Brentford FC

Brentford's defense held up alright, but they really struggled to move the ball through midfield or spring any really dangerous looking counters against a team that has had shown some real defensive frailty this season. Of course it's hardly a shock that a squad missing Norgaard and Jensen was lacking in midfield technical ability, or that Saman Ghoddos might be imperfect defensively while moonlighting at left back.

All things considered, this could have gone much worse.

Domination.

The injuries just keep on coming, don't they?

Hickey is out with a hamstring injury until 2024, leaving the team with midfielder Vitaly Janelt as seemingly the only remaining option on the roster to play left back. I imagine his primary backup would be Ghoddos, or possibly Ben Mee? Mbeumo has been frequently deployed in that spot when chasing games, but surely he won't be used there under normal circumstances.

Hopefully Flekken's "dead leg" is a strictly temporary issue and he'll be back out there against Liverpool on Sunday. He hasn't exactly impressed this season, but Strakosha's only start of the season was disastrous and he was barely challenged in goal on Saturday (although his distribution was pretty good).

Lucky to be a full 2-0 for sure, but Brentford were the better side.

Archive.org link

It's great to see the club doing stuff like this.

A proper thrashing, and this time with points to match.

Well this one hurt. Absolutely brutal for United to score on two of their three mediocre chances in stoppage time, after 90+ minutes of getting only lousy shooting opportunities.

Strakosha was quite poor, highlighted by his third terrible rebound leading directly to the equalizer, but the attack was also frustratingly ineffectual. There were far too many counterattacking opportunities which fizzed out before a decent shot could be made of them, and the team took an unusual number of bad shots from range.

Brentford beat the crap out of Forest and completely deserved to win. They got horrendously unlucky to come away with just a draw.

Story of the season.

And another one bites the dust. Already an extremely frustrating season, with excellent performance marred by poor results and a slew of serious injuries concentrated on an already shallow set of attacking options.

Frank:

> I still think I can put a very strong team out there every game, but maybe we can’t change it as much during the game because the depth is not as good. I have big belief in our young players, but they need time to settle in

This was noticeable already last weekend, with only four substitutes used for lack of a fifth useful first team player on the bench (Zanka, the only remaining real option, is hardly an appropriate attacking sub). That was of course exacerbated by Maupay being on loan from Everton and Frank should have five viable substitutes going forward if Olakigbe continues to impress, but Brentford are already right on the brink of what their current squad depth can stand up to.

Regarding Schade specifically, I'm really disappointed that we won't be seeing more of him for a while, and that he won't have that time to continue his development. Obviously the physical tools are there and I have no serious concerns about his finishing, but he has struggled with positioning and decision making and missing several months won't improve matters.

Archive.today: https://archive.ph/qmdis

Obviously it looked pretty bad when Henry came off on Saturday, and although nothing is confirmed yet this his highly discouraging.

Outside of Henry and Aaron Hickey, this Brentford team has no natural left backs and fairly minimal depth at right back, with Roerslev and Ajer the obvious choices. Both are defensively oriented players, although they've had occasional moments in attack (Ajer's gallop forward against Fulham this year comes readily to mind). This team has also made a wide range of unothodox choices at that position when chasing games, with Janelt, Mbeumo, Mee, Ghoddos, Wissa, and last week, Pinnock all occupying those spaces in the last two seasons.

Henry's statistical profile is an odd one, mostly because he barely ever touches the ball and thus doesn't rack up elite totals of just about anything. When he does get involved, though, his involvements tend to be relatively impactful, and he certainly looks good making overlapping runs, delivering crosses, and slowing down opposing attackers in 1v1 situations. Henry's near-constant presence on the field is also notable: he missed exactly one game last season (matchweek 20 against Bournemouth, with Janelt and Ajer the starting fullbacks in a 4-3-3) and was substituted in just eight league games, only once before the 71st minute and only thrice more before the 86th. That mix of attack, defense, and stamina will not be easily replaced by any one player on this Brentford squad.

Jay Harris speculates in the article that Brentford might shift into a back three full time to offer additional defensive cover and allow a more attack minded player to take a wingback spot. That's a reasonable option, but compounds the existing problems with this roster: there are only four true attackers (Mbeumo, Wissa, Shade, and KLP), of whom Mbeumo is both the clear first choice up top and the most experienced wingback option. Two of the best fits to play a 10 role in a 3-5-2 (Dasilva and Baptiste) are also out with long term injuries. Perhaps Damsgaard can step up to fill one of those roles more reliably than he's shown thus far?

I'll be interested to see how Frank opts to fill the void here, but it's very unfortunate that he'll have to.

Outside of the penalty, a combined effort of Flekken/Hickey clumsiness and home-cooked refereeing, this was a very even game that went pretty much as Brentford wanted it to: minimal scoring threat on either side, with the Bees getting slightly better chances than they allowed. Unfortunate that Wissa couldn't connect on that Jensen cross, which was probably the most dangerous opportunity for either team today.

This is an Athletic piece, so paywalled. TL;DR: Jay Harris makes a case for the following:

• Brentford was unusually disjointed by injuries in this fixture last season, especially missing Norgaard
• Wissa/Schade might be the better pairing up front in the expected 3-5-2 formation
• Ajer's speed from centerback could make him worth starting over one of Pinnock/Collins/Mee in this matchup.

Brentford have been outplayed by Newcastle across their four EPL fixtures coming into this one, but not by anywhere near the margin the final scorelines and lack of points would suggest. For instance, they created superior chances in the Newcastle home match last season, with an xG edge of 1.8 (plus a penalty) to 1.3.

I'll admit an intense distaste for Newcastle ever since their purchase, so I'll be extremely disappointed if we come away with no points here.

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