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Tactics Tuesday: Is a European Challenge Realistic?
44 Plays12 days ago
This is your Tactics Tuesday, where we further breakdown the numbers of our best home record in the top 5 European Leagues, compare our record to previous seasons and analyse just what is needed in order to take the next step.
Host: Daniel Toppin
Instagram/X/TikTok: @gspnbrentford
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Transcript
Introduction and European Qualification
00:00:10
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Daily Brentford Podcast with myself Daniel where today we will be analysing whether it is okay to dream and whether a European charge is on this season following our weekend victory over Newcastle at the GTE.
00:00:28
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Brentford's Home Record and Style
00:00:48
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So then let's get into the statistics following this weekend's game and perhaps some of the reasons why a European charge could potentially be realistic this season. Brentford continue to have the best home record in the top five European leagues now, scoring 26 goals in that time. And for context, the team in second at Atlanta in Italy have only scored 22. In general, the G-Tech has seen an average of five goals scored per game so far this season.
00:01:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
which is on course to smash the Premier League record this is obviously because although we have scored the most Premier League goals we have also considered a fair few on the way as well which I guess is not a problem if you're winning games so what makes Brentford so scintillating at home I think that there are a number of things you could put it down to I think firstly the style of play we are playing this season is braver you will notice for example, if the opposition have a goal kick. The way Brentford line up is almost man for man. You will often see one of Collins or pin ah collins or Pillock pressing forward to um mark and an opposing midfielder, assuming those teams play one up front.
00:02:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
So at the weekend you saw someone like Pinnock hanging back, staying with EZAC one-on-one whilst Collins presses into midfield and goes to Mark, ah that I don't know, say somebody like Josh Murphy or um Gordon when he came on or Harvey Barnes. um Or even one of them in the field is someone like Jillington, who obviously we all know is very physical. Newcastle in general have a very physical midfield, so maybe we felt we needed to be very aggressive with them in order to deal with them. Having said that, and I'm now looking back to something like the the the city game where where where the same thing happened at the Etihad, Pinnock was left one on one with Harland on many occasions. And on that day, on a fair few occasions, Edison decided to go along with the ball.
00:03:09
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It bounced over to Harlan and Pinnock, and I think on the majority of occasions, Pinnock won that duel. Pinnock got the ball away, and there was no worries. But on one or two occasions, the ball went over. Harlan beat Pinnock to it, and because there's no supporting defenders, Harlan was through on goal.
00:03:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
and ultimately scored. And that's the issue here. I think if you're being so brave, particularly in defence, particularly with um Collins and Pinnock, it can open you up to maybe conceding some cheap goals at times when one of those centre bats gets beaten in the jaw.
Balancing Risks and Rewards
00:03:52
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At the same time, the brave star works both ways. If a defensive player for Newcastle was on the ball,
00:04:01
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they will likely be taken on man to man and if they lose the ball now now I'm thinking back to perhaps Southampton at home and Southampton seems to do this most weeks regardless of who they play against in the Premier League but I'm looking at that sort of game where we will take it off their defender and we will have an easy chance um for ourselves again if I'm looking at the Newcastle games perhaps Harvey Barnes is under pressure perhaps um We were closing him down. We're going man for man on him and it forced an error, um, by Harvey Barnes, giving it to whistle for our second goal of the afternoon. So there's positives and negatives to a brave style. And I think, um, what, what we're doing this season is we're backing ourselves. We believe we're good enough to do it. We're now an established premier league side.
00:04:57
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And you've got to say for the most part, particularly against teams in and around us or teams um we might be expected to be, or the newly promoted teams, this strategy has worked. Also in terms of being braver, we are playing out from the back more. Again, it's a trade-off risk and reward. Sometimes it may result in high turnover for the opposition team. Sometimes if we're able to play through players, you can take several opposition players out of the game.
