Brentford v Newcastle United Preview: Waiting for Plan B to arive

Andy The Magpie

Brentford this weekend is the final match of Jonjo Shelvey’s five-match ban and the way the other four games have gone, his return can’t come soon enough.

Have we played well for ninety minutes in his absence? No, me neither. Definitely not Sheffield Wednesday or Blackburn Rovers when we were just the right side of lacklustre. Not quite awful but heading down that path.

The lack of guile and ingenuity from midfield was very evident. Without Shelvey’s influence, we were one-dimensional and not very good at that either. But if we’re truthful – and as football supporters, we are top-notch self-deceivers – this run hasn’t been just through his absence. We were out of sorts when he was in the side.

One defeat in fourteen became four in eight; the Championship proved to be a scorpion with a hefty sting in its tail. No matter what our expectations – and mine were genuinely higher than the play-offs – the season has broken them. We’re good enough to go up automatically on our good days but we’ve been decidedly average too often in recent weeks.

Losing your key player is a problem a lot of clubs struggle to overcome. You can’t fit two Shelvey’s in the team, and if you have a player equally as good, they sure as hell aren’t going to sit on the bench week in, week out, and be happy.

However, we could do with a Plan B. We’re a more than a bit predictable now and quite a few teams have worked out that if they sit deep, we lack the guile and wit to break them down. Plan B must be more than the usual meaning in football parlance which reduces it to slinging on another forward or defender.

Rather than that, we need a genuinely different way of playing. Rafa’s done well to get us into the top two – even if our expectations saw that as a minimum – with a huge churn of players in the summer.

It took a few weeks for it to gel, but this recent patchy form has been an eye-opener in certain respects.

There are two solutions for Plan B: new tactics or new players.

While we play and naturally smooth passing and moving game, there are a lot of variations to use without being overly sophisticated to the point where Rafa should be able to look at the bench and switch mid-game from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 or vice versa. We do it by fitting a series of square pegs into round holes.

I welcome the talk of Tom Ince from Derby but dipping into the market is a double-edged sword for Rafa. He has an immediate problem to solve – getting back to promotion `form – but also looking at players who will improve the side so that we stay up next season rather than becoming a yo-yo club like ‘Boro or the Mackems.

We’re on the cusp at the moment; our season could go either way. Refocus, re-find our form or be dragged back into the chasing pack. It’s about this time of year where one team usually starts to open a gap at the time. For a long time, it looked like it would be us.

Now, we might be vulnerable because of predictability. Time for Plan B to emerge.

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315 thoughts on “Brentford v Newcastle United Preview: Waiting for Plan B to arive”

  4. Having a few problems with this site last few days, difficult to post as it takes ages to type. other sites ok

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  9. Hello Ice… it’s been just Kim and I for almost the full first half… we were wondering where everyone was…. hope Gayle is not too badly injured and hope too that Murphy takes his chance.

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  11. hi guys, just want to let you know I am also here checking your comments from time to time. Maybe it just a coincidence others are not showing.

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  17. yeah just realised Dubai. Must hang on to this lead cause the game was turning after we lost Gayle.
    Massive boost to those around us knowing he and Mitro are both injured now.

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  25. No Gayle , no Shelvey no hope by looks of it. 😳 and again the defence gets a case of the jitters.

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  26. How many times has the commentary team said Yedlin gives it away today, lads having a mare by sounds of it

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  33. Seems like we could lose this … ?

    They just said no goal line technology in championship? Really? I didn’t know that… amazing that it’s not used

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  35. If signings aren’t made asap or loans we have no chance of winning this league. We are running on empty here, has Murphy even had a touch yet ?

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  37. Injuries racking up, add that to the ACON players and we need to buy some players but having said that, Brighton losing and also Huddersfield. Good day for Leeds so far.

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  42. This is turning into a fecking nightmare now, if we leave there with a point it will be a miracle .

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  45. Basically this is where the game management that Rafa was talking about comes in. Can we come away from this game with something? A draw away is always a good point.

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  47. the auto promotion is ours to throw away. Brentford have a decent record.

    I reckon we’ll get a late winner. Hanley the hero 🙂

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  48. Stu, We will not win this league with Mitro, Gayle and Hayden and now Anita all out for a few games we don’t have a big enough gap built up to imo. We need players in asap anyone can see that. And no we’re not losing BUT we sound all at sea.

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  49. Gashley:
    the auto promotion is ours to throw away. Brentford have a decent record.

    I reckon we’ll get a late winner. Hanley the hero

    Please god you are right

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  57. Kim – We don’t know how serious the injuries are. The players are at the end of a very hard period with lots of games so it could and is more likely to be a bit of wear and tear – Anita apart. Let’s not jump to too many conclusions just yet. I don’t see any better squads than ours.

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  59. Makes big sigh of relief, hopefully this means we’ll at least get a draw and hopefully hang on for the win.

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  61. Stuart79:
    Kim – We don’t know how serious the injuries are. The players are at the end of a very hard period with lots of games so it could and is more likely to be a bit of wear and tear – Anita apart. Let’s not jump to too many conclusions just yet. I don’t see any better squads than ours.

    can’t help it mate and ffs Goofy has the physio now 😯

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  62. Stu, that’s good given he’s hardly had a touch all game, fair play to the lad. Still need bodies in though.

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  69. Mackems losing and Toad of toad Hall not off to the best of starts. Not keen on palace after pards and now allardyce and their fans being all smug.

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  73. What goes around comes around … we got a few decisions today…

    9 mins added on ????????????

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