As on Wednesday, Brentford returned from North London with nothing more than a 2-0 defeat to show for their trouble. Here's Nick Bruzon's player ratings.
Of all the places to not show up, against all the head coaches, this was not the one to do it. A gift-wrapped opportunity to kick Spurs when they were down was relinquished. Instead of grasping the nettle and seeing how quickly they could turn Tottenham’s’ volatile and easily agitated fans against their own team, The Bees surrendered the initiative. The home side allowed to dominate from the off with their two goals scored, feeling more a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
By the time Richarlison popped up with the inevitable opener on 25 minutes, Tottenham had already enjoyed over 73% possession. Not even Arsenal had been that dominant on Wednesday, and they’d been playing against a rotated team with five at the back. This time around, Keith had reverted to 4-3-3 and the usual suspects. Somehow, it was worse than at The Emirates.
The ball coming down the left back channel occupied by Kris Ajer once more, although it had been played straight over the top to find Xavi Simons. Van den Berg, who had been pulled over to cut it out, failing to do so as it was served up on a plate for Richarlison. He couldn’t miss. He didn’t miss. 1-0 to Tottenham, and you had to say Clive, nobody particularly surprised.
It got worse just before the interval. With the Bees trying to build something, the ball was needlessly given away to Simons inside the Tottenham half. The provider turning poacher as he set off on an electric-paced surge back towards Caoimhín Kelleher’s goal. The speed breathtaking. The resistance, negligible. To be fair, he’d had the advantage when settling off on the run to cut through the Bees with all the ease of a hot chainsaw through butter.
Bearing down on goal, as four people closed in on him, he fired past Kelleher with rapier-like precision. Nobody had been able to get close. The net rippled. The stadium erupted (it can happen). The half-time team talk made it all the harder for Keith Andrews.
Whatever he said, Thomas Frank in the opposite changing room must have said it better. Spurs picking up where they left off as they looked to put the game beyond the point where they might do something Spursy to themselves and let The Bees back in.
Kelleher was forced into a succession of saves to keep it respectable. Brentford not even at the races, with the game already all but lost. The boys in brown so strangely off colour that one has to hope it isn’t symptomatic of anything else.
Mikkel Damsgaard was honest enough to echo what supporters felt. His own admission at full-time was that it had been “Very disappointing”. Adding, “We made a lot of bad mistakes; I thought we could have played a lot better”.
He’s not wrong, although the longer-term challenge is just what Keith Andrews can do away from his home comforts? The stats on the road paint a torrid picture at the moment.
This was a seventh defeat out of eight away from The Gtech, with only the win at West Ham preventing a full-house in the L column. Since that game, the four successive losses have only seen one goal scored, c/o Igor Thiago’s penalty at Brighton.
Indeed, taking the game with the Hammers out of the equation, Brentford have only scored twice from open play away from TW8. Igor Thiago at Sunderland and Mikel Damsgaard at Fulham. The Bees, as at Brighton, taking the lead in both those before succumbing.
It’s a concern for sure, although worth remembering we saw similar last season until Thomas Frank got things working on our travels. Now the onus is on Keith to do the same, starting with basement side Wolverhampton Wanderers in a fortnight.
Between Spurs and that one comes the always enjoyable visit from Leeds United. The opportunity to sing ‘that song’ should never be spurned. Hopefully, the memo reaches the Jersey Road training ground this week to ensure Keith and the squad have been fully briefed.
That’s to come, but for now, our usual game-by-game search for the top five players of the season. As always, five points being awarded for star player, four for second place, three for third, etc, with the totals added up game-by-game to see who ends up the eventual winner after game 38.
1st (5 points) Caoimhín Kelleher Back-to-back star player awards for Caoimhín.
If anything, his performance in this game was even better than at Arsenal, where the home side left it late to confirm victory. This time around, the half-time scoreline made it feel that unless the deficit was reduced early (it wasn’t), this one would already have to be chalked off as another defeat. He was on a hiding to nothing when play restarted, but played a blinder.
Spence, Kudus and Xavi all denied by Caoimhín’s cat-like reflexes with fine saves complementing that from Muani in the opening period. He stopped it becoming a landslide (with a bit of help from the offside flag, too) and, instead, offered some hope that if those in front of him could get going, then at least this end of the pitch was covered.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be, but this wasn’t through Caoimhín’s efforts
2nd (4points) Rico Henry. I really thought Rico would start this one. He’s fit, he’s naturally left-sided, he played against Arsenal and did really well in that one, too.
Instead, he was returned to the bench in lieu of Kris Ajer, so by the time he came on, Brentford were left chasing the game.
Still did more in those 45 minutes than most did in 90.
3rd (3 points) Igor Thiago. It was that sort of afternoon. They happen. We’re already into ‘slim-pickings’ territory, but I’ll give third to Igor. He had a couple of shots. Almost gave Brentford the lead. Errr….
4th (2 points) Keane Lewis-Potter Why Keith leaves it until the 88th minute to make tactical changes in a game that we are behind in is a mystery I’d love to know the answer to. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this routine play out, but KLP barely had time to get his boots dirty.
On the flip side, was the least responsible for an afternoon of all-around below-par performance by virtue of being given barely any game time.
5th (1 point) Aaron Hickey. See above. Albeit was afforded 12 minutes longer than KLP.
Substitutions are always a divisive thing, with everybody having an opinion on what should be done and when.
However, if you are trying to chase a game, then for me, giving those who you need to make an impact more time than less would seem to be the way forward. Then again, I’m not the head coach.
A frustrating afternoon. Let’s park it now. Next up, a visit from Leeds United. If that isn’t an incentive to get back to our best, then nothing will be.
Until then, a quick look at the star player table after 15 games. Igor Thiago closes the gap slightly whilst Caoimhín breaks into this leading group…
1st Michael Kayode – 35 points
2nd Igor Thiago – 29 points
3rd = Jordan Henderson – 23 points
3rd = Mikkel Damsgaard – 23 points
5th = Yehor Yarmoliuk – 17 points
5th = Caoimhín Kelleher – 17 points
