Referee: Paul Tierney.
Assistants: Nick Greenhalgh, Mark Scholes.
Fourth official: Tim Robinson.
VAR: Stuart Attwell.
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard.
Well it's probably been the most disappointing week of the season so far, certainly in terms of performances, probably results too. We probably should have beaten Luton with the chances we created but didn't play well overall. Unfortunately that was followed by what was possibly an even more lacklustre display in Europe where we nearly secured another late draw but for a strange VAR decision - I guess you can argue maybe we didn't deserve it but the goal should have stood according to the current rules I believe.
Which leads us into Sunday's game against Brentford under a bit of a cloud. Add to that a fair few players missing in midfield and I'm anticipating a tough game, although our home record is significantly better than our away.
Lets hope Virgil is over his illness, we need strong leadership and to be ready to battle hard for the points this weekend.
The fight has seemed to have gone out of us a little the last couple of games but these players have shown they can fight when we've been up against it this season, so perhaps with two games a week becoming more regular its possible that tiredness is creeping in.
It didn't sound promising for either Jones or Gravenberch being available for Sunday and with Mac Allister suspended and Gakpo struggling to get back to last seasons level after injury it's likely to be Endo, Szoboszlai & Harvey unless Jurgen has something else up his sleeve.
Up front Salah & Nunez seem guaranteed so it's between Jota and Diaz on the left. They offer different things and with a potentially weaker midfield it may come down whoever offers more on the defensive side.
The defence obviously depends on if Virgil's ready, if so I imagine it's him, Konate, Trent and one of Gomez or Tsimikas. It may be Gomez again with Kostas not really finding his form despite playing more since Robbo's injury.
All of which doesn't leave a great deal in terms of game changers on the bench, so we have to hope we can be on it from the off and take our chances when they come. If we'd taken our chances in the last two games then despite the performances we'd probably be going in with a bit more confidence.
Anyway onto Brentford, who have recovered well after a slow start winning their last 3 scoring 8 and conceding 2. They also have the advantage of not having played during the week, so will have been focused on identifying our weaknesses and will hope to exploit them if we're not at our best again.
I don't mind Brentford as a club, they seem one of the better run with a decent manager and a good recruitment/coaching system which is getting the best out of their players on the whole. They are obviously still missing the player Darwin Nunez wishes he could be (Ivan Toney), according to someone in his thread
but Mbeumo has been scoring and others have been chipping in as well which means they've scored more than anyone else below 7th.
Defensively they ship over a goal a game, but haven't conceded more than 3 in any one game and believe it or not that was to Everton! Though they have conceded 2 or more on five occasions including against West Ham last time out. They also have just the one away win since August against Chelsea, so they can be got at.
On the injury front they seem to be missing the two full backs that started the season with Aaron Hickey & Rico Henry out long term. Also Kevin Schade who was starting when they play 3 up front is out for a while. They seem to play 4-3-3 when at home or against weaker teams while preferring either a 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 when away or against stronger teams so I think thats what we can expect to face.
As I said at the start this will be a tough test coming off our last two results but I think there's room for optimism, they do concede and if we can get a couple that might be enough if our defence is on form.
Come on Reds let's go into the next (Yes another fuckin) international break on the up, hot on the heels of the leaders, as we know who comes next. Lets make that a game for top spot but to do that we must win here.
I'm going for a hard fought 2-1 but I really hope we can score early for a change or at least not concede first.
Hopefully Darwin & Mo can do the business
