Roy's View From... Brentford Fans View On John Egan

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That 'less ambition than Brentford' comment is fucking with my skull. ALmost every team in the championship has ambitions to get promoted and we are certainly one of them. Or do you blow 4 million quid on a defender and hope to do worse than the previous year?
You don't hope...but you may just achieve it..if things go wrong.
 
Thanks Roygbiv , I didn't expect that reaction. As others have pointed out Brentford may only be a small club but thier fans still have the usual London delusional arrogance!

Barca and Real must be shaking in thier boots knowing The Bees are coming thier way. It surely can't be long before thier silky football gets them into the Champs League. We will just watch and admire as is our place as a set of Norfern cloggers.
Chimps league.
Not dissing chimps by the way.
 
Revisiting old threads from time to time can be quite enjoyable and the comments from the majority of Brentford fans make interesting reading now. It’s such a pity for Egan that he clearly wasn’t up to their high standards. He must be absolutely gutted at the way things have gone.
 
Revisiting old threads from time to time can be quite enjoyable and the comments from the majority of Brentford fans make interesting reading now. It’s such a pity for Egan that he clearly wasn’t up to their high standards. He must be absolutely gutted at the way things have gone.

Put Egan back in the Brentford team and he’d still probably not be good enough for their set up.
Fortunately for us Wilder has a system and players where Egan is thriving and now looks a fantastic signing for us.

An interesting comment is it appears all the Brentford defenders play the ball out of defence and Egan wasn’t up to it. Notice that at SU Egan doesn’t need to play the ball out of defence because Norwood is always close by showing for the ball, so he just passes it to Norwood instead. Wilder sets out tactics where a player uses their strengths and their weaknesses are covered by someone else.
 
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Revisiting old threads from time to time can be quite enjoyable and the comments from the majority of Brentford fans make interesting reading now. It’s such a pity for Egan that he clearly wasn’t up to their high standards. He must be absolutely gutted at the way things have gone.

It's not as good as the Coventry fans and what they thought of Fleck. Still fun though.
 
Put Egan back in the Brentford team and he’d still probably not be good enough for their set up.
Fortunately for us Wilder has a system and players where Egan is thriving and now looks a fantastic signing for us.

An interesting comment is it appears all the Brentford defenders play the ball out of defence and Egan wasn’t up to it. Notice that at SU Egan doesn’t need to play the ball out of defence because Norwood is always close by showing for the ball, so he just passes it to Norwood instead. Wilder sets out tactics where a player uses their strengths and their weaknesses are covered by someone else.
I get the impression that some Blades are only just beginning to appreciate Norwood's vital contribution in this respect .

Having someone readily available to pass to when under pressure makes life a lot more comfortable for defenders,
especially when that somebody has the ability to carry the ball 30 yards and hit a glorious pass to a forward.

Both players have played a massive part in our much improved defensive performances this season .
 
Put Egan back in the Brentford team and he’d still probably not be good enough for their set up.
Fortunately for us Wilder has a system and players where Egan is thriving and now looks a fantastic signing for us.

An interesting comment is it appears all the Brentford defenders play the ball out of defence and Egan wasn’t up to it. Notice that at SU Egan doesn’t need to play the ball out of defence because Norwood is always close by showing for the ball, so he just passes it to Norwood instead. Wilder sets out tactics where a player uses their strengths and their weaknesses are covered by someone else.
I do think thats slightly unfair on Egan he seems far more composed on the ball than Stearman ever did. He has played a few nice through balls and made some surging Maguire-esque runs but yes I take your point about round pegs in round holes. You do wonder how many players in this side would suit 4-4-2 elsewhere in the division. Duffy not really a forward but not good enough defensively for a CM. Basham not attacking enough for a midfielder but not quite big enough to be a Lump of a centre half. Really does show Wilder as a great tactician.
 
It's not as good as the Coventry fans and what they thought of Fleck. Still fun though.

There’s a pattern that most opposition supporters don’t rate many of our signings at the time, which demonstrates what a fantastic job Wilder is doing. Think there was only Enda Stevens and Ricky Holmes who were really highly rated by Pompey and Charlton fans respectively.
 



I do think thats slightly unfair on Egan he seems far more composed on the ball than Stearman ever did. He has played a few nice through balls and made some surging Maguire-esque runs but yes I take your point about round pegs in round holes. You do wonder how many players in this side would suit 4-4-2 elsewhere in the division. Duffy not really a forward but not good enough defensively for a CM. Basham not attacking enough for a midfielder but not quite big enough to be a Lump of a centre half. Really does show Wilder as a great tactician.

Agree, was talking to a well qualified football tactics man about United the other week.
He gave Basham as an example ,
said he’s an average central defender, probably league 1 standard and
he’s an average midfielder, probably league 1 standard.

So what does Wilder do? He creates this role where Basham shares the centre back role with 2 others in a back 3, then knowing that Basham has a great engine with versatily, so tells him to push up into midfield as an detected extra man and even push onto the wing supporting Baldock. So Basham and OConnell and specialist roles and both are thriving and look really good.
 
Put Egan back in the Brentford team and he’d still probably not be good enough for their set up.
Fortunately for us Wilder has a system and players where Egan is thriving and now looks a fantastic signing for us.

An interesting comment is it appears all the Brentford defenders play the ball out of defence and Egan wasn’t up to it. Notice that at SU Egan doesn’t need to play the ball out of defence because Norwood is always close by showing for the ball, so he just passes it to Norwood instead. Wilder sets out tactics where a player uses their strengths and their weaknesses are covered by someone else.

Much the way in which Brian Clough used to manage and coach his teams, that'll do for me.
 
More bad news for Brentford fans - we're just about to sell Chris Mepham to Bournemouth for £15m+. He was the main reason we let Egan go.

