Championship notes taken from today's newsletter ..............
Nov 03, 2020
Championship:
Last midweek ahead of a home game with Norwich City I wrote the following about my beloved Brentford .............
City are decent and have made a pleasing enough start to life back in the second tier , winning their last three all by a single goal, but each was hard work and against what we have to consider weak opposition. So we do not know for sure yet if they are genuine promotion contenders, but I will be able to update you on that after today. Brentford were the second best team in the Championship last season, but finished third and blew three chances for promotion, they have made an up and down start to this season, which can happen after losing a play off final and I do not doubt they will be a better team in 6-8 weeks time. However right now they have some real issues and I have more concerns about them than at any time in the last two years, which pains me to say, but it is my job to do so. They have conceded 4 to Preston and 3 to Stoke in their last four starts and did not allow 3 once last season. CB and captain Pontus Jansson has been in terrible form, at international level too (if any of you saw the Croatia-Sweden game you will understand) and it has been a bit of a blessing that he has picked up a minor knock, but the two alternatives Sorensen and Goode are young and raw and inexperienced at this level and playing with a small injury respectively. Right back Henrik Dalsgaard is not up to playing 3 games per 8 days week after week which the schedule is right now and made two awful errors at the weekend . He has a talented understudy who is injured probably until Christmas, to rest Dalsgaard means playing someone out of position, most probably Fosu or Canos who are wingers, the latter is more experienced, but is also way out of form. Key defensive midfielder Christian Norgaard is out for 8 weeks, also injured are Baptiste and Marcondes which limits midfield options. LW Bryan Mbeumo looked a little better Saturday, but has been a shadow of the player he was last season ,Saman Ghoddos is still coming to terms with English football and Vitaly Janelt was bought in to understudy Norgaard and been thrown in the deep end as a result of the injury, but he has done OK.
On the plus side, Ivan Toney who was brought in as a direct replacement for Ollie Watkins is already joint top Championship goal scorer and more than that, his all round play, work rate, movement and defensive abilities from set pieces are beyond what anyone hoped for. Also, young Finnish striker Marcus Forrs has three goals in just 88 minutes play and is as pure a natural goalscorer as I have seen for some time, Bees only play with a 3 up top, so not sure how Brentford can get the two in tandem other than when chasing games late on, but they are looking at ways to do so.
Brentford were completely overrun in the opening 15-20 minutes in that game and it was painful watching, but the Bees then got a toehold in the game and suddenly grew in confidence, took the lead and City were then really struggling with the fluidity of the home front four who were dragging the City backline all over the pitch and the Bees missed two big chances to cement the win. The Canaries never looked like scoring at this point, but did so late in the game with a heavily deflected attempt on goal. The performance for 70 minutes, if not result, was a confidence boost and the Bees rode roughshod over Luton Town in a 3-0 win at Kenilworth Road on Saturday. Toney scored in both games and is joint top Championship goalscorer with 9 and Marcus Forss has four from just 110 minutes of play, all from the bench ! The defence looks so much better without Pontus ( see above) , sorry, but it does. Marcondes is back from injury, Vitaly has improved game on game, Mbeumo is re-finding his confidence and form and even Canos played his best game of the season against Luton and helped set up a wonderful second goal.
xP puts Brentford top of the Championship with 22 points which is an additional 8 compared to the real table, the top 5 are ..........
Brentford 22 pts
Blackburn 20
Norwich 17
Bournemouth 17
Swansea 16
I am not sure I agree with that right now, but it indicates the potential that Brentford still retain and how good they will be once things really click and settle down, Toney and Forss have no limits on how many goals they will score, only with gametime in the case of the young Finnish player. Rico Henry is the best left back outside the Premier League and Josh DaSiva the best left sided midfielder and he has just got his England U21 call up, they will continue to grow and if they can sort out the centre of defence ( I have no idea what will happen once Pontus is available again, but know what I would do !), they just have to be in top 2 contention. That is a little scary for the rest of the second tier, as I still think they are still a little way off that level currently
I have no arguments with Norwich as top 3, I like the way they play , they are strong in all areas and it is inconceivable they will not make the playoffs as an absolute minimum. Not sure I can have Blackburn as #2 or even close, but it is true they have been very unlucky through 9 games to only have 10 points, they are top scorers with 18 goals, but Adam Armstrong has 9 of those and he is injured and misses out tonight for the home game with Middlesbrough. Rovers have only won twice in the last year without a goal from him and only once without a goal contribution ( goal or assist).
Bees host Swansea City who they beat in the playoff semi finals last season, winning the home leg 3-1 just three months ago, the Swans goal being a late consolation, in a very one sided contest, Brentford head coach Thomas Frank had kind of guaranteed that win and the Bees were super confident, but it was at Griffin Park, not Lionel Road. Swans still look decent and we will know more about them after tonight. I will try to update the full Championship numbers before the weekend, but it is tough with so many games (they are playing every midweek).
Good luck !
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