Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “vibe”

14 Aug 2017
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Thoughts on Team for Bristol City. What are the Brentford fans saying on social media?


As much as it ever can be possible , Bees fans on social media seem united that some changes need to be made for tuesday but there is no need for panic. To summarise what has been posted and discussed since the weekend:

  1. Although Bees will always score goals there was concern over the lack of involvement of Vibe on saturday. Mostly fans agree that Watkins should start and possibly Maupay as well. I feel this criticism of Vibe is a little harsh and although have no objections with polls being posted of the best Bees player in a game, I am against highlighting the worst performing player as was done at the weekend in an online local newspaper poll. Vibe got little or no service and that is down to midfield. My hunch is that Vibe will start upfront but that Watkins will also start behind him in midfield.
  2. Midfield came in for the most criticism , and much of it fair and factual. The return of Woods will be much welcomed and there would be little surprise if the enigma that is Josh McCeahran is on the bench replaced by Watkins. Yennaris did not exactly propel himself towards a starting role tomorrow and Sawyers may take his place.
  3. The defence certainly needs a shake up. The individuals and the system need careful looking at. Concerns are growing over the need for Harlee Dean to be both marshalling the defence and also providing the leadership the team need. Egan did not have a good game on saturday and seemingly has not progressed as one might have hoped. How Dean Smith will call this is difficult to predict, however if Dean and Barbet start it would not be a huge surprise. Bjelland looked slow and predictable on saturday and most fans agree that he is not a first choice centre back at present. Rico Henry did not have a good game at all, but escaped most of the more vehement criticism. One big and interesting question is the right back position. Maxine Colin can be considered unlucky to have lost his place, however Henrik Dalsgaard is a very good and exciting player. The problem is that he was rarely seen in the right back position. For me and others he should play in the team but in a midfield role. Will he get another chance at right back tomorrow? I suspect he will. 1K4A2916
  4. Dean Smith quite rightly has come under scrutiny after two unexpected defeats and the manner of those defeats. Defensive frailty has been the keynote finding in both league games. Another bad result tomorrow will certainly put some pressure on him to turn things around soon. He continues to have both supporters and detractors.
  5. Jota. Without doubt he is an incredible player, but he certainly was not that on saturday. Difficult to speculate why, but transfer rumours cannot ever help matters. I expect to see him back to his best tomorrow .

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My prediction tomorrow is a close Brentford win, maybe 2-1 or even 1-0.

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02 Mar 2017

Sin Bins in football? FA discussing this on Friday 


IFAB who make the laws of association football have their 131st AGM on Friday. The potential introduction of sin bins is one of their topics. Many sports including hockey, ice hockey and more recently rugby already use sin bins effectively. 

My own view is that this is a good idea. Currently yellow cards are not a deterrent to teams or players . Furthermore the eventual totting up process and inevitable ban serves little in the way of punishment for the team and of no value to the team who were fouled against. Yellow cards are almost pointless . Cynical challenges have become more commonplace. Dissent seems almost obligatory. Most games contain a large number of fouls which disrupt the game and free kicks often do not serve as an appropriate swap for such fouls. 

A sin bin would mean immediate punishment and cause disruption to the offending side. Whereas red cards allow tactical substitutions this would not be feasible in the majority of sin bin offences. 

Rugby union introduced sin bins in 2001 and yellow card offences are punished with 10 minutes in the sin bin. 

A quick search through social media this morning suggests that at least 70% are not in favour of introduction of sin bins. Let’s see how the FA manage this issue. 

I would suggest that there are 2 levels of sin bin punishment as in ice hockey. A yellow equivalent should be rewarded with 10 minutes in the sin bin. The option should also be there for a 20 minute penalty for a second yellow card offence rather than a red card. 

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10 Apr 2016
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Ipswich 1 Brentford 3. Photos to Show that The Old Brentford Are Back


The result was important here as this seals the impossibility of relegation and takes Brentford up to 13th in the table and a maximum of 9 points in a week. The game was marred by the terrible injury to Alan Judge who after a reckless challenge from the seemingly unrepentant Luke Hyam suffered a double fracture of his leg.  After the tackle and when the players became aware of the seriousness of the injury it was clear that tackles on Hyam were strong and Jake Bidwell had words for Hyam as he left the pitch.

