MATCHWATCH : Brentford (h) sponsored by end of season apathy

[Old Man Andrews]

If you're not concerned with the apparant lack of motivational skills Bowen has then you're deluded. Had we had won these first 3 after lockdown all the Bowen lovers would be talking about a play off challenge and not treating them as "nothing games". They are nothing games in hindsight because we lost two and drew one, it is an easy get out for the Bowen supporters. I don't agree with changing the manager just yet but you have to look at the facts:

Defending in general - poor under Bowen
Game management - poor under Bowen
Chance creation - poor under Bowen
Team selection - poor under Bowen
Motivation - poor under Bowen
Entertainment value - poor under Bowen

Someone name a proper positive under Bowen?

[Hound]

That’s pretty selective for his games though

Before lockdown wasn’t the team on play off form over his spell in charge or something like that? And that picking up a team in the bottom 3

Clearly there are issues and he deserves some criticism, but he has also brought in some good stuff as well

Personally I think he needs to go back and look at what he did when he first came in. It seems we’ve gone back from being the ‘nasty’ team he wanted us to be to being soft and passive again. Why is that? That’s the main question he should be asking himself

[Millsy]

If you're not concerned with the apparant lack of motivational skills Bowen has then you're deluded. Had we had won these first 3 after lockdown all the Bowen lovers would be talking about a play off challenge and not treating them as "nothing games". They are nothing games in hindsight because we lost two and drew one, it is an easy get out for the Bowen supporters. I don't agree with changing the manager just yet but you have to look at the facts:

Defending in general - poor under Bowen
Game management - poor under Bowen
Chance creation - poor under Bowen
Team selection - poor under Bowen
Motivation - poor under Bowen
Entertainment value - poor under Bowen

Someone name a proper positive under Bowen?

I was anti-Bowen when he joined and have moved to being on the fence.

But in answer to your question: easy, we are playing better under Bowen than we were under Gomes. A clear improvement. Now is that a reason to like him considering my grandma would be an improvement on Gomes? Jury's out. Depends on how he is next season. But he's certainly shown enough to earn a full season on his own and I suspect the vast majority of Reading fans would agree.

Motivational skills - yeah I'm definitely a bit disappointed in that. BUT ffs man come on these are very strange and unprecedented times. The levels of anxiety and depression in the community in general have rocketed with the lockdown, life is weird for everyone. Bowen himself has had to have his pay deferred so won't be feeling great himself. The players have been asked to not take payments. The likes of Puscas, poor young chap in a foreign country stuck indoors staring at the walls, had to break into the training ground just to get out of that. These are young kids aspiring to better things and all of a sudden the poor lads are told to stay indoors, no games, not be paid. On top of that suddenly they are made very aware their employer might never be able to afford them and may be looking to offload them asap.

In what universe would you expect this bunch of kids to be motivated? Not an easy task.

I'd have hoped Bowen would be able to do more, and in normal circumstances yes it's the manager's job, but this ain't normal circumstance at all. We need a trained psychologist or something, this is way beyond a manager's remit.

Add to all that that we're midtable and likely to do bugger all this season. However after last night's result we suddenly are in relegation contention again so that might spur the lads on a bit, who knows.

[Snowflake Royal]

oxf*rd me, it's mission accomplished for Bowen right now and still our fans want him sacked for some nothing games in unprecedented times.

Totally agree with stranded.

Agreed talk of getting rid of Bowen is utter nonsense and personally I put a lot of that blame on Radio Berks for bringing it up "Not my opinion but the tweets say...." and then spend 20 minutes talking about it. Grrrr.

On the other hand, that was utter utter dogshit last night. Stayed up til 3am watching it. More fool me.

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

[Old Man Andrews]

oxf*rd me, it's mission accomplished for Bowen right now and still our fans want him sacked for some nothing games in unprecedented times.

Totally agree with stranded.

Agreed talk of getting rid of Bowen is utter nonsense and personally I put a lot of that blame on Radio Berks for bringing it up "Not my opinion but the tweets say...." and then spend 20 minutes talking about it. Grrrr.

On the other hand, that was utter utter dogshit last night. Stayed up til 3am watching it. More fool me.

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

One of the best defenders we have ever had. I know you have only supported us since 2005 when we were good so are probably unaware of Ady Williams but if we had a team full of people like him we wouldn't be 16th. Show some damn respect.

[Hendo]

oxf*rd me, it's mission accomplished for Bowen right now and still our fans want him sacked for some nothing games in unprecedented times.

Totally agree with stranded.

Agreed talk of getting rid of Bowen is utter nonsense and personally I put a lot of that blame on Radio Berks for bringing it up "Not my opinion but the tweets say...." and then spend 20 minutes talking about it. Grrrr.

On the other hand, that was utter utter dogshit last night. Stayed up til 3am watching it. More fool me.

