Brentford welcome Leicester City to the Gtech on Saturday afternoon, following the trip to Everton which saw the first away points of the season acquired.
That game, a 0-0 overpowered by the fetid stench of Sean Dyche’s brand of 70’s style football brutalism, will be wrongly remembered for the red card shown to Bees’ skipper Christian Norgaard for alleged serious foul play late in the first half.
Wrongly, because despite repeated viewing on the pitchside monitor, referee Chris Kavanagh still chose to show ‘straight red’ to a player doing nothing more than trying to find the net in close proximity to a lumbering hulk of a goalkeeper.
We could all see it was the wrong call and, thankfully, common sense has prevailed. Not a phrase often heard in football but there was relief all round as Wednesday’s appeal for wrongful dismissal proved successful and the original three game ban has now been rescinded.
This is fantastic news for the Bees, as much as anything else knowing how pivotal Christian is to everything we do. The captain and the heart of the midfield. Building play from in front of the defence as part of a line-up that has, somehow, discovered that four into three can go. Thomas Frank finding a way to swerve the question of which undroppable player to drop and include Norgaard alongside Vitaly Janelt, Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard.
Now that he is available, I can only expect more of the same from the kick-off selection which started up at Everton. Mark Flekken in nets. KLP and SVDB as wing backs. Pinnock and Collins in the middle. The core midfield trio with Mbeumo and Damsgaard out wide to feed Wissa up top.
No doubt the likes of Kevin Schade and, in particular, Fábio Carvalho will have points to prove from the bench. The latter as much due to his dad’s comments on Bees’ Instagram after the Everton game, noting, “Son, you have to leave this club”. That post since deleted but we’ve all seen it.
No fault of the player of course and, instead, it may just be used as a catalyst to longer-term positivity. Anybody who has been around the Bees for more than five minutes knows only too well how places need to be earned. How newcomers wait their turn to blend into our system and set up. Likewise, how much Sean Dyche and Everton suck the life out of anything. No matter what daddy thinks.
On top of that, of course, we have the long-awaited home debut of Igor Thiago. As long as there has been no post-match reaction to the exertions at Goodison Park, expect Peter Gilham to go nuts around the 70th minute as he announces our Brazilian’s entry to the field of play.
Thiago has overcome the obligatory ‘new signing injury’ that saw him go from hot prospect to driving a mobility scooter in the local Tesco, I know Brentford do things differently but it would be nice if the initiation ritual was akin to other clubs and we simply chucked their clothes in the shower rather than ‘break them’
Thankfully, Igor was finally able to start to showing us what he is all about last weekend. As much as the circumstances would allow. Here’s to round two on Saturday.
As for our visitors, they find themselves in that brief window of calm that always seems to come following the dismissal of a manager. Steve Cooper pushed to his doom after a run that saw Leicester City win just two games from their opening twelve. Those against Ipswich Town and everybody’s obligatory defeat of Southampton. Sorry, almost everybody – Everton, of course, being turned over by the Saints.
With swathes of the squad unhappy and #CooperOut gathering momentum, the supporter unease was clear to see. As such, the board have jumped rather than show any patience.
That’s on them. I still remember the #FrankOut phase that dominated so much of our own head coach’s start to life at Griffin Park. Thankfully, Matthew Benham ignored it all and the keyboard warriors have had to hold up their hands as season on season things have only got better.
Leicester City have made the decision that immediate change rather than trusting their manager is the way forward. Instead, we find ourselves in a situation where Ruud van Nistelrooy seems about to be offered a managerial hot seat still warm from the imprint of Cooper’s buttocks. Don’t have nightmares.
Fast though they have moved, it would seem too soon for anything more than his watching from the sidelines this weekend. In his place, caretaker manager Ben Dawson moves from Cooper’s backroom to the bench. Even if it is for one game only.
We all know the danger an interim manager presents. That eye in the storm whose mere presence seems to throw all short-term form out of the window and allows players the chance to reset their approach. Ding dong the witch is dead and a nothing to lose opportunity for the temporary incumbent.
Whether it is sufficient to stop a team with the best home record in the Premier League (and most of Europe) remains to be seen. Brentford have picked up 16 points out of a possible 18 from all games played at The Gtech – a haul which has seen The Bees move to within two points of the European places. A trip to TW8 is the last thing anybody would fancy at present.
Then again, as we all know there’s no such thing as a gimme in football. Look at how close the visit of Ipswich Town was. Thomas will need his team, their parents and the fans alive to the danger rather than assuming three points are the divine right.
Tread carefully, dodge the potato skin in front of us and The Bees could well be looking for their passports at 17:00 on Saturday evening.
Bring it on and see you there…
