Nick Bruzon gives us his best 5 Bees from their Matchweek 13 draw against Wolves and we see his updated top 5 players over the course of the season.
A 1-1 draw with Wolves sees another point earned for a Brentford team who will be desperately frustrated not to have got back to winning ways at the Gtech.
An afternoon of largely abject football was compounded by a staggering 13 minutes of time added on across the two halves, such was the stop-start nature of a game where the visiting physio could well have been in with a decent shout for player of the match.
Certainly, the heat map from the Wolves medic showed more intensity than most of their team who spent the afternoon collapsing with all the alacrity shown by a wobbly sack of spuds. Treating the pitch like an old friend, such was the enthusiasm with which they grasped any opportunity to familiarise themselves with the luxuriant turf.
Goalkeeper José Sá typifying the approach when his second half injury, sorry ‘injury’, lasted exactly the same time as it took defender Max Kilman to go into the dressing room and have his head bandaged up. The timing of his return coinciding with the Wolves’ shot stopper getting back to his feet quite remarkably.
Truly, it was an afternoon where all of football’s dark arts were on display.
At times, it felt like a throwback to League One days. Two average sides grinding it out with Bobby Madley in the middle. We were only Keith Stroud short of a full house although, to be fair, he wouldn’t have put up with any of the nonsense that, I gather, saw the ball in play for just over 44% of the game.
It’s a shame that Mr Madeley couldn’t follow his early lead. After showing the first yellow card with less than a minute gone, one felt there might be some discipline enforced.
Instead, he was suckered by everyone and everything.
Brentford, sadly, without sufficient run of the ball to break down an opposition whose entire game plan was built around drawing the life from a game to try and earn a point. Whatever it took.
Fair play to the visitors. They did their job.
Brentford having an off day and when we finally stepped it up to get the opening goal minutes into the second period, then proceeded to shoot ourselves directly in the foot.
Barely sixty seconds had passed before Neves levelled it up with a blistering shot through from the edge of the D. Nobody coming close to any of three Wolves players as they played it around the box, worked the angle and allowed the visiting player time to unleash a thunderbolt. He hit it well, granted, but through a crowd of statutes. Damsgaard attempting to close him down but the ball was already well on its way past a helpless Raya. For once, Brentford’s number one powerless to resist.
There it finished. The Bees pushed for the next half hour but with little reward.
Lots of huff. Lots of puff. No end product.
Ivan Toney coming closest when Keane Lewis-Potter headed it through. Six yards out and the free scoring front man, normally a deadly assassin from such positions, could only steer it wide. The sniper’s bullet taking out the hoardings rather than the back of the net. If anything, guilty of trying to be too precise.
It wasn’t Ivan’s day. An earlier chance had seen him lose his footing in the box whilst the game ended with what felt, from the stands, a really soft yellow card. The wrong man in the wrong place as a Wolves’ player pushed up to him. Perhaps Mr Madeley saw it differently to us.
Regardless, the end result was a fifth yellow card of the season for Ivan, meaning he now misses the trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
In short, a terrible game of football at least saw the consolation of Brentford scooping another point.
Likewise, the prospect of Christian Norgaard’s return gets ever closer. It can’t come soon enough. Especially given the way Mathias Jensen was kicked out of the game with only half an hour gone.
One can’t help but wonder if the Bees would have been able to go on to bigger and better things had he not been taken out so brutally.
Ultimately, we won’t win every game. Nobody has that divine right to ‘be any good’.
It came down to the simple fact that on the day, Brentford lacked the wherewithal to get past dogged opponents. Opponents whose approach was summed up by Diego Costa’s 97th minute moment of petulance that saw him shown straight red for head butting Ben Mee.
The referee starting and ending the game correctly. If only he’d given more support throughout the rest of it. Hey, I’d even have accepted just allowing it to flow.
All of which brings us to the fact that we need to find the top five Brentford performers in the season long quest to discover our overall top player. That quest starts with star player…
Brentford Player Ratings from Matchweek 13 (vs Wolves)
1st (Star Man: 5 points) – Ben Mee
Oh, what a goal. Where on earth did he find that one? Surprising enough that it came from a short corner (“Don’t take it short, it never flippin’ works”) being the usual terrace refrain, but the finish was next level.
As Bryan played it across the box the last thing anybody expected was the centre back to make such a connection. Channeling his inner Van Basten, the side on scissor kick flashed past Sá in nets. A tracer bullet of a shot. The sweetest of connections and one which received due celebration from players and supporters alike. It was a rare moment of quality on top of another wise lethargic afternoon of football.
The goal aside, Ben once again marshalled the backline with his usual assuredness. What he lacks for in speed is more than made up for in timing and the exquisite touch needed to break up play when danger threatened. Mr. Madeley not even tempted to touch his yellow.
2nd (4 points) – Rico Henry
Nélson Semedo’s foul on Rico early doors set the tone for the game. Our man haring off down the touchline, only to be thwarted by a challenge made with all the subtlety of Wolf from Gladiators poking at a hapless ‘contender’ with an over-sized cotton bud. Kids, ask a grown up.
Clearly Semedo had been charged with keeping close tabs on our man – similar happened throughout the game – yet Rico rode the challenges and looked our most creative outlet. Certainly, in terms of building any form of attack.
One tends to forget he is a defender yet there he was, as ever, on those rare moments when the opposition did threaten.
3rd (3 points) – Josh Dasilva
Injury and variety of choice mean Thomas Frank’s central three are by no means set in stone.
Josh started this one after impressing (relatively speaking) from the bench at Villa Park on Sunday and on the evidence presented is surely in line for more of the same at Forest. If Rico was our most creative of players, Josh was the man who seemed most likely to score.
Jensen freed him up early on for shot which flew narrowly wide of the upright. A second half effort looked like it had goal written all over it until the pinball like nature of the Wolves’ defence took control. The ball deflecting and bouncing to safety with nobody knowing much about it. Clearly, Josh had followed his manager’s pre match directive that we were going to be more attacking.
4th (2 points) – Bryan Mbeumo
One can’t knock his energy or drive. Worked hard down the flanks, even if no ultimate reward.
Had the satisfaction of seeing his perfect delivery into the box met with an equally delicious finish by Ben Mee. Might have found the back of the net himself but his tame header was, ultimately, shown to be from an offside position.
5th (1 point) – Keane Lewis-Potter
Like Sergi and Josh at Villa, made a visible effort to breathe life into flagging legs. To help his team mates rediscover some sadly missing magic against opponents who, had more pressure been applied to those on yellow cards, may well have been down to ten men prior to Diego Costa’s moment of stupidity met with an inevitable conclusion.
Only came on for a brief cameo with the clock on 75, but the purpose he showed in that half-hour before the ref finally put us out of our misery suggested Wissa’s return to the starting XI may well be a short lived one.
Aside from the aforementioned chance for Ivan, KLP surely did enough to play himself into contention for a start at the City Ground.
Brentford Player Ratings – Top 5 Players Overall (after Matchweek 13)
All of which means that after Matchweek 13, Ben Mee (30) is clear at the top and with the potential to stride further clear of third placed Ivan Toney (23) on Saturday. David Raya stays section (24) whilst fourth placed Rico Henry (18) is now clear of Mathias Jensen (14)
1st – Ben Mee (30 points)
2nd – David Raya (24 points)
3rd – Ivan Toney (23 points)
4th – Rico Henry (18 points)
5th – Mathias Jensen (14 points)
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2022-23 Brentford Player Ratings – Matchweek 13 by Nick Bruzon