00:05:23
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and you can get our attackers in on the ball. Perhaps um just the fact that we have such top quality going forward um is a big reason why Brentwood is so scintillating at home. The likes of Brian and Boomer like I said in the last episode has perhaps outperformed his expected goals a little bit but on his day the quality is there he's not afraid to take on a man he can cut in and he can put a shot in the top quarter like he said regularly does
00:05:57
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Joao Whistler, I think, is the one, I think, on so many occasions, you'll see him in the box at the right time for a tap-in. But even if that's not the case, if he gets in behind, he'll finish nine times out of ten. And what we saw at the weekend, if he gets on the ball with a bit of space and defends back off, he says no problem, sticks it in the top corner. And his finishing is outstanding. And then on top of that,
00:06:24
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you've got Kevin Shada who in the last two home games has got four hundred four goals. He has quality and we are now starting to see that. Some of the finishes in the last um two home games against Leicester and this in this one against Newcastle, you can see the quality is there and it's a bit raw at times but obviously he's got the pace as well. um And he's got some physicality too and you can and And those are the ingredients I think for a very, very good player and I expect him to just become more consistent over time, which is now what I think he has to work on.
00:07:06
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Another reason why we might be sitting today in home may simply be because of fixture difficulty up until the game against Newcastle. Our five wins in the Premier League at home had come against the promoted trio in Southampton.
00:07:25
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um Ipswich and Leicester and also Wolves and Crystal Palace who are in and around them in the table at this moment in time. Bournemouth at home looks like a very good result. um I know Bournemouth in terms of their results and particularly being strong at home themselves too beating Tottenham, Arsenal and City all at home but you've got to look at that again they're a team that play quite brave they're a team that want to move from back to front as quick as possible they're very good in the press um so you've got to say that's a very good win um against a very capable team and then again here against Newcastle although they're not
00:08:10
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necessarily on form, if you look at the numbers, they gave Liverpool one hell of a game in midweek. um and they've got so much quality in terms of Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isaac, when they're on it, the likes of Callum Wilson, they can bring off the bench, who is a reliable goal scorer when he's fit and firing, um and such a strong, solid core to the team, um with the likes of Bruno and Charlinton, obviously Dan Berners sent about, they're very physical, they're very strong, they don't roll over very easy at all.
Tactical Adjustments for Away Games
00:08:44
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So that is all very positive, but is this also what holds us back away from home in terms of our style of play? Is there a need to be put more pragmatic at times away from home and can we do this now with the likes of Eagle Tiago? I did simplify ah did and have some sympathy with Brentford and Thomas Frank in previous away games in terms of us playing out from the back and at yeah There's an argument, if you're not going to do something tactically innovative, there's an argument that it's very difficult to do anything other than try to p play out from the back when you've got a front line of Whistler and Mbumo. And Igor Tiago, I think, gives us that option. He gives us the option to play a similar way to how he played with Ivan Tony in the team. He is big. He is physical.
00:09:40
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And I think he has shown in his start of the weekend and in his cameos before that, that he will battle with Eddie center back and he will often come out on top and he will ruffle some feathers. And at this point, I think we don't even need him to score loads of goals. Obviously it would help. We want him to start getting on the score sheet. We want him to be a goal scoring striker, but Alongside Whistler and Mboumo, I think he's half done his job, if he's able to bring the ball down, if he's able to put them in, if he's able to occupy defenders and if he's able to offer a completely different threat to the likes of Whistler. And he has done that so far and I think given that he is adapting to English football, given that I think on the ball he's still a bit slow and he needs a bit more time to adapt to the English game, I think we are onto something there and I like the fact that
00:10:33
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Our attackers seem to have been chosen with their profiles in mind. Like Sir Kevin Schade, you've got the pace, you've got the power. Tiago, you've got the physicality, you've got the holed up play, which I can see him bringing in a future analysis about him developing a relationship with his teammates around him. How difficult though is it to adapt and change with games coming thick and fast?
