Last Sunday, Brentford had an afternoon to forget as they fell short in a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest. A dire first half display, where individual errors lead to the away side 3 – 0 down before the half time break. Sports Talk United will take a step back, and analyse the tactical element of the game, highlighting 3 key issues that led Brentford to defeat at the City Ground.
It was a summer of goodbyes for Brentford as key figures of their squad Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard both departed to leave to ‘big six’ clubs, following the trend of their head and assistant coach, Thomas Frank and Justin Cochrane after their move to Tottenham was announced on 12th June.
Fast forward two months, last Sunday, their opening game of the premier league season, away to Nottingham Forest sees a new look Brentford with a lot of familiar faces that were in the background from last season and a new man in charge in the dugout in Keith Andrews.
Having been an important part of Frank’s coaching staff last season as set piece coach, many are writing off the 45 year old Irishman, as it’s his first steps into senior management as a head coach.
To add to that, the rookie manager has had a far from smooth summer transfer window, losing both Mbeumo and Norgaard as mentioned, as well as other star striker Yoane Wissa in the middle of a heated transfer saga, similar to Alexander Isak. This has caused the striker to not feature throughout pre-season.
With all that in hindsight, it will be interesting to see if Andrews is opting for a new system, or if he aims to replicate the success of Thomas Frank.
Brentford lacked bite
The comment that will hurt the Bees the most from analysing the game is the fact that they had such an un-Brentford like performance. This was a club that no team liked seeing in their upcoming fixtures as their unpredictability, physicality and energy gave many opposition staff headaches to deal with in previous seasons.
It was clear from the off that Andrews game plan did not translate at all, as Forest smothered them in the first half, keeping Brentford pinned into a low block. This surprised a lot of viewers as, last season Forest themselves opted for a low block, using lightning counter attacks in transition that gave them so much success. Brentford would often be the pressing team in games like this in previous campaigns.
This low block setup was more than likely forced by Forest as opposed to a tactical game plan from Andrews. It was evident from the first 2-3 minutes of the game that Brentford was pushing high, forcing Forest to play it back to goalkeeper Matz Sels to then go long. This did not last longer than the opening 4 minutes as the ball was played predominately in Brentford’s half, as Forest recorded 56 per cent possession in the first half.
Winning midfield battles are key in high end football matches, losing them is costly in terms of control and momentum of the game.
While Forest deserved credit for winning the midfield battle, Brentford’s was weak. Not only was the midfield pairing of Jensen, Yarmolyuk, and Milambo lacking physicality, they were shy in terms of receiving the ball. The lack of options in the midfield gave a hard time for Brentford’s centre backs, which caused many possession recycles back to Forest, forcing it to go long up to an isolated Thiago.
Many would argue Andrews should have started Jordan Henderson to give the inexperienced and lightweight midfield a leader and at least give Brentford more of a bite. Henderson and Mikkel Damsgaard, who missed the game due to the birth of his child, would certainly strengthen the midfield in and out possession and will likely be picked in this weekend’s home clash to Aston Villa.
Half-spaces exploited
A key problem Brentford had, which ultimately cost them the game from a defensive point of view, was the failure to defend their half-spaces. Forest attackers enjoyed penetrating Brentford from the half spaces (particularly star player Morgan Gibbs-White). This gave Forest plenty of opportunities, from crosses or darting runs.
Half-spaces are the vertical channels between the central and wide areas of the pitch.
A perfect example of this was Forest’s second goal. Gibbs-White picks the ball up in the left half-space, with no pressure. He was able to shift the ball around and create a wonderful spin movement, which led to sending in the cross to find debutant Ndoye to score a header. It was not only too easy for Gibbs-White to find the half-space, but the lack of closing down from Brentford is further indication of having a ‘lack of bite’ in their team.
Bees in slow motion
Whilst the first two key problems identified for Brentford throughout this article have been out of possession problems, the clear lack pace is a problem for transition and in possession.
Pace is crucial in the premier league to damage teams defenses and to have any success of scoring goals. Brentford’s front four in the first half severely lacked it.
There was a notable difference when Kevin Schade came on in the second half, where his pace threatened Forest’s backline to a certain extent. He was also a huge outlet to Thiago, who was isolated in the first half, but linked up with Schade well, holding up the ball and playing it onto him to dribble. Schade’s second half cameo, co-aligned with much better second half stats, where Brentford’s XG in the first half was 0.34, compared to 1.15 in the second half.
Kevin Schade started the game on the bench due to an injury problem during pre-season. He is likely to come straight into the starting 11 against Aston Villa this coming Saturday.
No need for the fans to panic
While many will see the opening game as a huge worry for Brentford’s prospects for this upcoming season, there is no need to panic just yet. New club record £42m signing Dango Ouattara will elevate the directness and pace in Brentford’s forward line. Add that to Schade, Daamsgard and maybe Henderson coming into the starting eleven, their lack of bite and pace should certainly improve.
However I’m sure the Brentford boss is looking for one or two more acquisitions to get the bees buzzing again after a summer window of losing key players.
It was a tough start and likely will be a tough year. But there is for sure a lot more to come from one of the best run clubs in Europe.
