Brentford 5 Wolves 3 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
Brentford 5 Wolves 3 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Walter Porter, Mr Liam Keane from the G-Tech. I can't
00:13believe I'm about to say this, scoreline, crazy game. Brentford 5, Wolverhampton Wanderers
00:183. Look, Gary Neal described it as the worst performance he's seen by a considerable distance
00:25as a manager. When you come away in any Premier League game and score three goals, you expect
00:31to go away with a win, with three points, probably 90% of the time. They've not only
00:36come away with not three, not one, zero, but lost the game by two goals. Just absolutely
00:41astonishingly bad. And lost it comfortably as well. They were in the game for all of
00:47five, ten minutes across 90. Look, they scored three goals. Going forward, it's not necessarily
00:56the overall problem. Against Liverpool it was, but overall, going forward, they still
01:01look dangerous, they're still creating opportunities. Two of the goals in particular, the two first
01:06half goals, were actually very well worked and very good goals. But the defending was
01:11atrocious again. I mean, it's schoolboy stuff, it really is. Credit, first of all, to Mario
01:20Lamina, who has come out and spoken to me after the game, done an interview, which will
01:26be out Sunday night. As captain, you have to come out and do that. You've got to. He
01:32has to, he has to come out and do it. And he has, he's been level-headed and he's spoken
01:38honestly and thoroughly through where the issues lie here. But a player, and credit
01:44to him for that, and that's leadership, and I respect it, but his performance was horrendous.
01:49He wasn't the only one. Totti Gomez, a player I'm a fan of all over the place. I could go
01:55through the vast majority of the teams, but Joao Gomez takes 20 touches before making
02:00a pass. Players that are way better than that as well. These aren't poor footballers, these
02:06are players who have played at the Premier League level and performed consistently. The
02:11mistakes that Wolves made were way beyond the kind of errors they should make at this
02:19level. And it's not just this game, it's almost every game they've made errors. And defensively
02:23it was just terrible.
02:25Completely devoid of confidence, aren't they, at this moment in time? You look at it and
02:29there's no hiding place. And they're getting, I mean, Brentford are a decent enough set-up,
02:34decent, but they've got lots of injuries. Like you say, they're playing four centre-backs
02:37across the back, the back four. They've lost Visa, obviously Tony's gone as well. And every
02:43single set-piece, they looked petrified. They could have scored eight, nine, ten goals here
02:52today. Honestly, it was an embarrassment. You speak to the fans afterwards and they're
02:56furious. Look, there were audible boos there, there was some chanting. Look, fans, a lot
03:04of the fans aren't happy with Gary Neill. A lot of the fans are looking towards Fosun
03:07and the ownership. You've got to look to the players as well, as you've just said, they've
03:12got a sense of responsibility. But it's a mess at this moment in time. Wolves are 20th
03:16and you talk about this difficult period of games that they're playing and it is very
03:20difficult. They've got the hardest strength of schedule and they've got Manchester City
03:24next and they go away to Brighton before it gets, in inverted commas, a little bit easier.
03:30I don't think it's going to get any easier because if you play like that, if you continue
03:33to play like that, you're going to get beat by these teams as well and you're going to
03:35start getting cut adrift. Something needs to change. Gary Neill offered absolutely no
03:41excuses whatsoever. He's furious, I think. But he said that these mistakes will never,
03:45ever happen again. He's never seen some of those mistakes. It's very difficult to replicate
03:49them. But like you say, Liam, each week these mistakes are creeping in and that's the problem.
03:54That's the worrying thing.
03:56Absolutely. These are individual, experienced footballers. It was Smeder last week with
04:01a penalty, Lamina this week with a penalty, Lamina for the third goal. I could go through
04:06each goal and look at where the problems were. The worst goal for me, probably by far, is
04:12that Ethan Pinnock goal. I think that's absolutely dreadful. How is a Premier League team conceding
04:17from that corner?
04:18And that distance as well.
