Baffling Brentford adamant a breakthrough is near after Man United draw - with just one key ingredient missing

Bees relied on latest of levellers despite hammering Red Devils
Dom Smith1 April 2024

As Thomas Frank sat upright in his press conference after Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United, he said what everyone present at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday night had been thinking.

“Thirty-one shots... how we’re not winning that game, I don’t know.” He was, rightly, baffled.

And so it turned out that the international break did not curb the story of Brentford’s season.

The Bees have managed all season to overcome their injury woes and create chances at will — but taking them is another matter entirely.

They found the woodwork on four separate occasions against United, and only scored in the 99th minute through Kristoffer Ajer — with their 31st shot of match. That was after Mason Mount’s 96th-minute goal had threatened to grant United London’s greatest robbery since the Hatton Garden heist.

Frank, taking his side’s inefficiency in front of goal in surprisingly good spirit, said: “I’m a big believer in [being] unlucky or in tight margins. Maybe it’s a freak result and a little bit unlucky.

“And then, obviously, we also need to look at ourselves and that [finishing] is something we need to do better.”

Though Frank may point to his side’s horrendous injury record this season and despite being “a bit unlucky”, they say the league table doesn’t lie. Brentford are just five points above the relegation zone, in 15th place, and fast running out of matches from which to collect the points they so crave.

The Bees headed into the United game on the back of five defeats from six games, with the 2-2 draw against Chelsea garnering the solitary point they had picked up in that time. But they were outstanding, and midfielders Yehor Yarmoliuk and Vitaly Janelt had the beating of Kobbie Mainoo and Scott McTominay throughout.

In fact, there is a feeling from both the outside and from within Frank’s squad that the general level of performance has not been half-bad all season, and that their 27 points from 30 games would and should be higher, if only they had more of a clinical edge.

Saturday was just another example, just like the 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool on February 17 when both sides had 15 shots but the Reds claimed the all-important three points.

Brentford took the Premier League by storm in their second season in the top-flight last term, finishing ninth, two points off Europe, and tallying memorable results such as the 4-0 thrashing of United in Erik ten Hag’s second game in charge.

“I know we beat Man United 4-0 last year, but I think we performed better today overall,” Frank reflected on Saturday.

“It was more-or-less the perfect performance”

Thomas Frank

“The way we dominated the game throughout in terms of shots and dangerous situations was very, very good. We were playing against a more-or-less full-strength Man United team.

“We are playing without our entire back four, Christian Norgaard, Kevin Schade and with Bryan Mbeumo coming off the bench. That just makes it even more impressive. We’ve been struggling to get enough draws or wins and I’ve been left thinking we’ve done a lot right.”

Frank has talked up the mentality of his team throughout this punishing campaign, and lauded them again.

“To concede a late goal and then have the ability to come back, I don’t know how to explain that. It’s just incredible. That’s why it’s such a privilege to coach this group”, he said. “It was more-or-less the perfect performance.”

As Brentford enter their final eight games of the season, now comes the difficult bit: converting these promising performances into tangible rewards.

With games against Sheffield United, Luton Town, Everton and Bournemouth still to come, they have a good platform to do so. Time to start getting over the line.

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