00:10:56
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Now I'm not a coach, I'm not someone who spends time on on the training pitch but I do think it is more difficult to coach one thing for one week and then completely flip that for the next week. I think there's an element that you've got to back yourself as a team um logistically and it is very hard to think of playing at home and playing away and think of them as two entirely different things. I know it's not rare in football. It's in fact, very, very common for most teams to do slightly better at home than away, but perhaps not to the extremes of Brent for the showing this season. And I think to an extent, maybe things will even themselves out of the season, especially where we play some of these teams that we've played at home, the likes of Southampton, the likes of Ipswich when we visit them later in the season.
00:11:49
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um And then do we just have to back ourselves? Do we just have to persist and do we have to... think that keep doing what we're doing that away victory will come and um we will win more often than we lose um and something that I have noticed as well this season is that we are not drawing many games and I think that can be contributed sometimes to our brave style as well the openness to our matches um it is definitely definitely worth to go for that win um as opposed to settling for a draw um when obviously a draw is only worth one point and I think
00:12:25
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if we had drawn just some of these home games that we have won this season you would see us drop down the table um away from the eighth place we're currently in quite quickly given how tight the league table is um and that's and that's one thing I want to talk about actually the league table this season in the Premier League is tighter than I ever remember it even right at the top the likes of Arsenal Manchester City and not the beasts they have been in previous seasons, obviously got the likes of Chelsea over performing and Liverpool doing really well, but away from that.
Competitive Premier League and Top 10 Ambitions
00:12:58
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It ah appears to be game on at this early stage and you know, we're only a matter of three or four games now away from halfway through the season. So it is very exciting and there are reasons to be optimistic if we can get to the halfway stage in
00:13:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
a top 10 position, there is no reason why we can't repeat that feat playing as that are the same teams in the second half of the season. So then do Brentford have better depth this season? Is this something that is also assisting Brentford I think in attacking areas? Yes, that is definitely the case.
00:13:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
likes of Fabio Carvalho, the likes of Kevin Eshada, all of both of whom's minutes are limited. You had very much hope and will come on to our defensive depth in a minute, but you would very much hope that get that King Louis Potter, his future doesn't lie fully at left back. Certainly not as our only left back. So he could also come into the frame going forward. Igor Tiago is obviously a recent coming to the team. Gustavo Nunez has been injured since signing, but should add another option although I don't expect too much from him given his age and given someone who will have to adapt from playing Brazilian football. um I don't expect to see too much from him this season but it's exciting with the likes of Mbuma and Whissa up there with the best statistically out of all the attackers this season to have the likes of Tiago, to have the likes of Shada.
00:14:23
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And even, I would count even Mikaar Dam's guard in this, I think Dam's guard has massively improved a lot of the good things we do come through him, the amount of times you in aition to but to provided a an assist. And recently he has started to add a goal or two to his game as well. So I think we've definitely improved in that area and that is contributing to our good form. and I think you could argue maybe not in defense, particularly at full back, particularly at times, if Jenson,
00:14:51
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and, you know, are out and all guys sometimes is out. Maybe we need an extra body in that defensive midfield area at times as well. But definitely at full back, you would say that perhaps we would benefit from having some out and out full backs to compliment what we're already doing going forward and and and to make us perhaps a little bit stronger defensively. I think we're having to be a bit tactically clever. ah um without having natural fallbacks in the team. So I do wonder whether it would help and whether it would reduce the number of errors that we have made at the back um if we have more of a solid structure there. Having said that, Brentford can beat anyone on their day and Brentford have now beaten all 25 teams we have faced so far in the Premier League in three and a bit seasons, adding Crystal Palace, Ipswich, Leicester and Newcastle to the list this season.
00:15:46
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That is very impressive, I think, when you can imagine that there are some sides in the Premier League. I don't have specific stats, but you can imagine there are some sides in the Premier League which may struggle against the specific side for a lot longer than a little over three seasons, you know particularly some of the smaller clubs against the likes of you know City over the last few years, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc.
