Brentford Match Review

[DC Red]

I have just returned to my London hotel room after the Brentford game. I don't get to that many games as I live in Washington DC, but happened to be in London on business at the end of last week, so took the opportunity to stay over the weekend and see my first City game for a long time.

The City side that I saw today was a mere shadow of what I remembered and loved before I moved overseas a few years ago. I spoke to a couple of regular supporters while I was there and asked them if today's performance was typical of this season, and unfortunately they confirmed that it was.

So this review is free from influence on performances from the rest of this season.

In a nutshell, in my opinion, City were dreadful. That said, Brentford were not much better.

The first thing that struck me was how small the City players were in stature comparison to the opposition. They looked very lightweight. Now I don't know if Brentford are just a big team or if they are average, but seeing the difference took me by surprise.

So, having seen the players, I thought - no problem, they'll play the passing game to make up for it. However, what I saw was long ball after long ball, and hardly any passing sequences - how times have changed.

There were some plus points though. Steve Phillips looked assured and pulled off a couple of saves. He looks to have improved a lot. Scott Goldbourne also looked assured and seemed to have some skill. Dave Cotterill showed some skill and flair, but sometimes showed it too close to his own box for my liking. Scott Brown also looked skillful, energetic, but lightweight.

The rest - well, I was disappointed. Steve Brooker looked like he has lead in his boots, didn't jump and looked like a "poor man's Wayne Allison" to me. Leroy Lita didn't show anything of what I was expecting having read rave reviews on the forum and website. Paul Heffernan looked sharp, but didn't seem to get any space.

I also saw Tommy Doherty run, not often, but he didn't seem as unfit as I come to believe from here. He did some awful passes though. Speaking of awful passes, can Bradley Orr actually pass? I didn't see much evidence of this. When Scott Murray came on, I started to wonder if he did have anything from what I remember or whether he truly had lost it all, as I had read. Well, I didn't see any of the past speed and skill, and in fact I only remember him touching the ball once to put in a cross. I didn't see much of Cole Skuse, who came on a substitute.

I had very different reactions to Danny Coles and Clayton Fortune. Each time Danny was near the ball, I felt we were safe, although he seemed to panic more times than he needed to. That said, whenever Clayton went near the ball, I had no confidence in his ability to control it and see us to safety. That said, he did make one critical tackle in the second half. Jamie Smith seemed average, although he did make a vital interception to prevent a shooting chance in the second half. He also showed some flashes of skill.

So, summing up, City seem to be a small side that play a long ball game (not a good idea in my view). However, the passing skill of the midfield and general movement seems to prevent them from playing a flowing, passing style.

I see two solutions, get some muscle in and beef the team up (not my favored solution but may work at League 1 level), or practice passing, movement and ideas with the current batch of players. They seemed to lack imagination, inspiration and ideas.

From what I saw of Brian Tinnion on the touchline, he seemed animated at times and was obviously eager to speed things up. One interesting thing I noticed though, was that when he gave the ball to Clayton Fortune for a throw-in, he even showed Clayton where to throw the ball. So what did Clayton do? Threw to somebody else completely different. Now maybe this is a practice ground routine to fool the opposition, in which case - great. Somehow I don't think so though. It left me wondering how much the players actually listen to the manager.

Anyway, sorry for the long blurb, but it had been a while. I will continue to listen to City games at 10:00am every Saturday morning on BCFC World and hope to make it to a game again sometime in the future.

If by any miracle, City were to go on a USA tour, please come to Washington DC and play DC United - both teams seem to be of about equal quality.

[red angler]

Well that review just about sums up the other 40 games we've played,just where do we do from here????

[Coin-op]

Spot on post gpevans.

[bobby]

Undoubtedly the biggest disappointment this season has been performances and the too often resorted to tactic of hoofing the ball long. I looked forward to this season, despite Wilson's sacking, as I expected a good, attacking, passing side to take the pitch. Sadly we have only really seen that on 1 or 2 occasions this season and have been outplayed and outpassed by other teams at AG.

For the main part the football has been boring and predictable and the results inconsistant.

Where do we go from here?