Perhaps the dullest round of Premier League football since records began was mirrored at the Gtech on Thursday evening as Brentford and Tottenham played out a laborious 0-0 draw. Here are our player ratings.
With 7(seven) of the 10 fixtures in match week 19 ending level, including three goalless games and even Wolves picking up an actual point, one did have to wonder if the glut of football played in December had finally caught up with all concerned? Certainly, that was the case in TW8, where the Bees once again rested Mikkel Damsgaard, along with current flavour of the month Mathias Jensen, then struggled to create anything meaningful against a Spurs team set up to ‘not lose’.
The boos that greeted visiting manager Thomas Frank from sections of his own support at full-time as contrasting as the warm welcome he’d received from the home fans when coming out for kick-off. Then again, that was soon replaced with a chorus of, “You should have stayed at a big club” once the gloves had come off.
You could see why. It was about as poles apart from the previous game’s free-flowing demolition of Bournemouth as is possible. Despite Brentford being able to call on Igor Thiago – Keith’s pre-match press conference about the player’s fitness being the smoke and mirrors we had suspected (that, or there had been a miraculous turn around overnight) – opportunities were at an absolute premium for The Bees. Referee Andy Madley not helping matters any, but we’ll get there shortly.
Kevin Schade thought he had picked up where he left off against The Cherries when finding the back of the net in just the fifth minute of the game. A corner swung over, played forwards and fired home from close range by the German. Alas, within moments it was ruled out for offside. A decision nobody complained about and which subsequently proved to be correct with Schade a good yard ahead of play.
It was as close as Brentford got. Spurs playing so deep at the back and so cautious that Caoimhín Kelleher could have slung a hammock between the posts and taken 40 winks. Yet at the same time, the Bees struggled to get forward. The phobia of crossing the halfway line we’d seen against Leeds United returning once more. Attempts to split the defence being Keith’s chosen method of attack, but ultimately futile, given the visitors had so many players camped back. It was a game crying out for the flare of a Jensen or Damsgaard yet no changes were made until the final ten minutes.
Instead, the Bees were limited to a few half-efforts. Thiago might have done better. Vitaly headed too close to Vicario. Yarmo snatched at one.
When the Bees finally threaded the eye of the needle to work the opening, Cristian Romero swung at the ball, missed and instead took out Thiago as he bore down on the corner of the box. It was as clumsy a challenge as it was reckless from a player who seems to tread the fine line between foul-play and incompetence with alarming regularity but, somehow, the man in the middle did absolutely nothing.
How? Why? Even if somehow not deemed a red card offence (and it was), it was still as blatant a free-kick scenario and yellow card, minimum, as we’ll ever see. Such was the myopic decision making, it felt as if Mr Madley was in need of a guide dog. Having watched it back since on Match of the Day, I’m even more flabbergasted as to how he let play continue.
Go figure. The ball went straight down the other end where Spurs had their only real opportunity of the night. Archie Gray went to ground in the box but despite the visitors feeling it was their turn to be hard done by, at least this time around the ref had his decision of ‘no foul’ endorsed by VAR.
Being realistic, we’re talking fleeting moments of opportunity. Djed Spence and Pedro Pony were crying out to be exposed in the full-back positions. Instead, one egg-on-face moment for the former aside, c/o Michael Kayode the Bees struggled to use the full width of the pitch in the way they had done last time out. Substitutions were left too late to have any real impact, and whilst the positives remain that it is another point, another clean sheet and another game unbeaten at home, it also felt very much like an opportunity lost.
Thomas Frank’s treatment from supporters whose default modes flit between unrealistic expectation and bizarre intolerance is only going to come to a head with further woe at a club where morale seems rotten to the core. Which given the fact they are still well set in the Champions League and punching much higher than last season’s league finish of 17th, tells you all you need to know about their own delusions of grandeur. Rome wasn’t built in a day yet, it feels like the barbarians are at the gates, again, albeit trying to knock them down from the inside.
Still, that’s their problem. Thomas made his bed and now has to lie in it. I’m sure he’ll get it right, but for me, Clive, the more pertinent challenge for Keith Andrews is how to get his team firing against these negative teams. It’s a nice problem to have for a club who are ninth at the halfway point in the campaign, still just three points off the top five.
It may not always be electric football but Keith and his squad have defied just about every pundit’s pre-season expectation. Only eight teams in the entire football pyramid are better than Brentford at present – that’s no small achievement. With games at Everton, then home to Sunderland in the next five days, the pace shows no sign of slowing. Equally, with both sides immediately above The Bees in the table, the opportunity is very much there to be grasped.
How Keith looks to treat that is a question for another day (well, tomorrow, in our preview piece), but until then the game-by-game search for Brentford’s top five players of the season. As always, five points being 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.
Spoiler alert – it’ll be brief.
1st (five points) Vitaly Janelt
I’m not a fan of overly chopping and changing the midfield but can appreciate that with so many games at the time of year, something has to give.
The resurgence of Vitaly has been one of the real benefits to come from all of this. His third successive top-five appearance finally sees him awarded a star player award. Given the nature of the game the onus was always going to be on Brentford to dictate the play, and it was the German who controlled the central area.
Nobody out-tackled him whilst he was the one who came closest to breaking the deadlock (given Schade had transgressed). Its only possible to marvel at energy levels that saw him play his third successive full game in this most demanding of positions yet Vitaly never flagged. Never stopped trying to work it – even if the ball did end going as much sideways and backwards as it did forwards.
That’s not his fault per-se. We’re an 11 man team and he certainly stood out as the strongest of those.
2nd (four points) Kris Ajer
thought Kris looked really good at centre-back with Sep van den Berg once again absent from the starting XI. Feelings on his positioning at left-back have been clear – as much given the options available, but stick him in the middle and it feels much more comfortable. As strong on his feet as he was in the air, he was so much of the reason that the game ended as it did – in that cacophony of booing from Spurs. Even when it seemed they’d get close, the opportunity was whipped away by Kris…
3rd (three points) Nathan Collins
And also Nathan alongside him. Spurs somehow had more shots than Brentford (9 to 7) but you wouldn’t have thought so from the game we watched unfold. It seemed they barely threatened and that was as much through our centre-back pairing having one of those days where they looked impenetrable.
We also had the pleasure of seeing Nathan looking to bring the ball forwards although, in truth the sound you can hear is that of straws being clutched at.
4th (two points) Rico Henry
We’re closing in on a defensive full-house. Like Vitaly, Rico has returned from injury to really cement in his place in the team. For years he was our first-choice left-back and now, thankfully, that honour seems to have been restored.
If Nathan and Kris did it in the middle, there were Rico and Michael on the wings. Would love to have seen create more but the primary role of locking out the opposition on those moments they did threaten was completed with what looked complete ease.
5th (one point) Michael Kayode
See above. I give Michael fifth purely because he took a little longer to settle in to the game. Once he did find his feet we were back to that brilliance of his treating the ball like candy to be stolen from a baby.
His mugging off of the hapless Spence was a moment that almost produced the most legendary of goals but with the hard work having been done, alas the team couldn’t see it through.
He’ll be happy with a clean sheet though. Primary goal achieved.
All of which means that going into our next game, Michael Kayode remains top of our table and the only one of that group to score in this round. At the half way point of the campaign his colossal early lead has been reined in by Thiago and Henderson in particular. However, with 19 games left we’ve got it all to play for – both individually and as a team.
Next stop, Everton!
1st Michael Kayode – 38 points
2nd Igor Thiago – 33 points
3rd Jordan Henderson – 28 points
4th Mikkel Damsgaard – 25 points
5th Caoimhín Kelleher – 24 points
