Keith Andrews must be a very contented man following the latest developments in the never sedate world of football. Here’s our preview for the visit of Sunderland.
Sunday’s 4-2 trouncing of Everton saw Brentford climb to seventh in the Premier League table. A second successive away win was achieved in magnificent style, with Igor Thiago’s hat-trick moving him within five goals of Erling Haaland in the race for football’s golden boot. Like last season, the Bees finding their feet outside the Gtech around the turn of the year and now with the possibility to achieve new levels of success.
On a personal note, the continued defiance of just about every pundit’s expectation must be equally pleasing for Keith. Albeit, one gets the impression that he’d never admit this in public and maintain that his only interest is on the team.
However, with events at Manchester United and Chelsea showing just how fragile the position of a head coach can be (both teams currently above the Bees in the table), there’s a lot to be said for a calm board and an owner who trusts his process.
It’s not just the ‘big’ clubs. Even Glasgow Celtic ditched their latest manager on Monday. Wilfried Nancy gone within 33 days and totally ineffective. He was just a ‘pork markets’ shy of going the full Liz Truss.
As long as Keith doesn’t use Tuesday’s press conference to declare that he took the job at Brentford to become a manager rather than a head coach he should be fine. To be fair, I suspect that even if he did, Matthew Benham would only see the funny side, whilst it would probably endear Keith even more to a fanbase fast getting used to his methods and, more importantly, his results.
That aside, what of the actual game itself? To be honest, I’ve given up trying to second-guess his team selections. You can be sure that nothing meaningful will be revealed in that press conference, although with the weekend’s FA Cup third round providing opportunity to keep his squad fully involved, perhaps this might be a chance to go ‘full strength’. Whatever that even is these days.
It would be true to say that Keith has used the last six weeks to really invoke a squad mentality aswell as mixing up his tactics. To really heighten the competition for places. To prove himself and his team to be unpredictable.
It hasn’t always worked, but when it has, the Bees have been incredible. Bournemouth and Everton in particular. Ultimately, though, it is the table that provides the most visible proof in his methods. Brentford now find themselves in a position where victory over Sunderland, combined with a favour from Fulham, will see them move fifth in the table. Even if only on a temporary basis.
For what it’s worth, I suspect Keith will go for more of the same as we saw on Sunday. The spine of the team from Caoimhín Kelleher through Nathan Collins, Vitaly Janelt, and Igor Thiago up top were phenomenally strong. The experiment of combining Jensen and Damsgaard worked wonders, whilst only the most hard-spirited of big chiefs would deny Jordan Henderson a game against his former side. Regardless, with the England captain running joint third in our player of the season race, why would you rest him anyway?
Since reaching the top flight, the Bees have always fared well at home against newly promoted sides. I saw a stat this morning showing that they’ve won 11 out of 13 in such fixtures. Only the reverse to Norwich City in November 2021 and December’s turgid draw with Leeds United blotting an otherwise perfect copybook.
With Sunderland only winning two and drawing seven out of their last 12 games, their own momentum has slowed down somewhat. Yet, like Keith Andrews, Régis Le Bris has defied pundits expecting them to be going neck and neck in the sack race when things kicked off in anger back in August. The Black Cats spent big but clever and are as well placed as the Bees. Only goal difference keeping them below Brentford, and knowing that the reward for victory on offer to us applies equally to them.
This is by no means a walkover. For either team. It boils down (cliché alert) to which side wants it more. Which team is prepared to take the risk of playing attacking football. We saw against both Leeds and Spurs what happens when the game takes a more negative approach.
Fingers crossed this one sees Brentford setting their switch to ‘attack’ rather than ‘not lose’. Of course, nobody wants a reckless approach, but Keith Andrews has surely seen enough by now to know that when he lets his team off the leash, the rewards are tangible.
For those with an interest in our officials, Matthew Donohue is man in the middle for this one. He’s only had one game at this level so far, albeit that our own at Wolves last month. It was a fixture that The Bees won 2-0, but which ended up seeing six yellow cards shown. More of the same would do very nicely, thank you. Perhaps without quite so many bookings.
With VAR driven by Paul Tierney and Tim Robinson, anything could happen. Here’s to Brentford doing it in open play. It’s going to be a bitterly cold evening but, all being well, a thoroughly exciting one.
Kick-off is at 7.30pm. Bring it on, see you there, and let’s dream big…
