Frustrated Frank feels Brentford not getting reward which home performances deserve
Brentford (0) 0 v Aston Villa (0) 1
Premier League
Matchweek 28
Talking Points
By Kaz Mochlinski at the Brentford Community Stadium
It is just as well that performances take precedence over results for Matthew Benham’s analytics-driven Brentford, because against Aston Villa they yet again produced a display deserving probably of a better outcome than they achieved.
By multiple metrics, Brentford are having a good season, but it is equally undeniable that at the moment they are going through a miserable period on their own ground, without a win of any kind for over three months now.
In seven home matches in the Premier League since overcoming Newcastle United 4-2 on December 7th, the Bees have been beaten five times and drawn twice. Add in their FA Cup defeat by Plymouth Argyle and it is eight games in all competitions with no victory.
That is Brentford’s worst sequence so far at their new stadium. In fact, in the league, it is their longest run without a home win for 19 years - since a series of nine matches in League One in 2006, when they were still playing at Griffin Park.
And, after having scored in every home encounter this season before the present poor patch started, Brentford have been kept goalless in five of these last eight games on their own West London turf beside the River Thames.
Nor have the Bees been able to secure a clean sheet during this time. A problem at home throughout this campaign, it has been exacerbated lately by needing to use five different defensive line-ups in those eight matches, with 11 players filling the back four positions and in goal.
Nevertheless, Brentford have remained brave, still fielding a front three plus a playmaking number 10 in Mikkel Damsgaard, making their formation more of a 4-2-1-3 than the standard 4-2-3-1 employed by most teams in the Premier League.
Although it has not been as effective at home over the past 13 weeks as they would wish, that is also due to opponents showing Brentford huge respect now, coming to play a mid or low block in defence and then counter-attacking - in the approach long favoured by the Bees.
This is among several recurring features characterising the recent run, as Brentford have found it hard to unlock stubborn back lines set deeper, while playing against good quality sides with effective finishers who repeatedly exploit any minor lapses.
Brentford themselves have seen plenty of possession, moved the ball well, put over numerous dangerous crosses and created chances to score without producing many clear-cut openings, and also failing to exploit set-pieces as frequently as they did before.
It has become so repetitively familiar, necessitating no new analysis, that their articulate and eloquent head coach, Thomas Frank, laughed about his post-match gathering with the media after the Villa visit being the shortest press conference of his tenure at Brentford.
The journalists in attendance were not inclined to ask identical questions to those already raised at previous games, being aware that different answers were extremely unlikely to be forthcoming. Instead, the main topic talked about related to penalties which had not been awarded.
Twice in the second half there were challenges made by Axel Disasi, on loan at Aston Villa from Chelsea, which caused loud cries from the home fans for spot kicks, but both went unpunished by the referee, Jarred Gillett, who was backed by immediate VAR checks.
Inevitably, Frank felt that at least one of them should have been given, and the Villa manager, Unai Emery, disagreed. In each case there was a strong contact which would have been a soft penalty. But such incidents are usually given as fouls elsewhere on the pitch.
Emery separately revealed that an additional motivation for his team at Brentford was that they will not have another Premier League match for 25 days, primarily because of the forthcoming international break and remaining in the FA Cup.
The Spaniard said that he had told his players it was essential to get the points to take them up the table now - and they responded with their first victory after a Champions League fixture since September, ending a seven-game winless run following midweek European exertions.
Curiously, Emery ignored persistent prompting to praise Ollie Watkins, commenting only on his striker’s workrate off the ball, despite another match-winning goal, the sixth time that Watkins has scored against his old club since leaving Brentford for Aston Villa five years ago.
The Villa boss seemed happiest about not conceding, in the injury absence of Emiliano Martínez, the goalkeeper Emery describes with conviction as currently the best in the world. A large part of that was down to Ezri Konsa at centre-back.
Another former Brentford player who has gone on to become an England international, Konsa moved to Aston Villa a year before Watkins’ subsequent transfer. Konsa may not receive the recognition given to his higher-profile teammate, but he certainly should not be overlooked.
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