Dan Long gave the lowdown on Brentford
- Expert’s view on Brentford
- Details what he expects from the Bees
- Watch the full feature on #HTTV
Journalist and Brentford fan Dan Long gave his thoughts on the Bees ahead of Huddersfield Town’s Sky Bet Championship game this weekend!
What to expect from Brentford
A team that plays a very attractive brand of football. A team that’s going to want to mark the first game at the Brentford Community Stadium with a win. It should be an open game. Losing to Fulham in the Play-Off Final in the manner they did last month was a real kick in the teeth after what was a really good season. Losing on the opening day to Birmingham wasn’t ideal, but they’ll be eager to get that first result on the board. I wouldn’t expect many changes from them.
Responding from the Play-Off Final
Losing in the manner with one of the best Brentford teams in living memory was horrible, but they’ve been there so many times in the last 20/30 years and bounced back from it. I think the short gap between the to seasons will have softened the blow. Brentford have a tendency to start seasons relatively slowly and build up momentum to the point where promotion is on the cards.
Style of play
The principles in style are still the same, but there’s been a change is personnel from last season. We’ll play a 4-3-3, an exciting style, plenty of possession and our full-backs like to bomb forward and compliment the front three. That front three is very different, it was called the BMW last year, but Ollie Watkins has gone to Aston Villa and Saïd Benrahma is heavily linked with moves away. On Saturday it looked different with Sergi Canós, Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo. The success of this season defends on how quickly those three can gel.
Birmingham City defeat
It was déjà vu, the first game of last season we lost to them 1-0 too. They had a lot more opportunities this season, but so did Brentford; Josh Dasilva hit the post and Canós hit the bar with an improvised effort. I think Birmingham were very well organised and it was a little bit of a case of first day nerves for us. I don’t see that game as being too much of an issue.
First game at Brentford Community Stadium
A new stadium for Brentford has been on the cards for decades. The Stadium looks unbelievable and is definitely worth the wait. It’s sad to leave Griffin Park, and we didn’t get the goodbye we envisaged, but this is a new chapter for the Club. It’s a bigger pitch, although the Griffin Park type tightness is still there; it’s exciting.
You can watch the full pundit’s preview below on #HTTV!
