happen too many times under Mowbray. 3-1 to Brentford. 

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Big game but a defeat today is not a disaster. It’s avoiding a long term slump in form. Losing 5-2 at Brentford a couple of years ago wasn’t the biggest issue, it was the run of defeats afterwards. We can not afford to go through another period of 6/7 games without a win. 

A win today would be huge, however. I’d take a point right now.

Edited December 5, 2020 by magicalmortensleftpeg

[Roverinbelfast]

Absolutely nothing to fear from Brentford. I would be happy with a point, but the fact that they won't sit back and park a bus will suit us. On paper we have the better team. 2-1 rovers 

[jones_rover]

I'm worried about us picking up more injuries at the moment, think temptation will be to play our strongest 11 obviously with it being a big game.

But to me, Rothwell, Holtby, Armstrong and Nyambe are all potential risks due to the amount of games they're playing back to back, workload they get through or existing niggles.

Especially with games coming every 3 days now I think we could see some surprise omissions from starting 11 and I wouldn't be against it. Last thing we need is these guys being out for any length of time.

Can easily see Downing coming into the starting 11 for example, thoughts?

[chaddyrovers]

2 1 Rovere. Armstrong gets a double and remains the league top scorer then

[Blue blood]

44 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Big game but a defeat today is not a disaster. It’s avoiding a long term slump in form. Losing 5-2 at Brentford a couple of years ago wasn’t the biggest issue, it was the run of defeats afterwards. We can not afford to go through another period of 6/7 games without a win. 

A win today would be huge, however. I’d take a point right now.

Yes. I think that's the problem for us in the past. When we fell off the horse, so to speak, we sat in the dirt, went off and had a cup of tea and read the paper before getting back on. Just thinking of last Christmas when we had 3 winnable games and only got 2 points. A loss or draw in one of them wasn't the end of the world, but the malaise stayed on for all three games. We can afford the odd bum result (look at Bourmouth v Preston) it's the response after that matters. 

Issue is we have 3 tough games and so we need to pick up points in some of them. Worth noting as well a win and two losses though not ideal is better than two draws and a loss. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, J*B said:

I’ve seen this happen too many times under Mowbray. 3-1 to Brentford. 

That's my gut feeling. We've too many key players who are either 8 out of 10 or 4 out of 10. If they all have a good game at once we look the part but that doesn't happen often enough. We could do with a few who are 6 out of 10 every week.

Let's hope they prove us wrong.

Edited December 5, 2020 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Dontfuckwithcats]

It's already been said but il say it again.

This has got a rovers loss written all over it.

Back to back wins, 2 points off the playoffs, the holy ground coming into view, opponent being brentford away, people feeling good about rovers thinking we have turned a corner.

However, we did score a late winner in the last match, I can count on one hand the amount of times we have done that.

The bookies odds where too tempting and I backed rovers anyway.

Let's just see what happens, I'm excited to see some supporters and brentfords new ground.

[Blue blood]

17 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That's my gut feeling. We've too many key players who are either 8 out of 10 or 4 out of 10. If they all have a good game at once we look the part but that doesn't happen often enough. We could do with a few who are 6 out of 10 every week.

Let's hope they prove us wrong.

I was having a few thoughts about the Bournemouth team along these lines. Lots of 6 and 7 out of 10 players. Not amazing but consistently decent. Also depth of decent players makes a difference too. Evans, Bell, Bennett to name a few are poor, whereas the newly relegated clubs don't seem to have that many weak links. Even if the players aren't amazing they are all decent. We as a team however are very much boom or bust. That said if they were boom all the time they wouldn't be with us!

[philipl]

We are not the only club playing an awful lot of games in a short period of time.

I'd rather not be starting the nine games of December with eleven players out but then I'd rather be us with the prospect of JRC, Brereton, Travis and Dack all available as we go into January.

[Doug]

We need to start with a stronger midfield than we've played over the last couple of games.

Kaminski

Nyambe      Lenihan     Wharton     Douglas

Trybull      Johnson

Elliot           Holtby         Rothy

Arma

Only aware of BB being added to the list of injuries, so two DM's and 3 attacking players in front of them.

Ayala didn't look that good last game, so Wharton back in.

We need to be faster out of the blocks, Barnsley and Millwall were poor showings where we lost the midfield battle, but we won the games.