Still, £19m for two centre backs in a season at least means we can hopefully stay competitive in this league.
 
More bad news for Brentford fans - we're just about to sell Chris Mepham to Bournemouth for £15m+. He was the main reason we let Egan go.

Still, £19m for two centre backs in a season at least means we can hopefully stay competitive in this league.

Odd that Bournemouth appear to be the one of the few sides still looking to the championship for young talent.... everyone else seems to go abroad these days.

Only need one or two to work out and it’s a brilliant strategy. I imagine they would be asking for 30-40 million for brooks 6 months after signing him for 10-12m. Would be the same for mepham too I’d imagine if he’s successful. Even if it didn’t work out he’d retain some resale value.
 
I get the impression that some Blades are only just beginning to appreciate Norwood's vital contribution in this respect .

Having someone readily available to pass to when under pressure makes life a lot more comfortable for defenders,
especially when that somebody has the ability to carry the ball 30 yards and hit a glorious pass to a forward.

I think it should be a principle in football to never blame a player for making a sideways or backwards pass. Always blame the players round them for not making themselves available.

One of the things we used to see under Adkins was players moving the ball side to side and the fans getting wound up by the player doing it when what was really needed was movement ahead of the ball demanding it.

What Norwood does, Coutts did it too, is make it so that he's always an option for the person on the ball. It's one thing blaming players for not making attacking passes, but it doesn't half help to have a team with Fleck, Norwood, Duffy, McGoldrick, and the wing backs, who are always wanting to get in positions to receive the ball.

It makes it a lot easier for a player with limited passing ability to work within a team like ours where the other ten are constantly moving and getting into space.
 
Odd that Bournemouth appear to be the one of the few sides still looking to the championship for young talent.... everyone else seems to go abroad these days.

Only need one or two to work out and it’s a brilliant strategy. I imagine they would be asking for 30-40 million for brooks 6 months after signing him for 10-12m. Would be the same for mepham too I’d imagine if he’s successful. Even if it didn’t work out he’d retain some resale value.
He’s like a PL version of Wilder but southern. He doesn’t follow the crowd and has a clear idea of how to get to where he wants the club to be.
 
Agree, was talking to a well qualified football tactics man about United the other week.
He gave Basham as an example ,
said he’s an average central defender, probably league 1 standard and
he’s an average midfielder, probably league 1 standard.

So what does Wilder do? He creates this role where Basham shares the centre back role with 2 others in a back 3, then knowing that Basham has a great engine with versatily, so tells him to push up into midfield as an detected extra man and even push onto the wing supporting Baldock. So Basham and OConnell and specialist roles and both are thriving and look really good.
Even if you look at some of our best players they struggled playing 442 when Wilder first joined....O’Connell was extremely error prone, fleck didn’t have the freedom he’s now got, Duffy struggled to make any impact on the right, Sharp was frustrating fans with lack of match contribution albeit still scoring....now in this formation they’re world beaters. Teams know how we’re going to set up, doesn’t take a rocket scientist but we’re that good at what we do it’s hard to stop.
 
I think it should be a principle in football to never blame a player for making a sideways or backwards pass. Always blame the players round them for not making themselves available.

One of the things we used to see under Adkins was players moving the ball side to side and the fans getting wound up by the player doing it when what was really needed was movement ahead of the ball demanding it.

What Norwood does, Coutts did it too, is make it so that he's always an option for the person on the ball. It's one thing blaming players for not making attacking passes, but it doesn't half help to have a team with Fleck, Norwood, Duffy, McGoldrick, and the wing backs, who are always wanting to get in positions to receive the ball.

It makes it a lot easier for a player with limited passing ability to work within a team like ours where the other ten are constantly moving and getting into space.
Great post sir. ;)
Interesting your observations re Adkins team. Do you put that down to Adkins or the players?
 
More bad news for Brentford fans - we're just about to sell Chris Mepham to Bournemouth for £15m+. He was the main reason we let Egan go.

Still, £19m for two centre backs in a season at least means we can hopefully stay competitive in this league.
If we get promoted to the Prem, can we come shopping for Maupay please?
 
Put Egan back in the Brentford team and he’d still probably not be good enough for their set up.
Fortunately for us Wilder has a system and players where Egan is thriving and now looks a fantastic signing for us.

An interesting comment is it appears all the Brentford defenders play the ball out of defence and Egan wasn’t up to it. Notice that at SU Egan doesn’t need to play the ball out of defence because Norwood is always close by showing for the ball, so he just passes it to Norwood instead. Wilder sets out tactics where a player uses their strengths and their weaknesses are covered by someone else.
I think Brentford had Ryan Woods at the time to take the ball off the defense,and occasionally,about once a game maybe when Norwood isn't an option...you do see Egan come out with the ball and pick a pass to a wide player,but agree it's not really his game.
 
Great post sir. ;)
Interesting your observations re Adkins team. Do you put that down to Adkins or the players?

Both. Adkins didn't have a great squad, but he did have Sharp, Coutts, Basham, and Adams that are now established Championship players. He used to talk about wanting to play progressive, attacking football, starting games on the front foot and scoring goals. I think most would agree we never saw that under his reign. What we saw consistently was Adkins telling the fans they just couldn't understand what a player like Hammond did for the team, a player who promptly retired after taking us for all he could. He brought in Woolford and Sammon.

There were players in his side that clearly didn't care that much or weren't good enough. Some of them weren't Adkins' fault but enough were. And when you look at what we now know part of his squad are capable of, it's hard to sympathise with him.

Players should play for their own pride and professionalism, but there comes a point where a team is consistently playing in a certain way that you have to look at the manager. It's hard to believe that Adkins was drilling them on pass and move football while serving up that crap on the pitch.
 



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