A SWARM OF BEES - BRENTFORD FC

Pretty absurd end to the Nations League campaign there, but don't beat yourself up for it. As others said, it may bring with it more advantages than finishing third would have!

Last month was another success and The Bees we sitting comfortably at the sixth place, which will see them play some continental football if we finish there, but this seems like dream that could never happen. Nobody would not even think for such scenario in the start of the season, but here we are now in the beginning of December talking about possible League Europe finish. I'll be more than happy if we just avoid the battle for relegation, so anything else will be bonus. However our last match last month was the awful loss against Crystal Palace, so we should be really careful!

Mbeumo is injured and will miss almost the whole month. We have not the easiest schedule playing against Leicester (A), Chelsea (H), Watford (A), Everton (H), Bournemouth (H), Manchester United (A).We will need to rotate a lot more this month as we have too many games.


Playing against the most underachieving team this season as the Foxes are just 2 points away from the relegation zone. We were the far better team in the first half and Ollie Watkins got us the lead after a beautiful set up by Benrahma! We controlled the match, but in the first minutes of the second half our left back Rico Henry got injured and we didn't have a person who is natural at his position, so Tilo Kehrer finished the match at LB, which was used by our opponents who didn't stop attacking down his wing. However we survived and got a precious win over the new manager of Leicester - Neil Lennon! Pedro Chirivela was the POTM providing great passes from the back.

After the match we learn that another player from our initial starting XI is injured - Rico Henry will miss the whole month, disaster news. We have the young Dominic Thompson and the not-so-good-performing Adam Andersson who can play on this position.


We eliminated Chelsea last year in one of the cups and they got the revenge this time. This time we were purely outplayed by the current PL Champions. However we missed a lot of chances, especially between their second and third goal and didn't play as bad as the scoreline shows. The third goal was the final nail it the comical match that Dalsgaard played. From one of the free kicks they hit the bar, the ball comes back in the feet of the Danish player, nobody around him and he BLASTS IT in our net.

The youngster Thompson played okay on the left back, but now we have problem on the right as Dalsgaard performance was too bad.


OLLIE F`N WATKINS! What else can I say! Playing against the really well performing team of Watford which are led by Steven Gerarrd. Both teams decided to go for all the three points from the first kick of the ball and it was really entertaining! We turned the scoreline after we received a goal from corner kick and played with confidence after that. In the final quarter of the game they pushed us hard and got the goal they wanted. In the extra time of the match Ollie Watkins scored brilliant goal from outside the box into the far top corner to get the glory and the headlines in the papers! (The goal won Goal of The Month) What a performance by him! Sierallta made his debut for us just now and played really well at the back and the young Dominic Thompson was the other player that impressed a lot, the youngster provided 2 assist, proving the trust put on him!

In the week before our next match another injury happened - maybe our most stable player, the goalkeeper David Raya is injured and will miss at least 2 matches, maybe more.

Another important thing that occurred - Ben Pearson & Ethan Pinnock came to my office and demanded more playing time, Ethan even suggested to goal on loan just to play, he was simply flawless last year so he deserves it and will get a chance to prove himself. Ben was another case and he was told that there is enough time for him to show us his quality and he understood that. (he gets sub parts, but started just 2 matches for us).

Two days before the next match Mathias Jensen, the most important player on our roster called sick, so we will miss 4 of our initial eleven against Everton. We started with not our typical players and made SIX changes.


I'm okay with this result, we played almost all of our reserves and they performed really good, we just didn't won. Of course Everton are really good side and took us to the limits, but our defense (Andersson-Jeanvier-Pinnock-Thompson) didn't disappoint. Even the POTM was awarded to Pinnock who got his chance and took it by the neck! Christian Fruchtl also showed his quality and saved a lot of shots! That was not the case in another match for Tibbling & Eliasson, just mediocre displays.Pretty good performance given the circumstances.

And by the Murphy's law - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." After his brilliant display and clean sheet against Everton - Fruchtl injured himself in training which means that in the next match we will have to play with our third keeper between the posts. The only returning player was Jensen.


Great gift for our fans as we beat the cherries at Boxing Day! Superb display by the young lad - Dominic Thompson, who replaced Henry and nobody even noticed, even he is making great runs,. He scored a banger, nobody in the stands expected such a powerful shot and also won POTM! Mathias Jensen (2) & Ben Pearson (1) bossed the midfield and provided the assists. It's great news that all the players that demands more playing time, show their quality! Alexander Isak haven't scored from two months so the young Forss is getting more and more chances to prove himself and he clinched our win with a nice finish! Unexpected heroes for inspired Brentford! Also our third and very promising Icelandic goalkeeper Gunnarsson played well.

