Football

2022-23 Brentford Player Ratings – Matchweek 1

by
Jack Mcgowan
August 8, 2022

Matchweek 1 - Brentford Player Ratings after season opener

Nick Bruzon picks out the 5 best Bees after a strong comeback in Matchweek 1 that saw Brentford pick up a point at Leicester City.

Well, wasn’t that the afternoon?

Brentford giving us the full gamut of emotion in 90, sunny minutes on Matchweek 1 of the 2022-23 Premier League season.

A 2-2 draw the very least Thomas Frank’s team deserved. This, despite Leicester City luxuriating with a 2-0 lead earned just moments into a second half that had seen a strangely subdued Bees’ starting XI caught out twice.

First by Timothy Castagne’s header with little more than half an hour played.

That Ivan Toney was the closest ‘defender’ to the ball told casual observers all they needed to know about a defence struggling to adjust to the loss of both Kris Ajer and Ethan Pinnock pre-season. Both are due back whilst the current incumbents will, of course, gel as time progresses. However, it would be churlish to pretend this one looked anything less than cataclysmic.

Despite chances for Mbeumo and Wissa, the break was more than welcome.

The restart less so.

Kieran Dewsbury-Hall (the player, not the stately home) doubling the lead moments into the second period. Ben Mee’s lacklustre touch allowing the hosts to take the game forward and from there David Raya was well beaten from distance.

It’s Leicester, innit? Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. The Bees very much with their sting, such as it had even suggested, well and truly drawn.

Then Thomas Frank gave a masterclass. Game changed. Water turned into wine. Minimal resources once again stretched further than piece of well chewed gum.

With the hour mark approaching, the subs board was held up. The option to make five changes rather than the customary three used to the full extent. It began with Jensen and Mee coming off for Josh Dasilva and Keane Lewis-Potter. From there, the proverbial game of two halves entered the Brentford phase.

Let’s be clear at this juncture. There are some fans so blinkered that Mathias Jensen could stay over the night, do the cleaning and cook breakfast before they’d even been roused from their post-coital slumbers but would still complain that he’d served up black pudding with the sausages rather than baked beans. Just to clarify, I’m looking at you Rylan.

That he made way for Josh is not to say that Brentford’s first half failings were the result of a player who was our least bad performer in the opening 45. An uncharacteristically cautious approach saw Wissa anonymous and Ivan awol.

At least Mathias did his best to open up our opponents.

He can’t be blamed for the defensive no-show for the opener (hello – did anybody actually watch the pre-season videos?) or Ben Mee’s second half touch being one akin to a nervous teenager attempting to undo his first bra. All fingers, all thumbs, no finesse. Instead a clumsy flail saw him left empty handed and the ball thwacked past Raya via the inside of the post.

Forty-six minutes gone. Brentford two goals down. The game dead in the water. Apparently.

Changes were needed. Jensen being the sacrificial lamb. Janelt moving back. Brentford pushing up. Hey, it’s what we do.

Leicester on the back foot and then, within minutes of the change, the place erupted. A stadium that had already borne witness to the loudest Brentford crowd in I don’t know how long went nuts. Who else but Ivan Toney was there to steer home from close range? Rico picking up where he’d left off last campaign to provide the assist.

Up until that point, the most we’d been able to enjoy was the chance to offer matrimonial advice to Jamie Vardy. Hey, if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime. Nobody likes a grass.

Now, the place was in overdrive. Momentum building. Brentford pushing. More subs following.

Thomas shuffling his pack to take advantage of the newly updated laws. Josh Dasilva providing as quintessential example of momentum change as that which would be found in a GCSE science text book.

Slowly, gradually, imperceptibly but unceasingly the pattern of the game changed. From being on the back foot Brentford were now in control. From being little boys lost we were now men in the driving seat.

Josh pulling the strings. Brentford team mates following the lead. Something was coming. Something big. Yet, when it did, nobody could quite believe how gargantuan it was.

Josh picking up the ball in the 22 and pushing forward. Reaching the line on the edge of the box and shimmying sideways. One man taken out. A second left for dead until the chance was there. It still had to be taken, of course, but what a way to do it. A left-footed curler that went from one side to the other before nestling in the top corner. A goal of the month contender and then some. Brentford level in style.

All the potential we’d seen in the Championship. All the potential that had been so cruelly denied the chance to shine last season as a result of his hip injury. All the ability we know Josh has being demonstrated with one almighty strike.

One net buster that ended up being the cherry on what was already a game saving cake.

It ended 2-2. We might have nicked it.

After a cautious start, taking a point and ending on a high the absolute least Brentford deserved. Supporters ecstatic and heading in to next week’s game at home to Manchester United absolutely buzzing.

Oh, Christian Eriksen. You made your bed. Now get a duvet, fill a hot water bottle and lie in it. His own side’s going down 2-1 at home to Brighton as far away from our own performance as could even be considered going in to the respective games.

All of which is well and good but circumnavigates the key reason for being here. Namely, the first Star Man award of the season after Matchweek 1. So without further ado it goes to…

Brentford Player Ratings from Matchweek 1 (vs Leicester)

1st (Star Man) – Josh Dasilva
It had to be. Goals win games, says the well-worn trope. Whilst it didn’t quite pan out this way on this occasion, Brentford left the field feeling as though we’d won. 110% this was down to the impact of Josh Dasilva.

Those of us who have been following the Bees for more than five minutes were already well aware of what he could do at Championship level but this was a step up to make the Premier league take notice.

Pulling the strings, dictating the play and then burying that winner with with all the acumen of Long John Silver handling a troublesome Treasure chest.

What a run. What vision. What a shot. What a goal.

2nd – Ivan Toney
The ultimate game of two halves. Not just for Brentford as a whole but, in particular, Ivan.

If the opening period was a no-show things turned around in some style after the break.

After Leicester had grabbed a second goal The Bees looked dead in the water. Instead, there was Ivan to haul us back in to things. He had already worked one beautiful opportunity before taking the second of his two chances. Rico providing the ball through and our main man doing his thing.

3rd – Vitaly Janelt
Versatility, thy name is Janelt.

Dominating the midfield in the first half, the defence in the second.

One observer would subsequently describe his physicality and flexibility as those attributes allowing us to play multiple formations over the course of the game. Who am I to disagree?

One challenge early doors denied an almost certain goal whilst he was a constant force in pushing up.

Like Josh, on this showing he’s only going to get bigger and better than the heights already reached.

4th – Rico Henry
Same old, same old. Two for the price of one.

As consistent as ever, he did the defensive thing just fine but was primarily there for the attack.

His ball to Ivan was the game changing move. Suddenly 2-0 becomes 2-1 and from there, it was one-way traffic

5th – Christian Norgaard
It was a close call between last season’s player of the year and new boy KLP. The latter’s energy and enthusiasm certainly impressing but, in the end, it came down to Mr. Consistent doing what he does. Mopping it up and clearing it out.
A cagey opening period saw him and Vitaly doing their thing ahead of our last line.