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

Think that is more his on air persona, gotta find something to talk about and all that. I've met him a couple of times outside of football and he is a really nice guy.

[NewCorkSeth]

oxf*rd me, it's mission accomplished for Bowen right now and still our fans want him sacked for some nothing games in unprecedented times.

Totally agree with stranded.

Agreed talk of getting rid of Bowen is utter nonsense and personally I put a lot of that blame on Radio Berks for bringing it up "Not my opinion but the tweets say...." and then spend 20 minutes talking about it. Grrrr.

On the other hand, that was utter utter dogshit last night. Stayed up til 3am watching it. More fool me.

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

I turned off the soubd when he said that. Irresponsible talking point. Gives the players yet another scapegoat to blame for their mistakes.

[leon]

Agreed talk of getting rid of Bowen is utter nonsense and personally I put a lot of that blame on Radio Berks for bringing it up "Not my opinion but the tweets say...." and then spend 20 minutes talking about it. Grrrr.

On the other hand, that was utter utter dogshit last night. Stayed up til 3am watching it. More fool me.

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

One of the best defenders we have ever had. I know you have only supported us since 2005 when we were good so are probably unaware of Ady Williams but if we had a team full of people like him we wouldn't be 16th. Show some damn respect.

+1

Hes RFC through and through. Was a great player for us and a leader on the pitch.

[paultheroyal]

From where we were when Bowen took over to now - he has done very well - he got results together which barring defeat in all our remaining games he has kept us up with a very slight flirtation with play offs with 9 games to go.

Back from lockdown, to me the players are on holiday, fatigued, lethargic and we seem to be playing players where the majority wont be at the club next season. Fans need to get behind the team to get us that one win to keep us up...

and then it should be clear out time.

Use this as an early pre-season to get a system in place or a variety of systems with those players that will be here. Cull that wage bill, recoup transfer fees and i would then like us to go to the depths of league 1 and 2 and poach all the best talent. No more transfers on wildcards like Aruna, Masika etc. There must be lightening quick and skilful wingers in league one and two. Goal poachers and hold up players. Nothing else has worked. When that team sheet came out last week all fans were creaming themselves over seeing Ejaria, Swift, Olise, Meite in the line up with words like "wow", "sexy" - but end of the day its just names. Players who are not as good as we think we are.

Bowen needs to have a long hard look at himself. I actually like the bloke. I believe he gives the players a rocket up the arse etc, but his tactics and formations and trying to fit these players in is just not working.

Brentford are a proper team, we are a team of individuals of which most wont be here next season.

[Hound]

From where we were when Bowen took over to now - he has done very well - he got results together which barring defeat in all our remaining games he has kept us up with a very slight flirtation with play offs with 9 games to go.

Back from lockdown, to me the players are on holiday, fatigued, lethargic and we seem to be playing players where the majority wont be at the club next season. Fans need to get behind the team to get us that one win to keep us up...

and then it should be clear out time.

Use this as an early pre-season to get a system in place or a variety of systems with those players that will be here. Cull that wage bill, recoup transfer fees and i would then like us to go to the depths of league 1 and 2 and poach all the best talent. No more transfers on wildcards like Aruna, Masika etc. There must be lightening quick and skilful wingers in league one and two. Goal poachers and hold up players. Nothing else has worked. When that team sheet came out last week all fans were creaming themselves over seeing Ejaria, Swift, Olise, Meite in the line up with words like "wow", "sexy" - but end of the day its just names. Players who are not as good as we think we are.

Bowen needs to have a long hard look at himself. I actually like the bloke. I believe he gives the players a rocket up the arse etc, but his tactics and formations and trying to fit these players in is just not working.

Brentford are a proper team, we are a team of individuals of which most wont be here next season.

Yeah that pretty much. That Laurnet lad at Shrewsbury might be the type of player we can pick up for nothing and install a new mentality into the squad. Really hope we dont shift out a load of crap only to spend big again

[Old Man Andrews]

Brentford are a proper team, we are a team of individuals of which most wont be here next season.

Agree fully with this but we can't use that to excuse the players from putting in a performance or at least trying to. Why do our players have no pride? Why do they seemingly not bother putting in 100% effort? You'd think players like Moore and Swift would want to put themselves in the shop window for bigger clubs but there is just nothing about them.

[paultheroyal]

Brentford are a proper team, we are a team of individuals of which most wont be here next season.

Agree fully with this but we can't use that to excuse the players from putting in a performance or at least trying to. Why do our players have no pride? Why do they seemingly not bother putting in 100% effort? You'd think players like Moore and Swift would want to put themselves in the shop window for bigger clubs but there is just nothing about them.

Agree - and as i said before - that excuse of fans on their backs when going gets tough is non applicable now, and last night was utter turgid. Clearly they need the fans to spur them on or show fight.

