Brentford travel to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon with the two teams in about as contrasting recent fortune as it is possible to imagine.
The Bees secured a third successive Premier League win last Saturday. West Ham were the latest to come undone following defeats of Chelsea and Burnley in the games prior. The 3-2 victory over The Hammers was all the more notable for a goal from Neal Maupay (his first in this second stint) and yet another stunning performance from Bryan Mbeumo – amongst others. The wide man running riot as the visitors saw a 2-1 lead disappear as quickly as it had arrived.
The absence of Aaron Hickey at left-back was the other key factor impacting personnel in that one. His position, itself covering for Rico Henry, was once again filled by Vitaly Janelt. The German coping admirably which is no bad thing given we now know he’s likely going to have to do this until the New Year.
The other question is whether Thomas goes with three at the back or two? Nathan Collins and Ethan Pinnock are nailed on but the late cameo from Ben Mee suggests that, if fit enough, he‘ll likely start alongside them. Kris Ajer then moving out to the right-hand side in lieu of Mads Roerslev. The alternate being to keep Mee on the bench until later and begin with Ajer on the right of the three central defenders.
The one thing we can expect for sure is that Thomas will stick to his favoured formation of three at the back rather than in attack when starting against any team expected to finish top six. It worked a treat against Chelsea, even if we did ride our luck at times in the first half, but I see no reason he’ll change.
Standard operating procedure suggests that Neal Maupay will be starting on the bench although, personally speaking, I wouldn’t mind mixing it up a touch and having Wissa as the man to come on part way through the game.
As for Liverpool, their 100mph start to the campaign has hit the buffers somewhat. At least, by their standards. They laboured to a last-gasp equaliser at Luton Town on Sunday evening before then going down in the Europa League on Thursday.
The long journey to Southern France, only to lose the game when Jarell Quansah’s equaliser 7(seven) minutes into added time was VAR’d out for a dubious handball by Alexis Mac Allister, a bitter pill to swallow. Insert your own Toulouse-Lautrec comment here.
It rounded off a frustrating week for Mac Allister who sits out Sunday’s game after picking up a fifth booking of the season in the aforementioned trip to Kenilworth Road. He’s joined on the ‘missing’ list by Andrew Robertson, Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara and Curtis Jones. Virgil van Dijk was unwell so missed out midweek but is expected to return on Sunday.
To be fair, it doesn’t matter who is in or out if Brentford are unable to stifle the midfield. A front three of Salah, Nunez and Jota (not that one), with Luiz Diaz also available, would cause havoc against most teams if they can get going.
Injury-hit Luton were able to contain them but those vast empty spaces at Anfield will be a different matter. Enough about the atmosphere, though.
Since reaching the top flight, Brentford have found playing Liverpool away a tricky prospect. Whilst I see no reason to suggest Sunday will be any different, on paper, one thing we have learned to expect from The Bees is the unexpected.
With Liverpool, temporarily having their normal imperious form halted could Sunday see our first Premier League points at Anfield? I can’t wait to find out.
