Brentford vs Huddersfield Town

Competition: EFL Championship Matchday 2

Date: 19/09/2020

Score: 3-0

Ground:Brentford Stadium

After a feisty first half which saw an early chance for Bryan Mbeumo and two very good chances for Ivan Toney. Town went into half time frustrated that both Harry Toffolo and Christopher Schindler had gone off injured while Juninho Bacuna was lucky to not be left very seriously injured after being on the end of an ankle breaking tackle from Christian Norgaard. The out of control, studs first tackle was only given a yellow card by Premier League official Craig Pawson, one which I am sure Thomas Frank was relieved to see.
The second half was rather disappointing for Town, Josh Dasilva stroked the ball home from the edge of the box. An Alex Pritchard corner was brilliantly met by Bacuna who was very unlucky not to have equalised after his header from the edge of the box hit the post, with the ‘keeper beaten. Town reverted to type in the 86’ when Bryan Mbeumo wriggled through in the box and laid off Forss who calmly slotted the ball into the goal. Things went from bad to worse for the Terriers when Mbeumo scored the goal of the game when he finessed it into the top left corner from the edge of the box. The result leaves Town still chasing their first goal and point of the season.
Town's next game is matchday 3 in the EFL Championship next Friday (25/09/2020) at home to Nottingham Forest.

5 Conclusions from the Game

1. Defensive Issues

In my opinion both of the first two goals were preventable – the third not so much, I think you can only applaud the finish. The first two goals was schoolboy defending. When your centre back is being skinned on the half way line, you know there is an issue and we also left a player all free by himself in the box for the second goal. With the attack playing the way it is at the moment the best chance we have got of getting a point let alone all three is stopping the opposition from scoring but we are struggling to stop defensive errors at the moment.

2. Dead ball restarts

Town look so vulnerable when play is restarted whether it be a corner, free kick or throw in. I don’t understand it. When it’s the reverse its like we are again vulnerable. The goal last week for Norwich came from our dead ball which we passed that much backwards putting ourselves under pressure that we could have so easily have avoided.
You could see it last season that if you had a goal difference just for set pieces we would have had one around -16.

3. Importance of cashflow

Although it seems like some fans are under some conspiracy that Phil is trying to ruin the club and is trying to be cheap by not signing anyone, I don’t think this is true. The fact that Karlan Grant is not being played even though he is match fit points towards him being involved in a transfer and it is Town’s way of making sure the deal is not pulled due to an injury. Once that deal is done I think it will free up some cash to strengthen the squad.
Furthermore, when Grant is eventually sold, Town will not get all of that money upfront, ‘add ons’ may make up some of the deal i.e £2 million after twenty goals. The way the transfer is structured also plays a massive part. If Town are guaranteed £15 million (like the Billing deal), West Brom may only pay £5 million up front and then £2.5 per season for the next 4 seasons. So although it looks like Town have all this money – they do, it is just not accessible to them yet!

4. Give Carlos Time

I can clearly see Carlos’ ideas on the pitch but I think too many of the players are square pegs in round holes. While this is the best I have seen the players play this season, it was only for short spells. We started off well today and I could see some of the one touch passing starting to take shape but clearly we couldn’t keep it up throughout the game. I also think the injury to Toffolo didn’t helped considering that full backs are key parts to a Corberan system.

5. Let’s not over react

I said last week on twitter that we would have taken a 1-0 defeat to Norwich considering we were expecting a 4-0 defeat. Today we were second best but I don’t think we deserved to lose 3-0, 1 or maybe 2 would have been fair. I think people reacting like we have just been beaten 5-0 by Wycombe is a bit uncalled for as I don’t think anyone who thinks about it logically was expecting anything from these first two fixtures.
Anyway, 'Season starts next week…'

Town Team:

Starting 11: Ben Hamer, Pipa, Christopher Schindler (45+4' Romoney Crichlow), Richard Stearman, Harry Toffolo (36' Jaden Brown), Jonathon Hogg, Juninho Bacuna, Alex Pritchard, Adama Diakhaby (62' Fraizer Campbell), Josh Koroma, Isaac Mbenza
Subs: Joel Pereira, Demeaco Duhaney, Matty Daly, Ben Jackson, Jaden Brown, Romoney Crichlow, Fraizer Campbell
Formation: 433