They have seen their manager leave, sold penalty-taking talisman Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m), club captain Christian Norgaard (£5.5m) and goalkeeper Mark Flekken, and harbour a 19-goal striker, Yoane Wissa (£7.5m), who doesn’t want to play for them any more. Are Brentford now a team to avoid in Fantasy Premier League (FPL)?
The Bees are the focus of our first 2025/26 FPL team preview.
In this team guide, we’ll be looking at the west Londoners’ best FPL picks for the upcoming campaign. We’ll also take an early stab at their predicted line-up for Gameweek 1, look at the good and bad, assess the opening fixtures, detail their best players for defensive contributions (DC) and more.
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defensive contributions
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BRENTFORD: REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
Best £4.5m FPL defenders for 2023/24
RETURNING PLAYERS + CONTINGENCY PLANS
The return of several first-teamers from injury is a positive. Big-money striker Igor Thiago (£6.0m) spent much of last season on the sidelines, as did hitherto first-choice full-back pairing Aaron Hickey (£4.0m) and Rico Henry (£4.5m). All have featured in pre-season.
And while the exodus might be alarming to outsiders, Brentford are from that same savvy school as Brighton and Hove Albion when it comes to contingency planning.
Yehor Yarmoliuk (£5.0m) has been groomed for this moment and looks ready to step into midfield, even excelling in Norgaard’s role against Queens Park Rangers in last Friday’s friendly. Thiago was meant to be Ivan Toney‘s replacement, so there’s a Wissa hole potentially already plugged. The acquisition of Caoimhin Kelleher (£4.5m), long viewed as the league’s best number two goalkeeper, should ensure that Flekken isn’t missed. The Bees are still in the market for another winger or two, as well, and you wouldn’t put it past them to unearth another budget gem from the continent.
Even new boss Keith Andrews is following a well-worn path: Thomas Frank started out in the backroom staff at Brentford before stepping into the hot seat. For a club as data-led as the Bees, at least Andrews is already au fait with the working practices.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS
Full-back depth and the blossoming partnership of Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) and Nathan Collins (£5.0m) is encouragement at the back**. Ethan Pinnock** (£4.5m) was a weak link last season, with Frank belatedly seeing sense and dropping his long-favoured centre-half.
We’re not pinning all of the defensive woes on Pinnock but the west Londoners kept just two clean sheets in the 21 games Pinnock started, six in 17 without him.
The Bees’ defensive numbers really improved as the season went on, too (see rolling six-Gameweek graphic below). They were top-half material for Statsbomb xG conceded from March onwards.
team Brentford
HEALTHY GOAL COUNT
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