Another blow for the team as Said Benrahma will miss at least 2 matches and the really well performing Thompson will miss the last match for the month against Man Utd, we are getting more and more thin at the bench.


We didn't replicate our play in the first match against the Red Devils. That plus the performance of Greenwood who just embarrassed our defense twice as he run through it. Another factor was the too many injuries and missing players. The young Finnish striker Forss gets another goal which is promising and maybe will earn him a start in the league. Not the best way to finish our most successful year, but we missed too many players - Mbeumo, Henry, Raya, Benrahma, Fruchtl, Thmopson. We must perform at 110% if we want to match the play of the big clubs in the league and that was not the case.


Terrific month for our top scorer Ollie Watkins, who won us 2 matches with his 4 goals! The performance against Watford was godlike as there are not so many matches like this in the career of the footballers! Even that he is played sometimes on the wing, sometimes up front - he just don't disappoints! Superb month for Watkins!

Mathias Jensen played really well and got 3 assists for the month, the young Dominc Thompson also deserves recognition as he was brilliant scoring 1 and assisted 2.


Even though we won 3 of 6 matches we dropped one position into 7th (even points with Everton), but of course I'm more than happy about it. We are just 3 points behind the CL spot which is unbelievable. We managed to get another successful month behind us.

Liverpool finally lost (against Norwich, typical FM), but are too good for the other teams. We, Watford & Everton continue to impress and are in a tough battle for some continental football. Leicester are really struggling (I don't know how with these players that they've got), hopefully they will escape from the tight position there are in.

A lot of the players that didn't get many chances impressed this month and showed that they deserved their place in the squad - Andersson & Thompson on the wingback, Pearson & Chirivella in the centre of the field and Fross upfront! This that I can trust them means a lot. Both reserve goalkeepers also turned up when needed! Pinnock & Jeanvier show their form from the last year and I have 4 equally good CBs.

Tibbling is showing no progress, Isak has not scored from almost 3 months, Fosu and Raggett are not showing the needed quality. The last two maybe will be transfer listed.

Dalsgaard contract is expiring in 6 months so if there is a nice offer for him, he will go. We already sold Reece Cole (youngster) to Almeria for €230k. as his contract is also expiring. We will try to make some more profit with selling another youngsters.

Before the start of the transfer window we already rejected a lot of offers - €18.75M for Pontus Janssen & €13.5M for Said Benrahma by some Chinese teams. Loan offers for Baptiste & Sierralta (Marsille and QPR)

Another packed month is coming up as we will try to continue our good form.



Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

COMMENTS:

Tango, Scott & ZedT - quite frustrating, yes, but of course good standing in the Nations League can be a great bonus in upcoming qualifications. We were competitive in all matches except the first one, so I'm not worried so much. Sadly, we will play weaker teams next year.

TheLFCFan - Yes, the Norway winning against us in the last minute and the comeback for Romania over Norway from 0-2 were the turning points, we were not so lucky this time.

more important than grabbing big wins right now is to keep it steady, and you've been doing a nice job

from someone who played more than the recommended amount of FIFA20 (the recommended is nothing, for the ones who wonder), it is surprising to see Isak not delivering

You're in a fantastic position just past the halfway point of the season. You can be extremely proud!

It's a shame to see Isak struggling so much and maybe he needs a move away on loan for a few months to find some form again. Watkins however, has been phenomenal as he was last year and that last minute goal against Watford was surely celebrated hard. The league is looking great and with a few months to go, some good additions and we could see Europe

After successful December the tough schedule for January is upon us. We start very busy month not only on the pitch, but we need some good transfers so we can maintain our good form as some of the players are not performing as expected and some what a lot more playing time that I can guarantee them. Also our scouting department is working so hard to pull some incredible deals for the summer. 

We're starting the month with a home game against Burnley for the FA Cup. I'll try to concentrate on the league so I will use mainly reserve players in the cups so not so important match for us.

Through the whole festive period a lot of players were injured and are missing a game or two. Rico Henry will probably miss the whole month again after the injury from the match against Leicester last month. Jeanvier will play at the African Cup of Nations so he will also miss the whole month. Mbeumo will probably return in some of the games.


We wanted this player from the first transfer window but Ipswich were demanding absurd price. Now they got in a fight with the player about standing in his way of progression and we were the first to respond. FLYNN DOWNES (MC) is a bee for €4M (they wanted €20 in the first season). Great perspective Englishman who can play almost every role in the center of the field!


