To Bee or not to Bee. Brentford (H) 25/10/14

[General Mannerheim]

He lets himself down with these little patronising nuggets of bullshit designed to adhere himself to the masses... "Fans were superb. Felt like Celtic park out there today, playing in front of 60,000" aye alright

[TANGODANCER]

I think the B.N's comment " Lonergan threw the ball out for Davies to roll the ball into an empty net is a bit understated. Could so easily have missed.

[bobo the clown]

Does that mean we left a man up for the corner ??

[Bruce Rioja]

(1)Missing 3 years out of 35 is a crime....feck me 'guilty your honour'. I went home and away for 30 + years.

(2) I stopped going because of the dross under Coyle & Freedman. I'm fecking made up with Lennon, we are extremely lucky to have him....he's made a huge impact.

(3) Today I gave an honest assessment of what I saw today, I thought the game was about opinions....the fact that if it doesn't tie in with you view means I'm ignorant

(4) If that 1st half was an improvement on what you saw under Freedman, then it must have been grim and in that respect I take my hat off to all that have paid money to sit through it.

(5) We also differ because I think that it will get pretty quite soon under NL....over to you chief !

(1) I've been going for 40 years, old son. All of them. However, you were comparing this afternoon's performance against all those of the three years that had preceded it, all of which you opted out of, so how the feck can you compare them? Go on?!

(2) Read your earlier pathetic remark.

(3) Read my earlier remark. What exactly were you expecting? Yet more importantly, what exactly were you basing your level of expectation on? As I mentioned - have you seen where we are? We didn't get there by being a top notch outfit.

(4) Yes, that's exactly why I'm saying, that you're displaying an alarming level of ignorance, especially for someone that seems to have so much to chime on about.

(5) So even now, after his first home game you're predicting that it'll all go wrong under Lennon? You, Sir, are nothing other than an internet troll. Go and stick it up your arse, you fecking cretin.

[Harry Genshaw]

He lets himself down with these little patronising nuggets of bullshit designed to adhere himself to the masses... "Fans were superb. Felt like Celtic park out there today, playing in front of 60,000" aye alright

Certainly an exaggeration, but can't say I felt patronised. From what Jaffka said about his appearance in the fan zone and the atmosphere today, just feels like he's tapped into the positive vibe. It's great to have a buzz around the club again

[SmokinFrazier]

Under Freedman this season, we averaged 12.1 shots per game with 3.3 on target. Under Lennon, we're averaging 17.6 shots per game with 5.6 on target. Obviously he's only been in charge for 3 games and those numbers could change but it's a step in the right direction to see us playing a more attacking style of football.

I like talking about Freedman in past tense. It makes me all warm and fuzzy

I don't think any of us need convincing what a shambles we were under freedman

No. But it took some a good while longer to get there .... including, unfortunately, the powers that be.

This is with the same squad. It's now clear that the previous man's tactics, mind-set, and attitude to the players as the main failing points. Playing at a higher tempo, players playing where they are comfortable, playing higher up the pitch and actually attacking & the very same players look twice the team.

Why the fck DF couldn't see that when we all could is beyond me. He should never work again.

Spot on with all that, I think.

Unfortunately for Lennon, the confidence levels of our players are very low and that's affecting our performances, and until that changes, I don't expect to see the best of us though what you can see at this early stage is that the system under Lennon is a lot better than it was under Freedman. Fewer long balls, which were consistently ineffective, a higher tempo, better movement, better link up play, a higher defence, defensive players closing their attack down quickly etc.. All those things are positive changes and they highlight were Freedman went wrong tactically. We we too slow, too defensive and were set up to avoid defeat rather than win. Lennon has brought a winning mentality to the club and whilst individually they're low on confidence, I do get the sense that they're buying into the style of play Lennon is after.

Like I said though, performances won't be great until our players develop more confidence, especially in front of goal. I have my doubts about our strikers but I think that's exaggerated by the lack of self belief, so hopefully we can keep on building momentum by winning games and that'll have a knock on effect on the players themselves. I fancy us to give a team a good kicking in the next few weeks, putting 4 or 5 past them.

Right now, I'm really positive about us though I keep wondering about where we'd be if Lennon had come in during the summer, where he'd have had a full pre-season to work on tactics and the players wouldn't have been destroyed mentally by playing in such a stifling system under a manager they didn't like. I think we'd be closer to the top 3 than bottom 3.

[onlywanderer]

All in all I'm committed to backing Lennon, but I was a little disappointed in the performance today - but a win is a win.

And what were you expecting to see, oh fair-weathered one? 70's fecking Brazil? You wouldn't know, of course, you haven't been around, but now you're just displaying ignorance at an alarming level.

This!