00002703 I cannot recall such anger from a  Brentford team over a challenge such as this. At a minimum it was reckless and the conspiracy theorists argue that Hyam picked his man. The only person who truly knows is Luke Hyam. What I will comment is that having seen the tackle in real time and watched it on TV many times, that there was no necessity for this tackle. It was dangerous, reckless and is the type of tackle that can end careers. there seemed little sympathy in the ground even from Ipswich fans at his eventual sending off. Good management might have dictated that he was replaced as he became a peripheral figure after that unpleasant challenge. And as of 24 hours after the incident he has posted nothing on his Twitter account to offer anything resembling repentance or even good wishes to Alan Judge. He will be a marked man at Brentford for many years to come.

What was both refreshing and encouraging for next season was to see that the workrate and tackling so much missing this last few months was clearly back. The midfield were both skilful and combative and Sam Saunders for me had one of his best ever games in a Brentford shirt. Lass Vibe scored two superb goals that maybe he might not have scored even 2 weeks ago.

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Sergi Canos gave the kind of display that should make Brentford want to sign him on a permanent contract and the 18,845 crowd included  559 Bees fans who made more noise than the 18,000 Ipswich players. Canos ran, tackled and fought for every ball. He was magical.00002822

The introduction of Jonathon Douglas in the second half did galvanise Ipswich a little and Douglas was involved in most of the decent passages of play that Ipswich had. My own view is that I would have him back at Brentford any time.

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Ipswich Town are a friendly football club and to some extent one wonders if that hampers their desire to return to the top tier. Certainly there was nothing in evidence to show that Mick McCarthy has great tactical or even motivational tactics to produce. Talking to the local fans it was clear that they feel his time has come and he should move on. The fans and the stewards are some of the most friendly football fans in our division.

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Sam Saunders epitomised the spirit shown by the Brentford players as in the photograph below.

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Even the fringe Brentford players when they came on,  and will surely feature more in this injury melee that surrounds Brentford , did their part. Gogia looked interesting and created trouble for Ipswich and Kerchbaumer also had his best game in a Brentford shirt. The photo below of a snarling Jonathon Douglas is a classic.

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Mention has to be made however of the defence who have been heavily critiscised this season, by many including myself. They were imperious. Maxim Colin was both skilful, creative and tough tackling and is the kind of player we need in the summer to boost our chances of promotion next season. Harley Dean shows the dominance to contain Freddie Sears and make him look almost anonymous. 00002828

00002830The only negatives apart from the dreadful injury to Alan Judge, were the cost to get in that Bees fans had to pay £32.50. This is too much for Championship football. Even for the home fans excluding travel, this takes the cost of a game over £100 for a couple.

But this week and maybe the day belonged to Lasse Vibe who looked every inch a Danish International striker. We should applaud him. 00002817

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Posted in brentford, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
21 Feb 2016
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A Lot of Questions at Brentford Football Club


A miserable afternoon ended with Brentford losing 1-3 to a moderate Derby County side. But for many grumbling Bees fans that was not the main issue. More worrying aspects include the recent sale of key players, no replacements, absence of anything resembling a striker who scores goals and seemingly a roulette wheel that randomly chooses the midfield players. And more importantly deafening silence from the hierarchy as to what is happening and what the plans might be. IMG_1882

For some reason that I cannot begin to fathom two of the better players were left on the bench when the team were crying out for creativity and players that in football fan parlance ” make things happen”. Sergi Canos and John Swift. Swift has his critics, but I am not one of them. He is not the box to box midfielder that maybe Douglas was, but he has far superior skill and this is his first season playing competitive football. The roulette wheel was spun and out popped Kerchbaumer and Yennaris.

  1. The first question is what exactly do either of these two bring to the team? Yennaris to be fair shows some promise as a potential wide midfielder , but not I hasten to add as a first-choice, and surely not ever as a combative central midfielder. And anyone who reads the Sky report on the game would have read words  ” a lack of presence in midfield”.
  2. The second question is why we persist with a non-goalscoring non-forward, Lasse Vibe? Vibe began the season as a wide midfielder and looked comfortable there and scored goals. Sky report a ” toothless attack” and many fans would say we have an absence of attack.

