Whilst hearing the commentary last night I felt a bit of deja vu. It appears that pretty much every week we are pretty ordinary in the first half and then seem capable of raising our game in the second half. I don't know if this is due to slack play on our part and NA getting things sorted at half time or by his making good substitutions and tactical changes or if it is the case that lesser quality teams are able to bridge the gulf in quality for the first half and then run out of puff to harry and chase late in the game. Maybe our conditioning is superior to other teams and certainly I am convinced that our ability to bring quality off the bench will be key for the rest of the campaign. I am starting to feel very optimistic as we have Hooper and Howson in the wings and when injuries and suspensions start kicking in later in the season I am convinced that our squad depth will enable us to cope far better than anyone else in the division.
Great managers usually like to try and control the game until 60 70 mins then go for the win by bringing on fresh blood for the last 30 mins. Mourinho has always done this. A poor manager will do absolutely nothing even if his side is 2 goals down then make a sub with 3 mins on the clock..
I thought it was a very cagey first half, with Brentford set up to frustrate us - which they did very well until we scored. Yes they had 2/3 decent chances, but I don't know what game the bbc reporter was watching when he talks of a "one-sided first-half" as we were never under any sustained pressure and I never had any doubts that we'd come out in the second half and do the business. Another thing that is going to be a huge improvement on last season is that we have been far less predictable so far, trying slightly different formations and personnel rather than lining up with the same tactics week in, week out that we did last year which made it incredibly easy for the opposition to set up to stifle us. We've got so many options and so much quality this season something would have to go seismically wrong for this campaign to turn sour, and right now I can't think of a single thing that could do that.
All the opposition needed to do was stop Snodders cutting in on his left foot and our team became completely impotent .
I think we've got to be realistic. First halves away from home are always going to be about soaking up the pressure. I also think fitness made a difference last night. In the first half Brentford matched us. In the second we were quicker in all areas.
I think Neyul said it himself - be patient and wear them down, then just take the James Riddle from circa an hour on.
Which is what the big boys did to us last season. The first half will be different against Brum, who ar more likely to park the coach in front of goal.
