An opening day reverse at Nottingham Forest has given new Brentford head coach Keith Andrews a lot to think about before Saturday’s visit from Aston Villa. Nick Bruzon shares his player ratings.
The 3-1 scoreline – The Bees grabbing what was ultimately little more than a late consolation via Igor Thiago’s penalty, one which could have seen the home side win by way more. Such was the possession achieved and the chances created that they could easily have doubled the scoreline. Had it happened, nobody would have been able to call it undeserved. Forest came out of the traps flying and remained in complete control the entire first half. Not to mention huge swathes of the second.
Chris Wood giving the home side the lead with little more than five minutes on the clock. Last season’s kings of defending set pieces undone just minutes into the campaign. The communication between Thiago, Kayode and KLP non-existent as all three went for it, all three missed it and then all three allowed Wood the chance to bury it. He needed no second invitation. Keith, who was of course Brentford’s set-piece coach before Thomas Frank went to Spurs, must have been tearing his hair out in frustration.
Brentford should have been dead and buried. The formation unusual. The players struggling to adapt. Forest dominant. Chances came and went. The score didn’t move on. Yet somehow The Bees still within touching distance. Thoughts of hanging on to a 1-0 deficit despite being entirely under the cosh, then experiencing a resurgence inspired by Keith’s half-time team-talk hanging heavy in the air. Could it be?
Alas, not. Wood grabbing his second in first-half injury time. An electric turn of pace to anticipate van den Berg’s poorly hit clearance being returned to him and Kelleher in nets left no chance. This, coming just minutes after new signing Dan Ndoye had doubled Forest’s lead with a wonderfully executed header. Forest, sadly, as good value for a 3-0 lead as anybody has ever been. Keith Andrews handed a brutal wake-up call as to the challenges facing a Premier League head coach.
Half-time came and went. Kevin Schade on for the invisible Milambo. To be fair, he wasn’t alone. Brentford seeing the front men so detached from the rest of the team it may as well have been 11 vs 8. Carvalho equally anonymous, whilst KLP was bizarrely shoved out to the right.
Thiago ploughing a lone furrow in the absence of the petulant Wissa had minimal service whilst with no natural 6 in play, it was open season for the rampaging Forest hordes. Something all the more ironic given Christian Norgaard wasn’t even selected to keep the bench warm for Arsenal. At times, it felt not so much men versus boys as men versus that hopeful look in the postman’s eye.
That’s the bad stuff. It needed to be said because it was Stevenage away (under Uwe Rösler) or Oxford in the League Cup (Marinus Dijkhuizen) levels of frustrating. On the plus side, both those games produced the reactions needed.
The mother of all post-match ‘discussions’ and clearing of the air after Stevenage allowed Uwe’s Groovers to break free. Marinus, on the other hand, doing nothing to avoid Matthew Benham’s eventual reaction. His eventual fate being to pick up the somewhat undesirable mantle of being the club’s shortest-serving full-time manager.
This was one game. It wasn’t great – that’s the polite term. However, the withdrawal of Mikkel Damsgaard with his wife in labour robbing Brentford of the most potent creative threat. Keith will have had to rejig but you can guarantee that the great Dane will be back in the starting line-up for Aston Villa. Also with him will be club record £42m new boy Dango Ouattara. Sadly, this much-predicted transfer not completed in time to truly warrant a chance at selection.
With wantaway Wissa’s shenanigans and player sales also disrupting preparation, it would be fair to say that regardless of tactics and our opponent’s hunger for victory, Keith had been handed a real bum steer going into the game. The question now is more one of how he, and his team, react for the visit of Aston Villa at the weekend.
Until then, it’s time for our game-by-game search for the top five players of the season. As always, five points are awarded for star player, four for second place, three for third, etc, with the totals added up game-by-game to see who ends up the eventual winner after game 38.
1st (5 points) Kevin Schade
What a much-needed breath of fresh air, energy, and creativity Kevin was in the second half. Had it not been for pre-season injury, I have no doubt he’d have started this one from the off.
Instead, we were given a 45-minute taster of what he will bring to the team. A reminder of what he did so well last time out as he went on to become one of three players to hit double figures in the Premier League ‘goals scored’ table.
It was unlikely Brentford were going to be able to salvage the game by the time Schade came on, but with nothing to lose he showed no fear in trying to push his team on to come up with something, anything.
It wasn’t to be this time around but you can bet Keith will be breathing a sigh of relief that Kevin came through this one so impressively
2nd (4 points) Rico Henry.
Rico’s back and wasn’t it a beautiful sight to behold.
The injury that has robbed him so much game time at a point when international recognition had beckoned is finally behind him. This was the Rico we know and love. Tough in the tackle and tearing down the left flank – whenever Brentford were able to get hold of the ball.
Played a few killer balls into the box. One of which, just prior to Ndoye’s goal, found Jensen who served it up for Thiago on a plate. That one was cut out but it reminded us all just what Rico can do – should that such help have been needed.
I thought it was a real shame we didn’t see him and KLP operating on the same side. The pair of them overlapping would have given Brentford a much-needed creative outlet
3rd (3 points) Michael Kayode Robust.
Solid. Combative. Closed down what he could on the right-hand side. One delightful long throw in the second-half falling for van den Berg. Alas, nobody else was around to jump on the loose ball following the centre-back’s header. One would have thought they might know what to expect when Kayode has the ball….
Didn’t really do much wrong. He was caught up in the horror show of Wood’s opener, but even then, he wasn’t on his normal side of the pitch. That aside, I don’t recall him putting a foot wrong. Stats may prove otherwise, but on an afternoon where the whole team struggled, he did sufficiently to draw the eye.
4th (2 points): Yehor Yarmoliuk
Gave it his all. Yehor really impressed at the back end of last season as he fought his way into the team. I thought he worked his socks off playing as what one fellow North stand observer opined to me as ‘a mop up and transition player’.
Ideally, he needed Jordan Henderson alongside him from the off rather than being consigned to the bench. Still did what he could though and worked well to test ‘keeper Matz Sels with a couple of efforts.
5th (1 point): Igor Thiago
Scored the only Brentford goal of the game. But for a wonderful interception by Neco Williams, he may well have equalised after getting on the end of the aforementioned Henry/Jensen move.
Didn’t do too much else but who did? Moreso given the complete lack of ball in to the final third from the rest of the team.
All of which means that after Round 1 of fixtures, the current top five is:
- Kevin Schade – 5 points
- Rico Henry – 4 points
- Michael Kayode – 3 points
- Yehor Yarmoliuk – 2 points
- Igor Thiago – 1 point