00:16:10
Global Sports Podcast Network
That is fantastic to see and it and it and it does show that on our day, you know, we have seen it all um in just about three seasons, which I think is very, very impressive from Brentford. So that in the second half of the podcast, we'll be looking back to how Brentford have fared at this stage in previous Premier League seasons. And we will be asking, answering the question as to whether Europe is a realistic aim this season and whether it is okay to dream about the prospect of a European tour next season.
Performance and European Aspiration
00:17:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
but
00:18:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
Hello and welcome to part two of your daily Brentford podcast. So then looking back at this stage last season, after 15 league games, Brentford had 19 points. Um, last season we had 19 points as well. The season before in our second season.
00:18:24
Global Sports Podcast Network
And in our debut Premier League season, we had 17 points at this stage. um Of course, all all three seasons were pretty good efforts, I think, to stay up in this league. You're looking at around about a point a game, maybe slightly under this season and and in recent seasons. So Brentford have always started the Premier League season quite well, despite obviously last season, we know how it went from here on in. Let's just say that um injuries piled up. It was around this time last season where Rico Henry got injured. Aaron Hickey got injured. We lost Brian and Boomo for a good couple of months. Um, Whistler obviously went off to AFCON in January. We were without Ivan Tony. We didn't have like Igor Tiago through the door yet. And the likes of Dam's guard, Keen Lewis Potter, Nathan Collins, who are playing more now and started playing more around then as well.
00:19:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
just work the players that they are today. So we've we've come on a long way in the league and we are on 23 points, which is four points better off from 15 games this season, which is our best start to a Premier League season. There is reason to be cautious given obviously the record last season, the second half of the season, you know, um, if we were to end just four points above what we ended last season,
00:19:46
Global Sports Podcast Network
Um, if we were to have the same second half of the season this time round, um, we wouldn't go down, but it would be, it'd be pretty grim. Um, and and it's not what we want to see from Brentford. Obviously injuries can happen to anyone at any time. I think there is still an element of, um,
00:20:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
struggle. Um, if we were to get an injury crisis, I think. There are a lot of teams with more depth than us, particularly in certain areas defensively. um And that's what I would be concerned about. However, going forward, I think it would take a rather large defensive, a rather large injury crisis, sorry, for um us to fall off in attack, I think, because I think we do have numbers in there now. And even if someone like and people wants to get injured, I think we could maybe cover it for a little while, although it would not be ideal.
00:20:45
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think that's the same though of any tide to be fair that we see with Manchester City this season, even just losing Rodry has affected them and they are below where that perhaps they expect to be. So maybe maybe we do just need some luck in those circumstances in order to be able to push for Europe. But I mean, some may say that we've gotten this far with many long-term injuries in the side as it is.
00:21:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
Now, if you look at our results so far and the games that come especially in the next month, I think they do step up slightly. There are no, there there are no, there's no easy games in the Premier League anyway, but there are no home games against the likes of Les Saland and it's which they look forward to in the next coming month or two. I think, I think we are very much looking at teams, a bit more games like the weekend against Newcastle. And obviously we've shown now that we can pass those tests out and simply we have to do that again and I wonder whether one or two more wins against the top side away away from home or, you know, amid another mid table side away from home. We'll really get the fans believing that Europe can happen this season. I think we've we've got to maintain the form of beating sides. We are expecting to be all sides in and around us or sides.
00:22:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
and in the middle of the table at home. But I think, you know, if if you just had one or two away wins, if Brentford, for example, had held on at Fulham and if we had held on an L Trafford, um two games that perhaps, you know, we could have got something out of despite maybe not deserving it in the end. um You've only got to look at whether I'd put Brentford in the league table.
00:22:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
And I think realistically, if we're going to maintain our home form, obviously, I don't think we'll win every home game like we have been in recent weeks. But if we can maintain fairly good at home form, then realistically, we don't need to be brilliant away. I think realistically, you know, a win every three or four games on the road would be enough. I think, um you know, there's there's chances there to do that. I think if we're honest, we should have won at Everton.
