Match Day Brentford vs Fulham (Friday Night - Live on Sky)

[MagpieBee]

Second derby game in a row, a great result for us last weekend but it was more down to QPR's bad play than anything we did. Expecting Fulham to put up more of a fight, but at home I'll back us to win by the odd goal.

 

[Woodworm]

We will win 5-0 or lose 5-0 maybe. So inconsistent. To be honest it comes down to how you play. If you sit back and soak up our possession you will punish us and we are predictable but if you try to play against us and attack we have so many players who can hit on the break and have decent players to find those passes we will win. All our best results come against the better sides who have tried to play. Last week against Huddersfield is the example and you can even go back to the first game of the season verses Newcastle. But look at our results we have lost to a whole host of sides who have defended tight and ended up with comfortable results​

 

[PrestonCha]

Good game this. Proper end to end local derby. Some good stuff being played.

Fulham probably just edging it.

 

[Magic]

Fulham have been very impressive. Taken me a bit by surprise.

 

[PrestonCha]

Yep, they've suddenly turned into Barcelona.

 

[JJH]

Been all Fulham, playing some great stuff. Aluko, Piazon and Martin have been superb as a front three.

 

[JJH]

Fully deserved.

Did Scott Hogan play then?

 

[Super_horns]

He did.

Slav doing a good job at the Cottage.

 

[Ciderhead]

Even though we beat them 4-0 Fulham played some great football against us, just completely lacking a cutting edge and we did them on the counter. If they've found that they could be a force to be reckoned with

 

[MagpieBee]

We were terrible last night, couldn't count the number of times we've given the ball away, and absolutely no good balls played in the final third. We ended up with a few chances to win the game but it was more about something ricocheting our way rather than us actually playing to get the chance.

Hogan was appalling again. Sure he didn't get much service but he also didn't put himself in a position to get any. He's started this thing where he stands about 5 yards offside. I know it's so he can try to escape the defender, but it also puts the midfield under lots of pressure as they have no outlet to play the ball to unless they play it at the exact right moment.

He's also chasing down absolutely nothing, and his body language tells me he's been told he can leave in January, and seemingly doesn't care anymore.

Our biggest problem today was midfield though, our CMs completely lost control of the game, Fulham's trio of Johansen Cairney and Macdonald were just better at hassling and harrying and stealing the ball.

On the wings we still look incredibly weak. Everyone seems to have a love in with Clarke at the moment (after he scored the winner vs QPR last week, and is our first academy product in the team for about a decade) but he is an incredibly frustrating player for me to watch.

He has zero end product. 90% of his crosses and shots are aimlessly smashed at the first defender. His shot on his one on one was terrible, and showed a complete lack of intelligence of what he should do in that situation.

He's quite good at getting hold of the ball and keeping it in a run down the wing, but always ends up losing it by running into a defender or just hitting it at him.

QPR aside, we're on a very poor run at the moment, where we don't look like scoring, and are conceding too many goals (not the defences fault, thought they were great today, it's the CMs who are letting us down at the moment).

For the last 5-6 games we've only scored if the opposition give it to us near the goal, and we don't press enough to make that happen on a regular basis.

I really do think we are in a false position at the moment, kept this high through Hogan's clinical finishing when he does get a chance, and Egan being a monster from set pieces. I expect us to do another dive bomb shortly towards the relegation places. We'll have enough to keep our heads above water, but we're definitely on a downward trend at the moment. Once we've sold Hogan and Judge in January, we won't have any effective attacking pieces left. God knows why we haven't strengthened there in the last couple of windows.

Rant over

 

[JustinQPR]

We beat Fulham away, Brentford beat us away, Fulham beat Brentford away.

Go figure.

 

[mpmbee]

Impressed with Fulham last, fully deserved win and pretty much a complete opposite of last week for us.

 

[mpmbee]

Fully deserved.

Did Scott Hogan play then?

He's been playing really poorly for a few weeks now, don't know whats up with him. Not offering much to the team if he isn't scoring at the moment.