04:19Exactly what I was about to say. He's 15 yards out. He's unmarked. Larson doesn't get close
04:24enough to him. Wins the header and I've got no idea how he gets through. Johnson's flatfooted,
04:30goes past him. He had a poor game again today amongst, as I say, amongst almost the whole
04:36side, really. It's nowhere near good enough from the players. At the same time, Gary Neal
04:43has to make a change, has to make a change. And he's basically said that in the press
04:46conference, hasn't he? I mean, you were in there, I wasn't in there at the time speaking
04:49to Lamina, but he said that something's got to give, there's got to be a system change
04:53here, a formation change. And to be honest, I said this in there, last week for me was
04:57the week to do it. Didn't do it. Almost got a result, albeit more defensive errors. Because
05:02he didn't do it last week, you couldn't do it here. There's no way he could come here
05:05to Brentford and do it. It has to happen now. In Man City after that international break,
05:09you have to make that change now. And I think it'll be a three or back five, however you
05:14want to phrase it. I think that's what we'll see. Whether it's all three centre-backs playing,
05:17whether it's stock playing the centre-back, whatever it might be, I think that's what
05:19we're going to see. And I think Wolves have to do it.
05:21He said there needs to be a rethink. He's got to rethink it and basically said that
05:26he can't have the players playing the system. They haven't got the ability, or at least
05:30at this moment in time, playing the system that he wants to play. So he's got to change.
05:34He's got to change. Three midfielders not working. It's not working at all. He's talked
05:39about getting the best players on the pitch, but at this moment in time, I'm not sure that
05:42that's the case. I don't think you just play your best players in different positions.
05:45It's obviously not working. You know, Andre was pulled today. I thought it was a bit harsh
05:48for Andre to get pulled, but you can understand it when they've got to get back into the game.
05:52You know, Gio Gomez, Mario Lamina, like these three are not working because, yes, the defence
05:57was poor, but the way that, you know, you talk about these three central midfielders,
06:01the way that Brentford cut through the midfield today as well, was astonishing. Astonishing.
06:06This is Brentford we're talking about here. Look, the fans are angry and you can understand
06:11that as well. And look, they want someone to blame and people have got to start taking
06:14responsibility. And I think, is it the ownership? Is it the manager? Is it the players? It's
06:18probably a combination of all three.
06:19I was going to say exactly that. I think it has to be. I've spoken to Lamina out there
06:23and I say I can't give away exactly what he said because it is under embargo, as I say,
06:27for Sunday night. We'll be able to read exactly what he said. But basically taking responsibility
06:33as the players. Gary Neal's done that in there. At the same time, I think they've been left
06:38short in the summer, or Gary has rather. At the same time, he has to make a system change,
06:43has to make a formation change. I think they've naively and stubbornly stuck with what they
06:48have been doing for one or two games too long. And that means that for me, the blame
06:52is spread. I don't think anyone's innocent in this scenario. And Wolves fans deserve
07:02a lot better. I feel incredibly sorry for Hwang Hee-chan as he's coming on and his substitution
07:10being booed with chance of you don't know what you're doing. I understand why the fans
07:15do it. He's bang out of form at the moment. He's nowhere near his level. He's not playing
07:19anywhere near how he can play. But he is a good footballer who means well and is trying.
07:25I feel sorry for him on a personal level. But that feels like a watershed moment. As
07:29soon as fans start to chant those kind of chants, start to complain about decisions,
07:35it happened to Bruno Large. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Gary Neal is going to be
07:38gone and the noise from being here today is that he's not going anywhere and he's got
07:43time. But there has to be a change quickly. It does not get any easier. Man City at home.
07:50You need something. You need some sort of impact.
