Denis Odoi Appreciation Society

[hongkongfulham]

I was a Denis detractor in the Prem but i need to hold my hand up and appreciate the guy. Looks to have matured in his play this year and much better with his ball retention/defensively.

He has provided some great moments over the years, including the back skill vs Newcastle, Derby header, general enthusiasm & attitude for the cause...

Thanks Denis, we look forward to your calming presence in our bid to stay up!

[hovewhite]

I can only say the man is the PERFECT PROFFESIONAL!

[Sting of the North]

Denis Odoi and Benrahma both had pretty anonymous playoff finals and cancelled each other out. I don't know how much praise Odoi should get for Benrahma's poor game, but I guess its a bit. When Benrahma plays his best, he is truly a nignhtmare that would have changed everything.

There is maybe an important distinction to be made of the difference in key responsibilities between the two players on the day. Clearly Benrahma was supposed to be the creative spark and catalyst for Brentford (because that's what he has been all season long as far as I understand). For Odoi, the most important task was of course to stop Benrahma from contributing as much as possible. One of the two players largely succeeded, whereas the other failed. To describe it as "Denis Odoi and Benrahma both had pretty anonymous playoff finals and cancelled each other out" is in my opinion a massively unfair way of describing the performance of Denis Odoi. Benrahma, arguably the overall best offensive player in the league during the season, was effectively taken out of the game, and that was in very large part thanks to the excellent play of Denis.

It should also be noted that Denis contributed more offensively than Benrahma, even though that was just a bonus for us.

This ^^^

So well written, if you judge Benrahma by the media's love affair with him before the game, then the playoff final was going to be won by Benrahma. In truth, Benrahma, when marked by Odoi, didn't look as good as Floyd Atyie (a decent winger plagued by injuries). If Benrahma is as good as the media think, then Odoi has deserves man of the match in the playoff final for very marginally outplaying him. Personally, i'd give man of the match to Bryan, because I think Benrahma was poor and that's only partial because of Odoi. Although, we should be giving Odoi a new contract, we need someone to keep Mane and Sterling quite and doubt we can afford a squad player better at that than Odoi.

Even though you say that my post was well written, it seem like you either did not understand it, or that you profoundly disagree since you go on to state that Denis "very marginally" outplayed Benrahma. What, in your opinion, should Odoi have done in order to be deemed to have done something better than "very marginally" outplay someone? Because clearly restircting them to have almost zero impact is not enough I take it.

I do give you that there is always two sides of a coin, and that Benrahma's performance may have been poor. That could of course basically always be used as an explanation for why any attacking player fails to have an impact on a game, thus reducing the performance of any defender to never exceed being ok. I assume though that this is not what you intended with your post, and that you just thought that Odoi had a very average (or just slightly above) game last week.