Sat Sep 03, 2011 6:47 pm
Its funny how 2 people in the same stadium watching the same game can have opposing opinions of players.
A) First half and most of the game, Nicholls pace was our only threat. He was also the only one who deceided to remotely attack in a very poor first half.
B) Gnapka came on and flattered to deceive yet again, winning the header in the area and picking the ball up in decent positions, only to try and do some brazilian style turn, flick or over play and eventually lose the ball. He did it once down the right hand side and once down the left hand side where he hit the bloke right in his grapes. He's as frustrating as Byfield but Byfields end product was better.
C) I thought the atmosphere during the pressure was being applied in the second half was decent enough.
D) Most of our attacking play did come with Hurst involved at times, but that's the reason we had no cutting edge. He looks slow, has no tricks and his corners aren't great.
E) Smith got selection almost right. Although he should have taken Jarvis off at half time, let Nicholls pace work off Macken and play Gnapka wide right.
Overall, we lost todays game due to our inability to play for more than 45 minutes. Brentford were solid, stood their ground, pressed us and made it impossible for our lets say 'technically lacking' players to have an impact on the game. They were big and strong and defended well.
I think today overall summed up the negatives and positives of the whole Walsall FC playing team and squad at the moment. Looking at things, Bournemouth and Orient we've both beaten which shows we have enough to beat the struggling teams. We've lost to Middlesborough, Sheffield United and Brentford, the teams that havev bigger budgets than us and are tipped to do well. That kind of sums us up, we have the effort and enough about us to beat the crap teams (which is positive, seen as last season we didnt), but we dont have the finance to pay the players wages who have sufficient quality as well as the effort to beat the better sides.
Taundry and Chambers came up against O'connor and Douglas, who were strong, mobile and tough tackling and BOTH of them failed. Effort is one thing, but effort and class are far apart. Hurst looks slow to me and at times his pace really lets him down. The defence played well, especially Westlake and Butler who did the defending very well and Sadler who did the defending part well, but constantly over hit long diagonal floaty balls out of play.
On a positive note, at least we worked Lee in the second half. He and the Woodwork were the only reasons Brentford left with the points. He made a couple of cracking saves especially from Hurst and Nicholls late on.
Grof 7 - Didnt actually have that much to do, but his kicking was good and his communication is improving
Westlake 8 - Contender for MOTM for me, got forward when he could, especially in the second half and defended very well when was required to do so. Ever improving
Butler 8 MOTM - Typical Butler style performance. His performances haven't stood out as much as last season because the players around him look better, but his attitude, organisation and 'body on the line' style of attitud shouldnt be forgotten or taken advantage of. Still our most important player.
Smith 6 - Actually defended okay, but Donaldson gave him the run around at times with his movement. Its his constant hoof that lets him down, his close control, passing and actual 'football' are far worse than Ian Roper's. He has 5 days a week to practice, give him some ball time for god sake.
Sadler 7 - Defensively solid as always, particularly whilst under pressure from the opposing attackers. His distribution and attacking play weren't as good as we've been used to though. I suppose a defender is o nthe pitch to defend.
Chambers 6 - Again didnt really get a foot hold in the game. He hasn't got as involved since his red card against Middlesborough. He looked dis-interested tuesday night and depsite being more invovled again today didnt get enough control. Wonder if his lack of games for Orient in the last couple of seasons are effectiving how fit he is.
Taundry 6 - Same as Chambers. Didnt get a foot hold and gave the ball away. Wish he would stop playing the dreadful reverse ball he does, aimlessley down the line. He did it once with his left foot today and it looped in the air for a Brentford centre back to gobble up, if he'd have looked lfet there was an easy 10 yard pass on.
Nicholls 7 - Played well again I thought. The bloke behind me said towards the end of the half, Nicholls is the only one interested at having a run at their fullbacks. Faded a bit in the second half, but its no co-incidence that we looked lively with Nicholls's pace upfront Tuesday night in the first half and had our best spell today when he went upfront.
Macken 6 - Didnt really get involved, was clearly not fit and was hobbling before Smith replaced him after 55 minutes. Tried hard, but you can tell he's nowhere near fit.
Jarvis 6 - Did something decent followed by something dreadful. His lack of pace and agility is worrying, he also looks knackered 60 minutes into a game as we should be pushing high up the pitch. Nice strike that hit the bar though.
Gnapka 6 - Didn't really do much for me. Yes we became a bit more direct and yes he did look a bit more interested, but all he did was drag one shot wide, and lose the ball on either wing having skinned his man due to 'fecking around' like he's playing for Brazil. Needs more end product. You can't constantly play someone due his heading ability.
Not the best performance today then, but not as bad as last season. I dont think we're going down, but we wont be going up. Bring on Notts next week, sounds as though they played well today so that should be a big test.