07:52You do. But I think the time has gone from we're playing well in periods. End of the
07:56day, you've got to start getting results. I don't care. I don't care whether you have
07:59to shoot out a 1-0 or a 0-0 or something like that. You've got to get a result. I think
08:04almost like the performance almost has to go out the window now. You've got to start
08:07getting results. And then hopefully, fingers crossed, you pull away from the bottom of
08:12the table and then you've got a little bit more freedom and then you can do a little
08:14bit more. But at this moment in time, nothing's going to help Gary O'Neill. Nothing's going
08:18to help Fosun. Nothing's going to help this football club apart from getting points on
08:22the board. However, which way they do it. And it might be some ugly, ugly, ugly games
08:26of football. It might have to be. You know, they go to a Brian Difficult game, try and
08:30get a 0-0 out there. Southampton at home. Could be a terrible game of football. Just
08:33win it 1-0.
08:34Well, they've got Palace at home.
08:35You know, Palace at home as well.
08:36But it's not an easy game that, by the way.
08:37No, it's not. But, you know, there's going to have to be, something's going to have to
08:41give. And I feel like this free-flowing four, which, let's be honest, a lot of the fans
08:46want to see a four. They've wanted to see a four a long time. And, you know, they get
08:49the four and maybe they haven't got the plays to do it. And I think Gary O'Neill has now
08:52understood that he perhaps hasn't got the plays, at this moment in time, with the way
08:55their confidence levels are, to play what he wants to play. So he's got to change. He's
08:59got to pivot. He's got to go to a back three now. Albeit, only three centre-backs must
09:04go out for the season. You know, you've got Santiago, Bueno, Totti Gomez and Craig Dawson,
09:08all of whom are not in great form at this moment in time. But maybe a back three can
09:12help that. Releases, you know, one of your best players on the side, Ryan Onore, to play.
09:16Gives Nelson Samed a little bit more freedom as well. But they've got to get a point. They've
09:21got to go and try and get a point against Manchester City. They've got to try and get
09:25some points on the board because we can't keep sitting here or standing here and talking
09:29about good periods in games. I'm not going to say there were good periods in the games
09:33today, but there wasn't. But previous games we have done, and Gary has said that, it's
09:37just out the window now. They need to start picking up some results.
09:39Couldn't agree more. And I'll highlight one other thing that I didn't like. The players
09:45make their way over at full-time. There's a sort of mixture between applause and anger.
09:51It's not a completely hostile environment from the away end, but there's definitely
09:55some angry people in there. And unfortunately, I have to include Gary O'Neill in this, but
10:03the vast majority of the staff and players didn't really make much of an effort. They
10:08walked sort of halfway, clapped a little bit, hands in the air, apologising, and very quickly
10:13got out of there. Two or three players, I think Kunja Larsson, a couple of them, made
10:18a bit of an effort with the supporters. Aiden Oye was the first player over there. Because
10:23he's the first player, I don't think it's specifically because of him, but because he
10:26was the first player, he got a bit of a stick, went off in the huff, throwing his hands and
10:29walked straight down the tunnel after that. They have to start taking some accountability.
10:33The fans have got every right to be pissed off with that. You have to take some accountability.
10:39It was bad on so many levels here today. And the accountability has been taken in interviews.
10:44Credit to Gary O'Neill and Lamina, as I say, for coming out and being honest, because how
10:47many managers have we sat here and they've come in and gone, this is the problem, that's
10:51the problem, it's not me, it's nothing to do with the team, it's nothing to do with
10:54the formation, I'm not going to make a change. At least he's coming out and being honest
10:57about it, and you have to respect that. But it's also going to do nothing to appease the
11:02fans tonight, travelling home, spending their money to come here again and going home again
11:07after that absolute mess.
