Brentford travel to Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon, hoping that whatever happened last weekend against Everton has been truly flushed out of the system.
To be fair, The Bees were magnificent on Wednesday evening when hosting Arsenal in the Carabao Cup. Whilst the game ended in a 1-0 defeat, the return to normal form gave much-needed cheer. It was one of those where we were left wondering how on earth Brentford had failed to equalise, let alone win. Posts were hit and goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale certainly had a point to prove after finding himself displaced by David Raya.
So it ended with the Bees able to concentrate on the league until Ivan Toney is available and perhaps that’s no bad thing, given the current injury crisis. Thomas Frank confirmed during the week that Kevin Schade will be out for ‘months’ and so he joins Ben Mee, Shandon Baptiste, Mikkel Damsgaard and, of course, Rico Henry on the absentee list.
On the plus side, Matthias Jensen looked wonderful when he came on. He was rated our highest-rated performer in the Everton game and is looking like our key outlet for creativity. I also thought the returning Saman Ghoddos has seized his chance in both games and come off the bench with real gusto. Rico Henry is irreplaceable but Aaron Hickey is giving it his best shot on the left whilst Thomas Frank has one more card up his sleeve – Neal Maupay.
After missing out on the last two games through loan rules, he is finally available to be set loose. The anticipation about his return is positively palpable and although we had a brief taster at Newcastle United, this is now his time. How he fares could be a huge indication of how the next few months will play out.
For what it’s worth, I suspect Thomas will keep Neal on the bench until the first of our ‘subs by numbers’ changes on the hour mark. Expect three at the back (Kris Ajer may also be deployed to provide further cover on the right), a midfield of Norgaard, Janelt and Jensen with the goal threat coming from Mbeumo and Wissa. He’s made no secret about having a starting and finishing team – using those five switches to their full potential – so we will see Maupay, KLP, Ghoddos and the impressive youngster Michael Olakigbe at some point.
As for Nottingham Forest, Steve Cooper has his team already outperforming on last season (by virtue of their picking up an away win – even if it was at car crash Chelsea). They’ve only played two of their six games at home, picking up four points at The City Ground. With a 50% loss ratio, it’s hard to know just how dangerous a threat Forest are at present.
Talking to Tricky Trees supporter and Absolute Radio DJ Matt Dyson (co-host of The Breakfast Show and Rock ‘N’ Roll football), his own take is that:
“Forest look more solid than last season. We also look a lot more dangerous in attack with Elanga and Hudson Odoi coming in. While I have felt like we’ve missed your one-time (frankly deluded with the valuation) target Brennan Johnson in the last couple of games, we still look like we’ve got goals in us – especially with the clumsy looking but prolific Awoniyi up top”.
The one thing we can say is that regardless of form and threat, they are currently sitting one place above Brentford. As we never tire of saying, the table doesn’t lie.
All being well The Bees will rectify this on Sunday afternoon.