Olise muttered "oxf*rd bullshit" when taken off yesterday - he was so right!

[NewCorkSeth]

Brentford are a proper team, we are a team of individuals of which most wont be here next season.

Agree fully with this but we can't use that to excuse the players from putting in a performance or at least trying to. Why do our players have no pride? Why do they seemingly not bother putting in 100% effort? You'd think players like Moore and Swift would want to put themselves in the shop window for bigger clubs but there is just nothing about them.

Agree - and as i said before - that excuse of fans on their backs when going gets tough is non applicable now, and last night was utter turgid. Clearly they need the fans to spur them on or show fight.

Olise muttered "oxf*rd bullshit" when taken off yesterday - he was so right!

Olise had just misplaced the last 5 or 6 passes he made and went down heavily looking pretty tired afterwards?

[paultheroyal]

Agree fully with this but we can't use that to excuse the players from putting in a performance or at least trying to. Why do our players have no pride? Why do they seemingly not bother putting in 100% effort? You'd think players like Moore and Swift would want to put themselves in the shop window for bigger clubs but there is just nothing about them.

Agree - and as i said before - that excuse of fans on their backs when going gets tough is non applicable now, and last night was utter turgid. Clearly they need the fans to spur them on or show fight.

Olise muttered "oxf*rd bullshit" when taken off yesterday - he was so right!

Olise had just misplaced the last 5 or 6 passes he made and went down heavily looking pretty tired afterwards?

Dont get me wrong, he was just as bad as everyone else - but if he is having a bad game but thinks if oxf*rd bullshit with being taken off i am not sure what that says about the whole team.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yeah, Williams can oxf*rd off. Shit stirring little turd.

One of the best defenders we have ever had. I know you have only supported us since 2005 when we were good so are probably unaware of Ady Williams but if we had a team full of people like him we wouldn't be 16th. Show some damn respect.

+1

Hes RFC through and through. Was a great player for us and a leader on the pitch.

He was a great player, and now he's a shit stirring mediocre presenter.

[Snowflake Royal]

Agree - and as i said before - that excuse of fans on their backs when going gets tough is non applicable now, and last night was utter turgid. Clearly they need the fans to spur them on or show fight.

Olise muttered "oxf*rd bullshit" when taken off yesterday - he was so right!

Olise had just misplaced the last 5 or 6 passes he made and went down heavily looking pretty tired afterwards?

Dont get me wrong, he was just as bad as everyone else - but if he is having a bad game but thinks if oxf*rd bullshit with being taken off i am not sure what that says about the whole team.

He wasn't having a good game, but it must be galling regularly getting hooked when you're playing better than Swift and Ejaria still.

[Old Man Andrews]

One of the best defenders we have ever had. I know you have only supported us since 2005 when we were good so are probably unaware of Ady Williams but if we had a team full of people like him we wouldn't be 16th. Show some damn respect.

+1

Hes RFC through and through. Was a great player for us and a leader on the pitch.

He was a great player, and now he's a shit stirring mediocre presenter.

It is literally his job to encourage interaction from the listeners, they wouldn't have much of a show without it. He is a club legend and can pretty much say whatever he likes, he has earned the right to.

[Hound]

Olise had just misplaced the last 5 or 6 passes he made and went down heavily looking pretty tired afterwards?

Dont get me wrong, he was just as bad as everyone else - but if he is having a bad game but thinks if oxf*rd bullshit with being taken off i am not sure what that says about the whole team.

He wasn't having a good game, but it must be galling regularly getting hooked when you're playing better than Swift and Ejaria still.

usual cliche, but no one should be happy when they are being subbed should they? Be far more worried if he broke out into a big smile when his number came up

[Snowflake Royal]

Dont get me wrong, he was just as bad as everyone else - but if he is having a bad game but thinks if oxf*rd bullshit with being taken off i am not sure what that says about the whole team.

He wasn't having a good game, but it must be galling regularly getting hooked when you're playing better than Swift and Ejaria still.

usual cliche, but no one should be happy when they are being subbed should they? Be far more worried if he broke out into a big smile when his number came up

They should know the plan and why it's happening. Olise isn't getting hooked for poor performance, it's tactical and therefore part of a plan. At least it should be.

You didn't see Little or Convey pissed at being subbed for Hunt or Oster.

[NewCorkSeth]

Olise had just misplaced the last 5 or 6 passes he made and went down heavily looking pretty tired afterwards?

Dont get me wrong, he was just as bad as everyone else - but if he is having a bad game but thinks if oxf*rd bullshit with being taken off i am not sure what that says about the whole team.

He wasn't having a good game, but it must be galling regularly getting hooked when you're playing better than Swift and Ejaria still.

I imagine it is galling but I think protecting Olise is sensible. We are giving him minutes but not over relying on him. We don't want any burn out going into next season.