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Brentford (A) - Sat 17th Feb 2024 (12:30pm)

Trumo

By Trumo,
in FF - Football Forum

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Trumo Grand Master

Trumo

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Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous.

 

I don't ask for much.

 

This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up.

 

Note the early kick-off time. We got back on the bike against Burnley at the weekend. Granted it was tentative in the first half and we only really woke up in the second, but we merited the 3 points in the end. As we play before City, we have a chance to extend our lead at the top of the table once again. We wouldn't expect them to drop points at home to Chelsea on Saturday evening, so just take it one game at a time and just stay ahead and see what happens. It's weird how they always seem to have games in hand when they are chasing.

 

Brentford at the GTech Community Stadium then. It's a crap name for an OK stadium, and the problem with new builds is that they very rarely have a name of their own from the beginning. Bolton's ground is still referred to as The Reebok even though the sportswear firm has nothing more to do with them. You wonder what Arsenal's ground will be known as should Emirates ever ditch them. A game there is a much tougher test than Burnley at home, particularly for us as we haven't matched up especially well when travelling to Brentford. They have a directness about them which is not Burnley (Dyche era) or Wimbledon (any era) alehouse shit. They can play a bit of football in the last third, it's more how they choose to get there that is a conundrum for teams such as ours that likes to squeeze the pitch vertically and press higher up the pitch.

 

Last year's fixture, our first game of 2023, was an absolute shambles from the men in red (wearing their green away kit). Defensively we were dreadful all game. Virg looked more off the pace than any time we've seen him in Liverpool colours, and Ibou suffered from a mixture of his own clumsiness plus not being dominant physically. Kostas was overrun constantly. Darwin should have put us ahead early on when he got onto an inch-perfect through-ball and rounded David Raya, only to find Ben Mee on the line in the only place where the defender could have done anything about it. After that, we became sloppy and it led to a succession of corners. Brentford took the lead when one of those corners wasn't dealt with, with the ball bouncing off the unfortunate Ibou and into his own net. The rest of that first half was the dictionary definition of 'shambles' as I mentioned earlier, as Brentford scored another from a corner (through Wissa, with the goal confirmed by GLT despites Ali's valiant attempt to keep the ball out) and also had 2 goals disallowed from offside after we yet again failed to deal with their corners. We were beleaguered and half time couldn't come soon enough as 2-0 did not tell the full story. Jurgen rang the changes, bringing off Virg (who it turns out had picked up an injury - physical and not just to his pride), Kostas and Harvey. Darwin had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside before Ox got us a goal back, planting a header low into the corner from Trent's fine left-footed ball in from the right. Any chance that we might claw back to equalise was dampened as we became scrappy once again, and was finally extinguished when Ibou was outmuscled (possible tripped?) by Mbeumo, who ran clear to fire past Ali. We were hopeless, and it was an indicator of our away form for the first couple of months in 2023. The defence was all over the place, the midfield had no legs and the attack was inconsistent.

 

Whenever I write these, I have no idea who will be available or, more pertinently, who will drop out. A flu bug was going round the squad last week so there may be others who are not able to train fully this week. I would hope that Ali, Joe and Dom are available again. Ibou should be back after his 1-match ban. I would also hope Conor is back and he is able to re-find his focus after a very difficult couple of weeks off the pitch. Mo is apparently a week away but if possible, I would save him until the League Cup final and even then, only as a sub. Trent, Dom and Thiago have all suffered minor setbacks after their returns from injury recently. Whoever is available, we really need to try and make a decent fist of our trip to West London for once. The season before last saw us draw 3-3 in a game we didn't game-manage properly. Maximum motivation and attitude, but especially concentration and application, from first minute to last is an absolute requirement. 3 points please. Get it done!

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AngryOfTuebrook Grand Master

AngryOfTuebrook

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Difficult fixture, this one, so there's plenty for the TLW doom-mongers to get their teeth into this week.  The good news is that, despite some injuries, we will have a much stronger squad available than last year (when we started with a midfield of Elliott, Fabinho and Thiago). Do all the good stuff and none of the bad stuff and we should get our first league win there since 1938.

 

Just get these beat, Reds.

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Smell The Glove Community Regular

Smell The Glove

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Huge game this. I'm actually glad they beat Wolves to kind of make them not as desperate. I assume Trent is out so I think Klopp will go with Gomez. I just don't think he will be changing the system at this late stage and I don't see Bradley or Robbo in that role. Konate is back which is good on the physical side with Toney. This is where winning our Europa League group comes into play. Gives us a full week to prepare and we usually are decent when Klopp has that. Narrow win and then *spits* cheer on Chelsea.

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elvis Mentor

elvis

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17 hours ago, Smell The Glove said:

Huge game this. I'm actually glad they beat Wolves to kind of make them not as desperate. I assume Trent is out so I think Klopp will go with Gomez. I just don't think he will be changing the system at this late stage and I don't see Bradley or Robbo in that role. Konate is back which is good on the physical side with Toney. This is where winning our Europa League group comes into play. Gives us a full week to prepare and we usually are decent when Klopp has that. Narrow win and then *spits* cheer on Chelsea.

One of the first on the team sheet for me if he's ok 

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Smell The Glove Community Regular

Smell The Glove

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7 minutes ago, elvis said:

One of the first on the team sheet for me if he's ok 

Trying to second guess Klopp. I don't see him changing system after playing it all season. It's been Trent and Gomez who have played that role so my guess would be Gomez starts Saturday. It would be interesting to see Bradley and Robbo as attacking full backs, I just don't think we will.

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Mook Grand Master

Mook

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1 hour ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Our fourth 12:30 away, following 

Wolves 1 - 3 Liverpool

Man City 1 - 1 Liverpool

Palace 1 - 2 Liverpool

 

This season is really not like last season.

 

Good results but some very patchy performances in there. 

 

I'm not sure any set of supporters like to see that kick off time.

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