It may seem like a strange time to be singing the praises of Thomas Frank, what with Brentford languishing near the foot of the table and priced up in the Premier League betting as relegation strugglers.
Logic suggests a more appropriate opportunity to highlight what a remarkable job the Dane has done at the Gtech Community Stadium would have been back in May, when the Bees finished ninth, having skirted with the top six for the most part, and all achieved with the third lowest wage bill in the top flight.
In actual fact though, now is the right time, the perfect time. Now, when reality starts to bite.
That’s because for well over a year, and perhaps even deep into Brentford’s first ever Premier League campaign, when they ultimately attained the highest league placing for a promoted club in a decade, the West London side persistently punched well above their weight and we all reacted like this was fundamentally normal.
Acclaim was lavished upon them, of course it was. It would have been just plain odd if that wasn’t the case. Yet equally, it could be said that we quickly came to take this over-achieving collective somewhat for granted.
Perhaps this was because there was no tactical innovations to speak of. Nothing that made them stand out or apart.
Brentford were fully committed advocates of the ‘moneyball’ approach but once players had been scouted and procured the team set up as a 3-5-2, at other times 4-3-3; they played direct to Ivan Toney when possible; and then they would regularly beat their superiors.
Last season alone, the Bees did the double over Manchester City, as well as winning at Stamford Bridge and Spurs, in addition to thumping Manchester United 4-0.
This disarmed us. This deployment of straightforward methods to attain miraculous results confused us. It wasn’t supposed to be so, and with no precedent to fall back on we turned to generalities and cliché.
Brentford were a well run club who did things the ‘right way’. And Frank was one of the shrewdest operators around.
Now though, with Frank’s side encountering difficulties this term, dropping eight points from winning positions from their opening eight games and minus Toney to make the difference, it is possible to see in hindsight just how extraordinary these past two years have been.
And it is possible too, to acknowledge Frank’s genius in all this, a manager who greatly endears but is always seemingly destined to be named fifth or sixth when the best top-flight managers are reeled off.
It is the 50-year-old’s flexibility that most impresses, not going into each season with a rigid mandate, but instead setting his team up according to the situation before him.
A top-six opponent is usually met with a 3-5-2 formation, the Bees packing their midfield to ensure transitions are difficult, to ensure they are hard to break down.
Against more beatable fare, a 4-3-3 is unleashed, benefiting from three speedy forwards who tigerishly press out of possession, and wreak havoc elsewhere.
With players intelligent enough to switch things up it makes Brentford very hard to pin down and maybe that gets to the heart of why they – and Frank – never fully receive their dues. Because it follows that their success is also difficult to make sense of.
Wherever the truth lies however, back them in the football betting to pull clear of the bottom three soon and re-establish themselves in mid-table.
Because the Bees are far too good and multifarious to struggle, and their manager is infinitely more than a shrewd operator.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
