Just in the car on the way back, time to kill so though I'd give my thoughts...
Time for brutal honesty and a few concerns I have...
I've never seen a player get roasted as badly as Bennett today. It was so obvious they targeted him from the off, for TM to not see this and adapt shows an alarming amount of naivety. Reed is far more competent defensively and TM should have switched him with Armstrong to provide better cover for Bennett, by the time he he actually did this it was far too late. This one problem area cost us the game, it allowed them to stretch us, pull us out of position and ultimately we got overrun in CM. It's pretty apt the LT did a piece on Bennett not being long term full back, this just underlined it. Nyambe I think has looked like one of our best players at times this season when I've watched him. He has a lot to learn but that's to be expected and I'd rather a young lad makes mistakes who needs to learn than a 30 year old who can no longer develop.
Another display of naivety from TM was how we played after scoring the second. I can't recall a time where I've seen a rigid bank of 4-5-1 whilst winning, this is exactly what we needed to do, we don't always need to be chasing players down trying to win back possession when 2-0 up. What we should've done is been disciplined, kept our shape and done our jobs. Once players start running out doing a high press it leaves spaces in behind for them to play through us. We simply didn't need to play like that whilst 2-0 up.
One final thing that concerned me from the manager today was the lack of communication from him from the touch line, I wanted to see more organising and instruction to our players at key moments in the game but it simply never came. I don't mean for this to sound like a which hunt on TM, I love the bloke but I'm just simply saying what I saw.
Further concerns...
Raya, not just because of the blunder but because I just don't think he's a commanding presence. Brentford, is a tight ground and I was stood right behind him. I didn't hear Raya once, no shouting hardly any talking, some of the best Rovers keepers I've seen have arguably the loudest players on the pitch, fair enough this might not be his style but it makes us less organised and the goal just drives home that point.
The quality of our substitutions. I know Conway has had a couple of decent games but I'm sorry, he shouldn't be on at the expense of Joe Rothwell. Nutall I don't want to write off, but having played to a decent stadrard myself I look at him and I'm not seeing anything special, in games like this at this standard simply running around is not enough, you must affect games and get involved and I think time will show that he's not quite good enough, I hope I'm wrong.
Today just showed that running will only take you so far, you need quality too and we just don't have enough to kick us on to be a top 6 challenging side. Perhaps the first 11 might be but the squad depth isn't there for us to challenge, it's a shame but I'm making my peace with it now. If I'm to be proven wrong then a lot is riding on Chapman and Brereton to step up and kick us on. The dissapointment from the fans in not landing a CF is right and justified because it showed how much we needed someone to make the ball stick up top and release the presssure, without this we simply invite too much pressure for us to cope with at times.
Some positives (if there are any).
Adam Armstrong was outstanding, they simply couldn't live with him.
Rodwell. It seems crazy to say as we got smashed but the centre halves got no protection whatsoever, everything he had to deal with individually he did with class.
Brereton. Looked really sharp when he came on and surprisingly confident and dangerous.
Final thoughts. Brentford players were completely out of order in how they celebrated and were lucky not to start a violent incident. They should be fined for attempting to incite something that could have got nasty.
Today definitely tempered expectations and is a stark reminder to not get too ahead of yourself in this league. You try to win your next game and have no right to even think about the game after. We're a decent side in this league but we're still a bit short in key positions and I think it will take some ruthlessness from the manager to put his loyalties to certain players aside and replace them with better quality.
This league is mental, we could stuff Bristol or vice versa, let's focus on that one and hope the manager makes the appropriate changes.
A day to learn from and not simply forget.
P. S. The fans were brilliant and the Burnley in Europe song is top class banter.
