What has Caused Brentford's Resurgence?
- essentialbrentford
- Oct 27, 2015
- 5 min read
After a slow start to the season, Brentford seemed to have turned a corner.
Some excellent wins in recent weeks have got the fans dreaming again. Any successful season seems to require a run of form, and if Brentford can maintain this momentum and continue to win then we will leave ourselves in a very good position come Christmas, when our injury crisis will have healed slightly.
The change of mood amongst Bees fans has been surprisingly quick. Brentford have not only achieved good results all of a sudden, but are also starting to play a good brand of football.
Let's not forget that only a few weeks ago many were claiming that Brentford were in a relegation dog-fight. We had just sacked our manager and the club seemed to be in disarray.
So, what are the core reasons for Brentford's remarkable turn around?
1. Alan Judge
Alan Judge has been a revelation this season. His consistency has been outstanding, and his excellent performances have attracted attention from Premier League clubs Leicester City, Swansea City and Bournemouth.
Judge's quality is not only reflected in his six goals this season, but also the number of scoring opportunities he creates. He was the second most creative player in the Championship last season, with only one other player in the whole division making more passes in the final third.
Judge was the unsung hero of last season. His performances were often undermined by the sheer technical quality of Alex Pritchard, but Judge still contributed a huge deal to the team. His 40-yard diagonal pass to Jota to set up the winning goal against Fulham is a stand-out highlight of his abilities.
Last season Judge was made to play a more defensive role. The introduction of the aforementioned Pritchard, Jota, Dallas and other attacking players into the squad meant that Judge dropped into a deeper midfield position alongside Toumani Diagouraga. This, and an injury towards the end of 2015, accounts for Judge's lack of goals last campaign.
Having been moved up the pitch this campaign, he is relishing his new role. The departure of Pritchard has meant that Judge has taken over as the playmaker, and at present he is rather eclipsing the Spurs midfielder.
Judge's fantastic start to the season has been a major contributor to Brentford's turn in form, and he has been recognised by football statistics websites Squawka.com and WhoScored.com as the best player in the entirity of the Championship at the moment.
2. Adaptation of the squad
After the overthrowing of the old system in the Summer in place of the new, revolutionary mechanism now in place at Brentford, it was always going to be hard to maintain the momentum that we picked up last season.
However, the squad seems to have started adapting as the new players and new staff start to gel together. It always take time for a new philosophy to sink in; look no further than Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.
After all the initial hype surrounding his appointment, the Reds have yet to win a game under him. This is not so much his fault, but more the fact that he has inherited a fair amount of deadwood and will need time to implement his philosophy on the squad.
Brentford's failure to win games at the beginning of the season can be attributed to the enormous amount of new players that we had, and the difficulty of buying into Benham's new way of thinking about football.
FC Midtjylland encountered the same problem when they revolutionised their system back in 2014. Their captain at the time has admitted that at first he thought it was all "Bullsh*t". However, Rasmus Ankersen (who had been appointed chairman at the Danish club) gradually helped the players to buy into the new and unfamiliar methods that Benham has now intoduced at Brentford.
That season Midtjylland won the Danish League and are now second in their Europa League group, behind Italian super-power Napoli.
Back in West London, the Brentford squad have already begun adapting to the new system. This goes for Lee Carsley as well.
In a recent article we criticised Carsley's naivety in the Birmingham and Derby matches. However, he is also starting to show improvements. After poor tactical decisions in his opening games (understandable as he was rather thrown into management at the deep end), he himself has stated that he feels he is "learning the ins and outs of managing at Championship level".
3. Midfield Improvements
Given our abundance of midfield talent, you'd have thought that this would be our strongest area. However, injuries and poor form has meant that we have struggled to control matches in the middle of the park. Additionally, our back four has been too exposed, too often, which has contributed significantly to our leakage of goals so far this season.
However, in recent matches we have seen the midfield make vast improvements.
Firstly, we seem to have finally decided upon a formation and team sheet which we can definitively call our "first team line-up"; Woods, Diagouraga and McCormack in a deeper lying three, whilst Judge, Swift (probably to be replaced by Jota when he returns) and Djuricin cause menace higher up the pitch.
This set line-up is a welcome occurance; one of our early season problems was that we didn't really know what we were doing, with Kershbaumer, McCormack and Diagouraga not really having a set position, and being caught in strange areas on the pitch.
Secondly, the players themselves have improved dramatically.
McCormack has had an excellent few games, and seems to be warming to his new midfield position having played at right-back in recent years. If his 30-yard screamer which rattled the bar on Saturday had found the net it would have surely been a shoe-in for goal of the season. He is also making less needless fouls in the middle of the park; earning him the incredible feat. of two straight games without a yellow.
Diagouraga has also rediscoverd his form of last season. He had a shakey start to the campaign, and was substituted in the 36th minute of our match against Sheffied Wednesday because he was playing so awfully. However, against Wolves and Charlton he has looked superb, mopping up everything and solidifying our structure.
The Ginger Pirlo looks like our best signing of the Summer so far. Woods has been excellent going back, as well as going forward. He has been the one player to settle in remarkable quickly, and has taken to the Championship like a duck to water. Remember, he was playing for lowly Shrewsbury in League 2 just a few months ago.
These midfield improvements have set the foundations for a very successful season. However, Bees fans must not get ahead of themselves. Whilst the teams has made improvements, we are still in an adjustment phase, and ultimately the goal for this season should be to consolidate our Championship status and work on implementing the new system to ensure future success.
There is no doubt that Brentford have a good chance of reaching the Premier League in the near future, but we must be patient and look at the bigger picture.
Exciting times lie ahead in South-West London...
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