Brentford defying second season syndrome in pursuit of European football
The longest unbeaten run in the Premier League does not belong to Manchester City, Arsenal or Manchester United, but to a club that operates on a fraction of that trio’s budget.
After a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday, Brentford have gone 11 league games without defeat. Every other team in the division has lost more recently than October 23rd, when the Bees went down 4-0 to Aston Villa.
Thomas Frank’s team were seconds away from coming unstuck against Palace at the weekend. Ebere Eze nodded the south Londoners ahead in the 69th minute, and it looked as though Patrick Vieira’s men were going to hold on for all three points. But with virtually the last touch of the match, Vitaly Janelt powered a header past Vicente Guaita to earn Brentford a share of the spoils.
It is a result that keeps them right in the mix for European football. Qualifying for continental competition would be an extraordinary achievement. Brentford were in League One as recently as 2014. They finished mid-table in the Championship just four seasons ago.
A 13th-placed finish in the top tier last term looked like it would be hard to beat. Many expected Brentford to suffer second-season syndrome this time around, particularly following the departure of Christian Eriksen. Instead, they have continued to progress. After 23 games last year, the Bees had 23 points. Right now they have 35 - the same as Liverpool and more than Chelsea.
In the last 10 rounds of fixtures, only Manchester United (23) have collected more points than Brentford (20). No team in the division has lost fewer home games than the Bees, with Arsenal still the only visiting side to have triumphed at the Gtech Community Stadium. Thanks to Janelt’s last-gasp leveller against Palace, only the Gunners and Newcastle United have lost fewer matches overall.
Frank praised his players’ “mentality, spirit and energy” after Saturday’s draw. Those qualities have been in evidence all season. Brentford are one of the toughest teams to play against in the Premier League. They are intelligently coached, fiercely competitive, mentally strong and physically robust.
Brentford are not overly concerned with possession. Only West Ham United (43%), Nottingham Forest (39.2%) and Bournemouth (38.9%) have had less of the ball on average than the Bees (43.3%). A pass completion rate of 74.1% - only Forest’s (73.8%) is lower - shows that Frank is happy for his players to put the ball at risk.
It would be wrong to characterise Brentford as a long-ball team, however. They do not simply pump it from back to front aimlessly. But with Ivan Toney’s expert hold-up play and Bryan Mbeumo’s silky touch, it makes sense for Brentford to bypass midfield at times.
The presence in the side of Eriksen, a player who excels at putting his foot on the ball and controlling the tempo of a game, led to a slight shift in approach in the second half of last season. But his exit has seen Brentford move back towards a more vertical style that suits the players at Frank’s disposal.
Crosses into the box are a big feature of Brentford’s play. Only 24% of their total attacking touches this season have come in the middle third of the pitch; the other 76% have been down the flanks. They have also scored eight headed goals, which puts them behind only Fulham (11) and Tottenham (12). The equaliser against Palace was a typical Brentford goal, especially at the Gtech.
The squad has been smartly assembled. Frank has the options to switch formation both within and between games. Having used a 3-5-2 in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal a week earlier, Brentford shifted to a 4-3-3 against Palace.
After the latter game, Frank revealed that he plots potential substitutions in advance depending on the state of the game. “In general, I pre-plan them,” he said. “We have a plan B where we’re behind and need to go offensive.”
It is just another example of the attention to detail that has made Brentford perhaps the best coached team in the Premier League pound for pound. Just three points outside the top six, do not bet against Frank’s side qualifying for Europe this season.