COYB 

 

[philipl]

1 minute ago, Doug said:

 

 

 

We need to be faster out of the blocks, Barnsley and Millwall were poor showings where we lost the midfield battle, but we won the games.

COYB 

 

That is the absolute key for me.

Start well and we have a good game.

Everyone is remembering struggles against Luton, Barnsley and Millwall.

Sandwiched in between was Preston where we started well and kept going well for 90 minutes.

[toogs]

10 minutes ago, Doug said:

We need to start with a stronger midfield than we've played over the last couple of games.

Kaminski

Nyambe      Lenihan     Wharton     Douglas

Trybull      Johnson

Elliot           Holtby         Rothy

Arma

Only aware of BB being added to the list of injuries, so two DM's and 3 attacking players in front of them.

Ayala didn't look that good last game, so Wharton back in.

We need to be faster out of the blocks, Barnsley and Millwall were poor showings where we lost the midfield battle, but we won the games.

COYB 

 

I’ve not seen us play well with Trybull and Johnson together yet. 

[Doug]

6 minutes ago, toogs said:

I’ve not seen us play well with Trybull and Johnson together yet. 

I don't recall them playing together many times, a very quick skim through some of our games and I found the 4 - 0 win over Coventry, but I'm sure there's more.

[SBlue]

25 minutes ago, toogs said:

I’ve not seen us play well with Trybull and Johnson together yet. 

Wasn’t that with them two and Evans?

Think that was the problem

[4000Holes]

Very slowly I am becoming optimistic.  With predominantly right footed players playing on the right and predominantly left footed players playing on the left.  It’s like a whole new world, long may it continue.

[Gone to seed]

1 minute ago, 4000Holes said:

Very slowly I am becoming optimistic.  With predominantly right footed players playing on the right and predominantly left footed players playing on the left.  It’s like a whole new world, long may it continue.

Oi! I thought you'd been abolished by the Millwall crew... ;)

I agree it feels somewhat better with square pegs in square holes etc. Much as I'd love a good result here, I am more resigned to a subdued Saturday evening, reflecting on Mowbray's off-the wall comments and might have beens..

Happy to be proven wrong.

not us, but wtf

[Ossydave]

4 hours ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

Oh yeah we're getting the results, no doubt. But we're not playing well, which is something we haven't really done under Mowbray and actually very encouraging.

However my worry is that we've got form in going on terrible runs when within touching distance of the play off, and are also still to beat a team above us in the league - hence the pessimism. 

Desperate to be proved wrong though and if we win today I'll genuinely start believing. 

Completely understandable.

In terms of not playing well the last couple of games, personally think that's more due to the opposition and how they setup, although I'm almost certain we'd have lost both last season. On the flip side we've played better a few times this season and lost, I know which I'd prefer...

I'd take a draw if offered it now, I think Bristol is an easier 3 points despite them being above us.

We've got the players to cause damage on set pieces today, we all know Raya is susceptible to a flap, execution needs to be much better than the other night though as they were pretty much all poor.

 

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

Have we beaten a team above us in the league this season?

[USABlue]

Weird irony here, Brereton's resurgence began when the fans left, now they are back he isn't.

Hoping for an entertaining game and a win of course.  Think I will only get the first.  We are.in touch with the top so here.goes ToMo with the nosebleed, weird selections and tactics as he starts.to overthink things.  A Bournemouth or Watford level of performance.could.see us take 3 points but can we provide that level of performance.  I hope so cos the last 2 games we escaped by stealing 6 points.

[Gav]

This will be a real test today against last seasons play off finalists, a much better side than Fulham in my opinion who went up. 

Brentford are very strong at home and will no doubt be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

I'd take a draw now 1-1

[rigger]

48 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Have we beaten a team above us in the league this season?

We are unbeaten at their ground

[Kie_BRFC]

1 hour ago, 4000Holes said:

Very slowly I am becoming optimistic.  With predominantly right footed players playing on the right and predominantly left footed players playing on the left.  It’s like a whole new world, long may it continue.

Except for the fact we scored our opener on Wednesday because we had a left footer on the right 

[Ulrich]

I hope we start brightly and try and attack from the off. We score goals and an early one would make Brentford think again. If we can take a 2 goal advantage then I think we will win. 

Very keen to see what TM decides to do. 

Fingers crossed