Brentford will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing midweek 3-1 loss to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup quarter finals when they take on Nottingham Forest at the Gtech Community Stadium at 3pm on Saturday.
High-flying Forest currently sit fourth in the table, above champions Manchester City two points off Arsenal in third. This game also pits the team with the best home record against one of the best away records in the league.
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It promises to be a spectacle, with attacking talent like Brentford’s dynamic duo of Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa. As well as this, Forest’s in form number nine Chris Wood making this game an interesting watch for the neutrals.
Team News
On the injury front, Brentford will be boosted by the return of captain Christian Nørgaard. The Danish holding midfielder missed the cup loss to Newcastle, but he’ll be starting on Saturday for the Bees.
The return of the captain is however counteracted by the loss of a couple of key defenders. From that fixture on Wednesday evening, both Ethan Pinnock and Sepp Van Den Berg were defensive casualties.
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Van Den Berg injured his groin in the warmup for the Newcastle game. Frank said of his availability “I think it will be too quick to turn it around for Saturday.” Brentford, however, will be thankful that it’s only minor and he should return to first team action very soon.
Ethan Pinnock, however, looks set to be out for a longer period. He injured his hamstring on Wednesday and had to be substituted in the 14th minute against Newcastle with Mads Roerslev replacing him.
The length of Pinnock’s absence remains unknown, but hamstring injuries can carry quite lengthy layoffs. In any case, Frank will be wishing for a speedy recovery for both centre backs with more games coming thick and fast for his team.
Record signing Igor Thiago, who has only made one start for the Bees, is out yet again, this time with a rather unluckily suffered joint infection. Frank said on Thiago’s injury “We will take care of that, but I don’t know how long it will take.”
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Midfielders Mathias Jensen and Josh Dasilva, full backs Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry, and forward Gustavo Nunes all remain out as longer-term absentees.
Home and Away
A lot has been made of Brentford’s incredible home record this season, winning seven of eight games in the Premier League and only drawing one, 1-1 vs West Ham in September. Even including the Carabao Cup, they haven’t lost at home all season.
This fact is not lost on Thomas Frank, Brentford manager, who said about the game “We’re playing at home, the Gtech, our fortress, and we need to build on that.”
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They’ll be looking to come out of the last home game of the calendar year with another three points and that incredible record still intact.
Equally impressive however, is Nottingham Forest’s away record. Only Liverpool and Chelsea have won more points on the road than Forest. Thomas Frank will be eager to not allow them to add to that record on Saturday.
The Dane isn’t underestimating his opponents and the quality they possess, mentioning that they’re “a team we respect massively” before admitting “it’ll probably be quite tough to break them down.”
Frank also went into more detail about their tactics. “They’re very good at what they do. They sit a little bit lower and press high in spells. They defend unbelievably well in open play and set-pieces, and they are such a threat on counters.”
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On the in form Chris Wood, Frank had nothing but praise for the New Zealander. “He leads the team, and I like what I see from him, but I hope we can keep him quiet on Saturday.” That’ll be easier said than done, especially with more defenders out injured, but Frank will back his players to do just that and get all three points.
League Table
Brentford currently find themselves in esteemed company in the league, sandwiched between Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. However they only sit 11th, despite that aforementioned brilliant home record.
With some of the better teams faltering, and other ‘lesser’ teams like upcoming opponents Forest and Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth taking advantage of that, Brentford could be one of the ones up there as well.
Despite this Frank admitted that he “never speaks about the league table” with his players. He encourages them to work on a game-by-game basis, and even for him he’s only ever looking a week or two ahead.
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The Brentford boss also mentioned, not just in relation to football, but in general day-to-day life as well, “If you get thinking too far ahead about your targets, goals and dreams, you forget what it’s all about.”
Frank wants to win without the players getting distracted by outside noise or looking too far into the future. He’ll be looking to his players to deliver on that front as they go into yet another game in this busy December period.
Mikey Kouwiloyan
Mikey is a long-suffering Spurs fan with a bachelor's degree in creative writing who, outside of football and sports in general, has a particular interest in American history and the history of slavery. Contactable @walker63163 on X and Instagram.
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