In a surprise move to outsiders, Brentford have chosen internal candidate Keith Andrews as their permanent replacement for Thomas Frank.
The ex-Bees boss departed for Tottenham Hotspur after guiding the Bees to several mid-table finishes.
After asking if Frank can turn Spurs players into appealing Fantasy Premier League (FPL) assets again, let’s take a closer look at Andrews.
More specifically, can he prevent a Brentford decline, especially with Bryan Mbeumo expected to leave?
COACHING HISTORY
A lot of the shock regarding this high-risk appointment is based on it being the 44-year-old’s first senior management role.
After a few post-playing-retirement seasons of punditry, Andrews spent time within Stephen Kenny’s Ireland setup between 2019 and 2023. He then briefly became Chris Wilder’s assistant at Sheffield United.
Despite relegation, he did enough to impress Brentford owner Matthew Benham – someone whose big decisions are well-calculated and usually turn out correctly. For example, when Ollie Watkins was sold, in came Ivan Toney as his replacement. And Frank was also moved up from within after Dean Smith’s 2018 departure.
DO WE KNOW HIS PREFERRED STYLE?
The main reason for Andrews’ promotion is probably the continuity it will bring. Brentford finished 10th and were genuinely challenging for a European spot until the final fortnight.
“He gets on with everyone, he’s very open and he’s a learner. Keith is clear in what he wants, he’s detailed, and the players and staff like and respect him.
“He understands the players in the building and the way we’ve played and trained under Thomas Frank.
“Keith will bring his own evolution but isn’t starting from scratch, so hopefully we can make some quick progress.
“He’s a very good coach and has clear ideas about how he wants the team to improve. We were looking for somebody not just to maintain what we’ve been doing but actually try and get better.” – Brentford chief Phil Giles
With this in mind, it’s a good bet that he’ll stick with Frank’s 4-2-3-1 system. It maximised Mikkel Damsgaard‘s creativity, as the Dane accumulated 10 league assists behind three attackers who each scored at least 11 times – Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade.
Can new manager Keith Andrews prevent a Brentford decline? 3
Above: A graphic from The Athletic showing 2024/25’s most-used formations
Meanwhile, it’s said to be Andrews’ innovative ideas that led to Brentford scoring inside the opening 40 seconds on three successive matches. Before then, only one team had done it that often throughout a whole season.
All three started from their own kick-off and involved moments of luck but, in general, it was about quickly getting goalkeeper Mark Flekken to punt the ball towards a Kristoffer Ajer knock-down, which fast and aggressive colleagues were there to collect. The following match had them politely wait until 75 seconds in to break the deadlock.
To Andrews, kick-offs are just another set-piece. That’s an area that both he and the Bees specialise in.
Over their four Premier League campaigns, no team has more expected goals (xG, 65.92) from set-pieces. Their 48 chances from throw-ins were by far the most in 2024/25, as were the six goals that came from them. No other outfit exceeded two.
WILL THIS HELP FPL ASSETS?
Continue that and it’ll be good news for Nathan Collins. The centre-back started at £4.5m and racked up two goals and seven assists, being last season’s sixth-best defender for big chances (six).
Although the highly rumoured Mbeumo sale would require a new leader for dead-ball situations. Maybe it means more for Damsgaard, boosting his FPL potential.
Can new manager Keith Andrews prevent a Brentford decline? 1
Above: Premier League data shows the player combinations that have the highest percentage of passes leading to shots
Andrews or not, cashing in on star man Mbeumo would surely weaken Wissa’s prospects. Forming arguably the league’s best attacking partnership of 2024/25, 18 of the latter’s shots came directly from his good friend.
It led to Wissa coming fifth overall for big chances (34) and fourth for xG (18.59), meaning he should get a price rise. But the 19-goal forward is undoubtedly losing a big part of his output.
Even so, Brentford are often amongst each season’s best for xG per non-penalty shot (ending between 0.13 and 0.14). Only Liverpool scored more times from inside the box, which benefits a striker like Wissa.
Additionally, Andrews will be relieved to see that their early fixture run is pretty good. It sits second on our Fixture Ticker for Gameweeks 1 to 6:
Brentford’s coaching production line has been admirable. Their previous set-piece coaches – Nicolas Jover, Bernardo Cueva and Andreas Georgson – were quickly snapped up by Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, while before that was Gianni Vio, who went on to work with Italy’s victorious Euro 2020 squad.
This call will either backfire massively or be seen as a stroke of genius, like the aforementioned elevation of Thomas Frank.
Given the meticulous research that goes into their scouting, you wouldn’t bet against it working out.
“When we replaced Dean Smith, we had Thomas lined up. While we never promised him the job, we had the idea that Thomas could potentially take over from Dean.
“It’s the same principle here. When we appoint coaches, we always have an idea about whether they could potentially step up.” – Phil Giles