weedman

Do you not think that if it were that simple everyone would do it?

This. We can't keep hold of players that aren't good enough just in case we get relegated in 10 years time

You're in a job where you have a lot of time off, would you rather spend that time off chilling in Australia or Birmingham? He gets to be a big cheese scoring plenty of goals without having to put too much into it out there or slogging through training in the British winter barely even being a cog because that would require actually putting some effort in to get fit, all while earning the same amount either way. You make it sound like moving to Australia is basically the worst thing ever and only a truly selfless and dedicated professional would ever do it, in reality it's really not a difficult choice to make and the quality of life he can enjoy over there is far greater than here, I don't imagine he's gone over there for footballing reasons This is all only my opinion of course

Surprised to see this thread so far down. I've been critical of him this season but last night was much better, he even rode a couple of challenges instead of instantly going down looking for a free kick! More performances like that and (win or lose) his critics will soon disappear Edit : although his set plays are generally terrible he's actually really good at those deep free kicks and he can get really good whip on the ball in, a little bit more work on that and it will be a very dangerous weapon for him

He's just a low grade Adama Traore at the moment, must do better if he's to play any part for us

Well at least it will get his match fitness up a bit, not that it makes any difference whatsoever to his performances

He did the same thing in this game as he does in every game, overrun the ball trying to beat his man and run straight into the 2nd defender

A striker playing in a team pushing forwards to get an equaliser and he didn't manage a meaningful touch of the ball for 20 minutes. Kodjia came on in the same team for half the time and at least controlled the ball once and passed it, that's more than Hogan has offered in the best part of a year

I've been critical of him, but fair play that was his best performance for us by a country mile

Really poor again. I don't get it, he's good at beating players but literally only ever uses that to win free kicks. That free kick he won (the one he took straight into the wall) you could see he was desperate for a touch so he could go down and ended up luckily winning one after a heavy touch that almost gifted possession away. Defenders are getting wise to his tricks and pulling out of challenges, he seems to not know how to react to not winning a free kick What's even the point of winning free kicks when Hourihane isn't on the pitch? It only ends up with him taking them and he's terrible at it. If a set piece specialist isn't on the pitch I just don't see what Jack offers at the moment

I suggested earlier that the reason for that was that he was being bullied off the ball far too easily and needed some games where those mistakes wouldn't cost us as much while he got used to the physicality of the game, which made sense at RB for a few games (remember, he's only really played reserve or youth football before which is totally different). Even Bruce moved him to the center in his last few games, I think Smith will benefit from Bruce's "cluelessness", which is good for us Jedinak WAS a better option than Axel, Axel is clearly improving as the season goes on and he gets up to speed. Also, I'd argue that Jedinak is still a better option against those arseholey teams that pump the ball long to a giant of a striker every 4 seconds, games against teams like Swansea who keep it on the floor Axel is the better option - although even they started pumping a lot of high balls in at the end and causing all sorts of problems, against teams that do that from minute 1 we need someone commanding

Looked good today but really should have scored those 2 chances in the 2nd half, looks comfortably our best striker though. I also agree with other posters about the moaning, he needs to tone it down a little, one time he played an awful ball to Elmo who just about managed to get a cross in before it went out and he was moaning about the cross. Some moaning when he doesn't get a pass is OK, but not if the whole thing was caused by your own terrible pass in the first place!

To play that way properly we'd need dominant CBs, otherwise any team with a big man up front and quick wingers will kill us on the counter attack

This thread is fairly amusing. "He's been rubbish for us" "it's been tough though, poor coaching and no tactics" "but he's failed at the basics of being a footballer, like controlling the ball" "but he's proven at this level, just look at his history" "but he's been a failure for us" "he just needs more time and better coaching" And around we go. It's basically the Steve Bruce thread, tweaked slightly to suit a striker rather than a manager

Think he was saying we probably signed 100 players in that time, and to only cite 4 successes is poor, rather than saying those 4 players cost £100m

I normally agree with you Stevo, but can't agree on RHM, I think Hogan (although he has been poor) has shown much more. I really don't see what the fuss is about RHM, I know he's young, and obviously I hope he proves me wrong and stars for us, but for me he's not shown a quarter of what the likes of Gabby showed at a similar age, even players like Luke Moore and Nathan Delfouneso showed more than RHM has so far I don't particularly rate Hogan either, but for me he's 3rd choice behind Kodjia and Abraham and RHM is a distant 4th choice

Also the arguments for Chester at the moment are pretty similar to the arguments for Bruce aren't they? We're trusting that he'll come good because of his experience and the fact he was good before, same as we did with Bruce. Hoping that signing better players to play alongside him will make him better, which is pretty much Bruce's tactics, maybe he just needs better training (or a pre season)? The same isn't happening with Jedinak because he doesn't have the experience at CB, completely ignoring the fact he's been better than Chester this season and every excuse you can find for Chester is also equally valid for Jedinak On topic I hope Smith gets given more of a chance than Mile has, I think he will as he was the "fans choice" and I hope he will as we seem to be moving towards a proper structure at the club for the first time that I can remember. I always get excited about these new dawns before it inevitably blows up in our face so I'm going to enjoy the unknown before coming back to reality

I've seen the bolded bit before but I will never believe it, it's a little too Tim Sherwood for me

I don't even think that was a league game, it's a friendly and the team they're playing aren't even a proper team

See I think the opposite. He's a big character but he's super professional and I think having him there would really help Smith to implement his ideas. The likes of Grealish, Bolasie etc are big players and simply aren't going to bust a gut for someone like Smith unless he's got someone like Terry behind him. We've got big ego's in the team and it takes a big personality to bring them all in line. I don't think Smith could handle it, but the players will play for Terry, and if he's there backing up everything Dean Smith says on the training ground it could be a match made in heaven. On Smith as well. Just so everyone understands and the ridiculous straw man arguments can stop. He is a cog in the Brentford "machine", an important cog, that's doing a great job for them, but still a cog, just like Scott Hogan was a cog in their team. It doesn't mean he can't succeed anywhere else, it doesn't mean he won't succeed anywhere else. It just means his job is made a lot easier due to the infrastructure they have in place. To replicate his success for us would be far more difficult than it is for him there. It doesn't mean he can't, it doesn't mean he won't, just that it's far from a guarantee that he will, hence people's reservations about him. He's clearly a good coach, but he is (in my opinion) as much of a risk as any of the other names mentioned, however with someone like Terry alongside him I personally think it could work

I mean no disrespect but I really don't see what Paul McGraths son can contribute to our managerial search

I'm on board with the idea of Smith with Terry as assistant, Terry is super professional and would make sure the players respect Smith and that would allow him to coach them into something vaguely cohesive. There's a big difference between getting lower league players to buy into an ethos than £15m players who think they're ready for the PL and I think someone like Terry could help bridge that gap until Smith can command that respect in his own right. Don't think it'll happen, but I'd be probably more comfortable with that than with Henry or Terry as manager. At least we know Smith is a capable coach at this level and as long as there are plans to supplement any manager with a suitable hoard of backroom staff (which I hope there is) it could work

Anyone else having trouble signing in? Keep getting a server error, ironically when I put my password in wrong it works fine to tell me the password was incorrect

I am about as certain as it's possible to be without sitting down with our owners and asking them that the decision to sack Bruce wasn't made on the basis of one match

But 1) it is a rule, whether anyone likes it or not and 2) it wasn't even a bloody foul, the strikers poor first touch meant his momentum took him away from the ball and as he was off balance and stretching to get a shot in Chester stepped in front of him and cleared it. And we now get triple punished for that decision, horrendous