11:08You know, it's probably three or four people today, you're looking at £250, £200 to go
11:13to a game of football today. You look at the season ticket price rise in the summer that
11:17caused an absolute stink and quite rightly so. You're looking at benchmarking against
11:21the likes of, you know, Aston Villa and Fulham. I mean, you know, you should be benchmarking
11:25albeit the likes of Brentford at this moment in time. You can understand that when people
11:29are paying good money, you can understand that there's a lot of anger, a lot of frustration
11:32and you can't just keep on taking it on the chin. So of course it's going to break and
11:36I think it broke today. Like you say, watershed moment. The problem will be, and it'll be
11:41very interesting when they get back to Molineux. Now if this is in Molineux and you've got
11:4435,000 people seeing it, that's as loyal as a fan base as you're going to see on away
11:48games. Absolutely top draw and almost they're the ones who'll give you more time than probably
11:52at home. They will definitely give you the more time, but they've turned today and you
11:57can understand their frustration. So yeah, there's a lot of work to do. You're not going
12:01to have a lot of this squad to work with because they're going away on internationals, but
12:04you've got two weeks now to try and get a game plan, to try and change things up. They've
12:09worked on four all pre-season. You're almost going to have a mini pre-season now to try
12:12and retrain this team and get something out of them because these next three, four, five
12:18games are massive for the manager, for the ownership and for these players. Yeah, and
12:22I think they need that international break to be honest. If Man City's up in six, seven
12:26days' time from now, that's tough going. I think they need this break, I really do. Hopefully
12:32the international players will come back fit and available and they'll have enough time
12:37to work with them because it was so bad out there. It really was defensively so, so poor.
12:41But as you say, look, as it stands, all the noises from Wolves are. I think they understand
12:48Gary Nilsman left a little bit short. They understand a lot of players are letting him
12:51down. There's a belief that he will turn it around. It is only seven games into the season
12:57still. As it stands, Gary Nilsman is going nowhere. Wolves are not cut adrift. I think
13:01it would be a few more games yet before there are question marks over his position and where
13:07he will go from here. But they've got to get a tune out of these players very quickly.
13:13I mean, for me, they've got the ability, they have got the ability to win Premier League
13:16games. I mean, that's the frustrating thing. You look at some of these players on the pitch
13:19today and coming off the bench and these are top draw international players. That's the
13:23annoying thing is that they can go there, they can get results there and it's just not
13:27happening. And you know, like you say, whether it's the formation, whether it's what they've
13:30been asked to do, whether it's the roles that they're not good enough to do at this moment
13:33in time, whether there's a cohesion there, the body language is shocking and it's just
13:38a mess. It's an absolute mess at this moment in time and you can't say anything else and
13:41you can't defend them. And we don't defend them and people will go back and forth. We
13:45ask the questions, we'll be there, but you've got to give an honest opinion at this moment
13:48in time. That is not good enough. That is as bad as the first seven games as you are
13:52likely to see in the Premier League. We knew it was going to be difficult. We knew they're
13:55going to have very poor, very top draw sides that are playing and poor performances. And
14:00when you lose and you lose by, you know, you can't see five at Brentford. Hopefully
14:04this is the lowest point that you're going to get this season. Hopefully it isn't turning
14:07around, but it's a big, it's a big two weeks ahead.
14:10Big two weeks, Man City, Brighton. Easier said than done. You can't lose two games.
14:16You can't lose two games.
14:17No, I don't think you can.
14:18You have to get something. You face Palace at home. Not an easy game. Southampton at
14:23home.
14:24Went one up at Arsenal today.
14:25Exactly. Exactly. On paper, again, Walsh should win. At the moment, I wouldn't back
14:29Walsh against any team, unfortunately. But you are right. They have the quality. The
14:34quality's there. Yes, they're short centre-back. They're short in certain positions. They've
14:38got a lot of young players on the bench. But look at the amount of players that didn't
14:41even get an opportunity today. Look at some of the substitutions. I didn't think Gary
14:46helped himself particularly with those ones. The quality's there. It's about that confidence.
14:54Maybe that tiny bit of luck. A result from somewhere. You get that. You see the tide
14:58turn relatively quickly here. But it's about getting it. And that's the thing that's easier
15:03said than done.
15:04Brentford Fire, Wolves 3. For all the post-match reaction, make sure you log on to expressandstar.com.