Essential Brentford's 2015/16 Bucket List
- essentialbrentford
- Jul 17, 2015
- 6 min read
Naturally at the beginning of every season it is reasonable for players, staff and fans to set a series of goals. The board usually sets the manager a series of aims, such as "Reach the 4th round of the FA Cup and finish in the top half of the league table". Strikers will normally aim to score a certain number of goals, and goalkeepers might have a target number of clean sheets that they want to obtain.
Here at Essential Brentford we are no different. We believe that there are several key objectives for Brentford this season, and we will track them throughout the season to see how many we can obtain. Here is Essential Brentford's 2015/16 bucket list:
1. Beat QPR and Fulham
One of the most impressive feats of last year's campaign was doing the double over the Cottagers. In two fantastic games of football, Brentford managed to triumph in the first meaningful derbies for years. Beating a fierce rival lifts the team as well as the fans, who left Craven Cottage with cries of "Jota, in the last minute" ringing all around.
With QPR now joining us in the Championship, and Fulham escaping relegation (just), we now have twice the amount of grudge matches to look forward to. It may be a little much to expect twelve points against two sides who have played in the Premier League at some point in the last two seasons, but we should aim to beat each of them at least once.
Fulham, especially, continue to underwhelm in the transfer market with the selling of Bryan Ruiz and could find themselves struggling a second season in a row. QPR are somewhat of an unknown quantity. They struggled to compete in the Premier League and looked really poor more often than not. With that being said, however, they were up against some of the best teams in the world, making it hard to judge how good they really are.
2. Maintain a Play-Off position
This objective is one that I'm sure every Bees fan will hold. When we interviewed Richard Lee a few weeks ago (the full article can be found here: http://www.essentialbrentford.com/#!Richard-Lee-Question-Answer/ccrb/559a51980cf2604da34b33b3) he said that he expected a 6th-10th place finish - just below the play-off positions. He thought we "overachieved last season", which many would agree with.
However, following our recent influx of high quality signings many wouldn't be surprised if we were challenging for the automatic spots. With a bit of luck we could be right up there by the end of the season, but the main aim should be achieving a top 6 finish.
3. Convert 80%+ of penalties
Here's a little stat for you: in the last 5 seasons Brentford have the worst penalty conversion rate in the whole football league. We have scored just 24 of our 45 penalties; a conversion rate of 53%. The team with the second lowest conversion rate, Huddersfield, have converted 61%. That means we're the worst penalty takers by a whole 8%.
Brentford's penalty woes have lead to us missing three consecutive penalties on the last (meaningful) day of the last three league campaigns:
2012/13: No one needs reminding of the famous horror story that was Trotta's penalty against Doncaster.
2013/14: Our last meaningful game was against Preston, the game which we won promotion to the Championship. However, despite scoring a penalty in that match Judge also missed one in which he slipped, skying the ball over the bar.
2014/15: In the final league game of last season Tarkowski had his penalty saved by the Wigan goalkeeper.
Coincidentally, all three misses happening in front of the Ealing Road Terrace. Perhaps it is lucky that the last game of this season is at Huddersfield, although if we win a penalty don't expect to see the net bulge.
Uncertainty last year over our designated penalty taker will probably continue this year. The 2014/15 season started with Tarkowski (who has a conversion rate of 0/2, and has now been "permanently dropped" according to himself) but ended with Pritchard. With Pritchard gone and Tarkowski (rightfully) not being allowed anywhere near a penalty again, who should take on the responsibility? Judge is the obvious choice, but perhaps one of the new signings could take on the poisoned chalice.
Our disastrous form when it comes to penalties means that one of our primary aims this season should be to improve our abysmal record when it comes to spot-kicks.
4. Have one 15-goal striker
It is well documented that the majority of teams who win promotion from the Championship (or indeed any division) possess one striker who scores a lot of goals. Bournemouth had Callum Wilson, Norwich had Cameron Jerome and Watford had Troy Deeney.
In Andre Gray we still possess somewhat of an unknown quantity. Whilst some argue that last season was merely a fluke and he will be a flop this upcoming season, others argue that his raw pace and strength mean that he will succeed once again this season. An indication of his talents are shown in the interest that clubs such as QPR and Hull City are currently taking in him.
However, with more signings expected and all the loan signings still to be made (check out our two-part series on possible loanees we could sign) let's hope that we can find another top goalscorer. Rumours have it that we are looking to sign a top European striker before the start of the season.
5. Have Diagouraga score a goal
A chant that could be heard frequently ringing around Griffin Park last season was "Toumani scores, we're on the pitch". The long-legged midfielder had a fantastic season last time out, and scooped several awards at the clubs end of season ceremony.
Dave (or "Toums", as he allegedly prefers to be called) had a resurgance after being loaned out to Portsmouth in League 2 the previous season. All that would have topped it off for him this glorious campaign would have been a goal.
Not that the Yaya Toure-esque player didn't come close. Many will remember the fantastic save needed to keep him off the scoresheet in our 2-1 home win against Fulham. A Toumani goal is certainly something that every Brentford fan has in their Bees bucket list.
6. 5th Round of cup competition
We have had a few good cup runs in recent years. The League Cup run of 2010 saw us defeat Hull City of a divsion above us and Everton of the Premier League. We then took Birmingham City, another then-Premier League team, to penalties where we were narrowly denied a quarter-final tie against Aston Villa.
The two FA Cup ties against Chelsea in 2013 were fantastic days out and a great advertisement for the club. We were unlucky not to defeat them at Griffin Park, as an 83rd minute Torres goal rescued the blues. It took until the second half of the second leg for the Champions of Europe to take the lead against us.
Last season we lost to Brighton in the FA Cup in a match we really should have won. Had we won that tie we would have welcomed Arsenal to Griffin Park in the next round.
Brentford are now getting to the stage when a real cup run is possible. You see the likes of Bradford and Sheffield United progressing to the semi-finals and beyond, so why not Brentford? This being said, we have tended to focus on the league campaigns a lot more, and rightly so. However, we would love a good cup run this year, and that is definitely one for the bucket list.
7. Trend on twitter
This may seem like a slightly trivial and silly aim, but bear with us. In recent seasons we have trended on twitter for a number of occasions and for a number of reasons. When we held then 'Champions of Europe' Chelsea to a 2-2 draw at Griffin Park we trended. When we won promotion to the Championship we trended. When we played Middlesbrough in the first leg of the Play-Off semi-final we trended.
What do all of these trends have in common? They were all fantastic occasions for Brentford Football Club. If we were to trend on the social media site this season it would indicate another fantastic moment for the club, and that is what every fan wants to see.
And if we're trending come 4th May then the likelyhood is that we will be preparing for the Premier League this time next year.
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