Frankly Derby outplayed and outfought Brentford all game bar the 15 minutes following a superb solo effort from Alan Judge, who must be wondering what he is doing in this team and how so much can go wrong from 4 months ago. Many fans have that question too. Is Dean Smith not the man for Brentford? I have no opinion on that but am questioning his team selection. The Derby fans also witnessed their first victory since Xmas. IMG_1880

A bigger problem though is the size of the Brentford players, who often looked like midgets when compared with the larger size specimens on display from Derby. Woods, Vibe, Judge, together equal the size of a single large Bradley Johnson. Physicality is needed in this league and in this regard Brentford are not competing .

In fact in general Brentford are neither competing nor explaining to the fans how they plan to compete. If ever a time for a Fans Forum it is now. But there is a deafening silence from the owner and his minions.

Many worried faces today and few signs that anything will improve soon. And who chose these players and on what grounds were they chosen. There was clear evidence of fan disenchantment today that is increasing by the game. One win in nine games is not acceptable. Not to the fans anyway. IMG_1879

 

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13 Jan 2016

Brentford 0 Middlesbrough 1. An unlucky evening for Bees


On the face of it Brentford a mid-table side were beaten by the league leaders and in my opinion, Champions elect. There however was a lot more to this game that on balance should be very encouraging for Brentford.

The most important thing is that this group of players are playing hard for their manager and to their potential. The second most important thing is that the fans back the team even in unfortunate defeats such as this. So what was the story of the game? We learned that David Button is an excellent goalkeeper but made one error that cost us the goal and the points. But long before Brentford should have been 2-0 up at least with chances missed and decent saves by the Middlesbrough keeper. Despite all the transfer speculation, and that is all that it is, Diadouraga and Tarkowski started and played decent games. The man of the match who improves with each performance is Maxime Colin, and for once our defence looked more solid than of late. Sam Saunders got a rare start in midfield and did not disappoint . What was apparent though was that Bees have no strikers. Lasse Vibe tries hard but he is not a lone striker and realistically would slot in to midfield in place of Saunders. Hoffman when he came on was invisible. A pair of strikers would make the world of difference to this side. The other fact that cannot be hidden is that Brentford must be the smallest side in the Championship and maybe the league. A midfield of Judge, Saunders, Woods is not a physically threatening vision. Does this matter? Maybe and maybe not.

I am encouraged by the excellent performance tonight but still wondrous at why we have not signed not it seems threatened to sign some strikers. To raid the lower leagues possibly.

But even though the rain came down again and this was the second 1-0 home defeat in 4 days there is plenty of reason for optimism. IMG_1230IMG_1232IMG_1233IMG_1234

 

Posted in brentford, championship, championship goalkeepers, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
02 Jan 2016

What have Weekend Offenders and Foot Long Hot Dogs got to do with Birmingham 2 Brentford 1 . Jan 2nd 2016


Sadly an awful football game. The first half was maybe the worst football, if one can describe it as that, all season. Neither team able to pass to another player and nothing to note other than an awful looking tackle in the 45th minute by ex-bee John Toral on Jake Bidwell. Half time arrived with the Brentford crowd baying for a red card and possible execution.

The second half was better though not by much. Brentford leaked their usual two goals with the second resulting from another error from Harlee Dean. Brentford in between scored a goal, a tap in after a goalkeeping error. Frankly this was the sort of game that neither side deserved any points. The referee was also abysmal, Graham Scott. He was finicky to the extreme. Booking an excessive number of players and stoping the game on any any pretext at any time. He ran Keith Stroud a close second in the worst referee of the week awards.

A strange Brentford team performance after recent very strong ones. Raised questions about possible tiredness? Issues behind the scenes relating to transfers?

The team was also a little unusual in that Jota was neither in the side nor on the bench, for which there may be multiple reasons but is he being transferred was the one being discussed? Alan Judge had his quietest game for months. Maybe tired, maybe took a few heavy tackles , maybe again is a transfer allegedly to Middlesbrough for 12 million on his mind? James Tarkowski had his worst game I have seen him have, but still looked good! Again, transfer issues? Tiredness? Who knows.

On the positive side Gogia looked interested when he came on with 20 minutes to go. Neither Hoffmann nor Vibe are strikers we want playing upfront alone.

So, a strange game. St Andrews is a decent ground but we always seem to lose there every time i go……so maybe all my fault.

Weekend offenders was a great piece of graffiti on a wall and foot long hot dogs smelled great. They were maybe the highlights today.

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Posted in best football photos, brentford, championship, championship goalkeepers, football, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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