00:22:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think we would have won an Everton if it wasn't for the Norgard red card. So there are easier easier fixes as well to come on the road in the second half of the season as we do go to places like Ipswich, you haven't won at home all season. As we do go to places like Southampton, you may be in real bother by the time we go there. So it is as important we go to those games. We don't do anything silly. We don't get a red card after two or three minutes like Regulon did at Burney last season.
00:23:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
And it is important that we do see those games out because I mean, if i even if I'm looking at a team like Brighton in recent weeks, they have slipped up in those types of games.
Dreaming Big and Season Goals
00:23:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
um And just what I want to say towards the end of this podcast is it's it's okay to dream. I think realistically, Brentford don't really have a right to be where they are on the table, but they are. um Realistically, also the teams at the bottom look like struggling again um this season. So given that the fact we're already on 23 points,
00:23:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
You're probably looking at another 12 points, four wins to be enough for safety this season. and And this should be more than achievable. And it would take absolutely atrocious form for Brentford not to be dragged into, um, for Brentford to be dragged into a relegation fight this season. So if that's the case, why not look up? Why not dream? Why not, um, have that to aspire to. And I'm very, I'm very sure that the players think that way too. And.
00:24:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
at the same time because we are kind of the underdogs, we will be the underdogs in that battle until we achieve it, until we achieve that aim one season. um There's no massive pressure um on the team to achieve it like there would be if we were in a relegation dogfight. So yeah, I think it's okay to dream and That applies also for the Cup. I think we've got Plymouth at home in the in the FA Cup third round. That's a winnable game. And I think we should really be focusing on going at that and see where we can go. You never know um what the draw could throw up. I know Arsenal and Manchester United are playing each other in the third round, so they will knock each other out. um Could there be more draws like that, which would reduce the number of big teams in the draw?
00:25:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
could mean Brentford can have a real run in this season's competition. And of course, in a week and a half, we've just beaten them once. Brentford travelled to St. James's Park for an away game against Newcastle in the quarterfinal of the League Cup. This is a repeat of the quarterfinal a few years ago where Brentford won in the COVID season in the championship. At that time, we had bigger fish to fry. We had a promotion battle to look forward to, but Now I just really think this is a time to really go at that Carabao Cup game, you know, even if it means losing the league game, but just before that or just after that, um, obviously the league games before that as a way at Chelsea this weekend, which is very possible. We'll lose that anyway. So I just think it's really, really important that we prioritize that game and we go for that game. We put a full team up because.
00:26:04
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The thought of a League Cup semi-final and potential League Cup final is something that Bradford fans couldn't even have dreamt of um even just a few years ago. So, and um what a doubt that would be at Wembley, first of all. And also that is also another route in to Europe of winning one of the domestic cups. So yeah, Bradford so far this season, I mean, the season's gone great.
00:26:30
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We've kept ourselves in the hunt for things um so we could even do this podcast today and so we can even talk about this. So I don't see why not. I think it will be difficult. I think the next month will tell us a lot in terms of some of these games you got playing. I think it'll be very easy in the next month to go on a run of three or four games that we perhaps lose them all. um That needs to be avoided. I think the top six or top seven could easily get away from us.
00:26:56
Global Sports Podcast Network
if we do go on that type of run, and then I would think it would be a very uphill struggle to um claw that back. So given the number of teams in and around us in the table, I think we can dream, but I think we've got to take it week by week, game by game. And I think if we can get another couple of big results in the way, perhaps starting at Stanford Bridge on Sunday, we know we we know the type of record we have there in previous years, then the dream will become a genuine belief, I think. and um Why not? The sky is the limit for this football club this season.
Conclusion and Listener Support
00:27:30
Global Sports Podcast Network
So then that will do for today. Thank you for listening for the Daily Brentford podcast. We hope you've enjoyed today's episode. And once again, we would be extremely grateful for your support as this will enable us to get bigger and better moving forwards. Daily Brentford can be found on X Instagram and TikTok under the handle at GSPN Brentford. We'll be back again tomorrow where we'll have your wildcard Wednesday.
00:27:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
Until then, from myself, thank you for being with me.