Harrison did nothing last night. Alioski put a few decent crosses in the first half, and a few nearlies in the second along with plenty of poor ones. Gave the ball away quite a bit later on... one of which was particularly stupid and nearly costly. Maybe fatigue impacting judgement if I’m being generous. Not the best game for either of them
Second half Brentford parked the bus as many do at Elland Road, difference yesterday was we have quality subs to rip them apart.
.... Sometimes sides park the bus, because we pen them in and don’t give them any option. We upped the tempo in the second half and were less sloppy with our passing, which helped suffocate them. Ultimately though, we still lacked the cutting edge until we brought some pace on.
At last we beat the ER hoodoo gaining a hard fought victory for the first time in five home games. Ironically we were nowhere near as fluent last night as in those last four games. Tbh even though we showed more intent after the break I couldn't see us scoring, I was convinced we were heading to a 0-0 draw. Two inspired substitutions with the introduction of Costa/Nketiah & the buzz & atmosphere around the stadium lifted immediately. A sublime pass from Klich, Costa pace & vision set up another tap-in for our on loan Gooner please log in to view this image manic scenes in the kop Positives Three points Two inspired substitutions A superbly worked winning goal Nketiah's 100% strike-rate, two out of two Costa's 3rd assist in little game time Phillips, Forshaw, White, Dallas all impressive Clean sheet Negatives Pablo not at the races Jack also struggled Alioski is not a LB Bamford's missed chances Not as fluent or efficient as in recent games, too many poor passes & possession of the ball Another penalty denied Ratings 7 Casilla 8 Dallas 8 White 7 Cooper 5 Alioski 8.5 Phillips (MOTM) 5 Hernandez 7.5 Klich 8 Forshaw 5 Harrison 6 Bamford Subs 8 Nketiah 8 Costa 5 Berardi
I think 5 flatters Pablo, might have had foreshaw as MOM but pretty much on the mark there ‘64 from my perspective
