Quote Originally Posted by AucklandRover View Post
Champs - there really is just too much generalisation there.
I have no idea why you are confident enough to make predictions about a whole season.
I wouldn't go quite as far yet as saying the Championship is "poor", but it certainly looks like being even again.
That is the very nature of it.
Brentford lost 13 matches last season and finished third.
As for dismissing Johnson, I actually thought he was fine against Cardiff, but he was certainly poor on Saturday.
For most of our supporters, our best XI now would probably feature Holtby, Rothwell, Travis, Dack, Rankin-Costello, Douglas and possibly Trybull. All of those were missing. On current form, I would also have Williams in ahead of Lenihan, but that's a personal thought.
A word for Bell, though. His defending is much improved. However, that seems to have come at the cost of providing any attacking threat!
Then there is the mix up front, where it may be that different opponents will require different choices.
As you know, I get frustrated by Armstrong. You're right about his poor service in the Forest game, but he doesn't make things happen in tight situations. We could certainly have done with one of his long-range goals, but he never found any space.
The absence of Rothwell and Holtby seems to have had a major impact, but in a way, even that proves my point about unpredictability, because - let's be honest - neither of them were particularly good last season - certainly not consistently!

I do tend to agree with most of that.
Another thing annoying me, Williams and Lenihan go off to be part of Eire's squad every international break. Neither ever get one minute of game time. And at least one will return with an injury. If they never even play, I just question why bother? To lose Williams was a blow. It leaves a bitter taste considering he didn't even kick a ball. If he now loses his place in the side, maybe he needs to ask himself, do I want to turn up to training camps for Ireland or play for my club team? He can have no complaints if he doesn't get back in now. Another, like Rothwell & Holbty who didn't pull up any trees last season, but appear to be pretty ***** to any potential success. We lost way too many key players for last Sat's game. No disaster, it was pretty predictable.
But I am just frustrated watching Lehinan. His poor distribution of the ball annoys me. I had this feeling we could have done alot worse than cash in on him over summer.
I do not like Ayala and Lenihan at CH together. Neither are good on the ball. Both right footed, the one who plays left side will really struggle. That was Lenihan on sat, and that was why he was so poor. And why he very very quickly reverted to hitting 40 yard balls to a midget up front. He doesn't want the ball, its a hot potato. Get rid, quickly!!

We can not expect to go anywhere with Johnson. The 2 games where he played well, where just 2 occasions where he played well. It was never going to carry on. On Sat, we had zero creativity in Midfield. I am not freaking out about that, it was simply we had way too many out. Buckley was really poor, as was Armstrong.
I actually only thought one player played well, which was Nyambe.
It will be a much changed side going to Watford on wed.