[TonyDomingos]

He lets himself down with these little patronising nuggets of bullshit designed to adhere himself to the masses... "Fans were superb. Felt like Celtic park out there today, playing in front of 60,000" aye alright

I agree. He's been here two weeks. He's a piss takin' know nowt. How dare he try to motivate the team and supporters. Is it possible that we can hand the three points to brentford? Im right behind you GM.

[Peter Thompson]

(5) So even now, after his first home game you're predicting that it'll all go wrong under Lennon? You, Sir, are nothing other than an internet troll. Go and stick it up your arse, you fecking cretin.

WTF are you on....

If you read it again I said exactly the opposite - 'We also differ because I think that it will get pretty quite soon under NL....over to you chief !'

I'm 100% behind NL and I've never said anything otherwise, he's a class manager who's already changed things IMO which I also said.

I don't think anything that I posted deserves the level of abuse that you dish out....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Didn't see the stream. What formation did we play? 4-4-2 presumably, but with Feeney out, who leftist and who rightest? We seem to have improved after the break but did NL change the shape at all? Where did Mave play when he replaced Prats, and is this a viable 90-minute formation?

[Peter Thompson]

Didn't see the stream. What formation did we play? 4-4-2 presumably, but with Feeney out, who leftist and who rightest? We seem to have improved after the break but did NL change the shape at all? Where did Mave play when he replaced Prats, and is this a viable 90-minute formation?

Yes 4-4-2....Pratley was out left, but IMO it didn't look like we had anyone out right (although Mason seemed to play down the right), CYL & Danns seemed to interchange quite a bit. We played a lot better 2nd half with some decent passing football and good tempo, with the midfield interchanging. M Davies played centrally and was quality when he came on, his goal was excellent. I thought Mason was very intelligent making some great runs.

Its a viable formation at home, but without Pratley & Beckford IMO....

[truewhite15]

Didn't see the stream. What formation did we play? 4-4-2 presumably, but with Feeney out, who leftist and who rightest? We seem to have improved after the break but did NL change the shape at all? Where did Mave play when he replaced Prats, and is this a viable 90-minute formation?

It was a very narrow diamond, with Danns right and Pratley left. Sparky came on and played the same position as Pratley, and the shape was only changed at the end, when we dropped to a 451 with Chungy wide right and Beckford as the most advanced midfielder - but that only came into force during stoppage time.

As to whether it's viable, I'd say the lack of width was detrimental in the 1st half, but in the 2nd, the full backs got higher and helped out. It can work, but it works better with Sparky over Pratley.

[EverSoYouri]

Peter Thompson on Bruce Rioja:

Mr oh so superior super fan

All hail The Bruce (Rioja Reserva)!

[Beefheart]

So, what does everyone think of zonal marking on corners? I don't know if we'd done that in Lennon's previous games or whether it was particular to Brentford as they seemed to have some orchestrated set pieces.

[EverSoYouri]

He lets himself down with these little patronising nuggets of bullshit designed to adhere himself to the masses... "Fans were superb. Felt like Celtic park out there today, playing in front of 60,000" aye alright

Certainly an exaggeration, but can't say I felt patronised. From what Jaffka said about his appearance in the fan zone and the atmosphere today, just feels like he's tapped into the positive vibe. It's great to have a buzz around the club again

Yep. Agree with HG on this. Truth is most fans at most clubs lap this sort of thing up and don't feel at all patronised by it- and it's those 'masses' who will be responsible for creating the atmosphere, not the football intellectuals, like what we are.

No need to feel patronised, GM, just nod sagely at being too smart to fall for what is a legitimate schmoozing of the run-of-the-mill fan.

[thebish]

Why the fck DF couldn't see that when we all could is beyond me. He should never work again.

this is one of the places we part company. I just don't buy into this whole post-sacking malice. he's gone - get over it! wasting time wishing that a bloke might never work again just comes across to me as ridiculous. i don't bear dougie or coyle or megson any real personal malice - they've all gone - and for all I care they can go on and have successful careers elsewhere - it wouldn't affect me.

[bobo the clown]

Why the fck DF couldn't see that when we all could is beyond me. He should never work again.

this is one of the places we part company.

Fair enough. But do write now and again.

[EverSoYouri]

Why the fck DF couldn't see that when we all could is beyond me. He should never work again.

this is one of the places we part company.

Fair enough. But do write now and again.

Get a room, you two. These spats are clearly a case of (mature) playground love.

[Whookam]

Under Freedman this season, we averaged 12.1 shots per game with 3.3 on target. Under Lennon, we're averaging 17.6 shots per game with 5.6 on target. Obviously he's only been in charge for 3 games and those numbers could change but it's a step in the right direction to see us playing a more attacking style of football.

I like talking about Freedman in past tense. It makes me all warm and fuzzy

and half of our shots on target came in just two games.

[thebish]

shots on target may well be some kind of statto-improvement (a pass to the goalie is technically "on-target") - I hope Lennon isn't all that carried away by the aceness of shots on target, though... I hope he's as greedy as me and wants actual goals!