The match was as ugly as the first one between the two sides (0-0 in the first game of the season) but this time they somehow manage to score a goal. We used only reserve players but nobody stood out and lead the team to a successful game. I don't want to challenge the cups from the first season in the PL so the loss is not a painful one. This happened to be the last game for two of our players though.

Henrik Dalsgaard contract is expiring in June so we sat on the table to discuss if he is willing to cut his wage and agree to a short contract. He was NOT. After a lot of ups and downs for the Danish player. He started this season really well after not playing so much last year and even won a Player of the Month. He also made 106 appearances for the team, but he won't be used anymore as his mistakes are starting to become more and more crucial to us. His attitude was rude and demanding so he will play the rest of the season in the U23 team.

Soooo, we need a new right back. We've got Andersson there (came in the summer) and has some good moments but he's not consistent. David Titov was promoted to the main squad from the U23 as he is looking promising. However we will seek another right defender in the transfer window.

Henan Jianye came with two offers in the first days of the month that were more than welcomed! Tarique Fosu & Halil Dervisoglu (he just got back from a loan) are heading East to play in their absurd league and they gave us €19.25M! Another brilliant business from Brentford as the overall price for both players they pay was €3.75M! Quite a profit! Reece Cole was sold to Almeria as his contract was expiring in the summer.



So without Fosu & Dalsgaard, but with a lot of cash in our pockets (we had another €20M in the bank) we immediately searched for a replacements.


Leicester are struggling to survive and are in the relegation zone and some of their star players want to escape the sinking ship! AYOZE PEREZ (AMC/AMR) is coming to Brentford FC for just €10.25M as he requested a transfer! Great addition to the team and it cost us one Halil Dervisoglu. Hopefully he can boost our team to the next level!


Another team that we draw in the first game (0-0) and again we fail. Started really well the match with the usual combo of Watkins-Jensen this time the second one scored and Ollie assisted. They soon leveled the score and from this point controlled the game but nothing more. Unfortunately Pontus Jansson made a terrible mistake in which he lost the ball and then fouled Jimenez. We pushed for the draw but failed in our attempts. Isak was injured, Ayoze Perez didn't have the best debut and third straight defeat in all competition!

Our wingbacks in the face of Thompson & Andersson are not on the same level as last year and we suffer from that. Henry is injured, Roerslev was sold.  The young Thompson is performing okay and last month was one of the best in the team but again - he is not consistent. We need some options out there if we want things to happen.



We continue with our policy of loaning players so they can develop in the other teams. The most notable outs are Simon Tibbling - just not performing well for us - going to the Greek AEK, Patrik Gunnarsson - our third keeper going to Wigan and Alfa Semedo going back to Portugal after wanting to play more time that we can afford. All of these players still have a future in our team, just not right now.



Must win match for us against the struggling Newcastle. David Titov made his debut at RB and played really well. Fantastic match again for Ollie Watkins who scored 1 and won POTM. Ben Pearson also tapped a goal earlier in the game. Our opponents got only 2 shots on goal, however scored one and made the match a lot more nervous until the end. However nice win for us and we win our first game of the year.


Copy of the first game (1-1). We dominate - they get the points. Really frustrating to see such matches as we miss a lot of chances and the team against us score 3 goals from 3 shots but this is football and everything can happen. Ayoze Perez gets his debut goal and young Titov with his first assist. As said before the Canaries got really nice squad with some decent talents and some stars from the past.

David Raya got sick and will miss our next match, Mbeumo is close to return and Isak can score a sitter. Bad times at Brentford.

We rejected €19M for Said Benrahma from another Chinese team, but they don't stop with these offers.


We loose to the cherries as we face them for the second time in less than a month. Again we play the better football, however we get home with empty bag. And this happens only 3 weeks after the beating they took from OUR RESERVE SQUAD. This time we fall, they also we're a lot better. Josh Dasilva scored a long distance banger, but again when Watkins could not provide there is no other striker to take his place. Drought for Isak. This month is getting worse and worse as we failed to win against teams that ARE beatable. For the second time this month Pontus Jansson looses the ball and we receive a goal. Our leaders are making the mistakes which is really bad.


After failing to get Andrija Zivkovic from Benfica we turned our heads to another great talent that can put us in better position in the future. JEONG WOO-YEONG (AMR/AML) comes from Freiburg after we activate his release clause of €7.75M. Another player for the future! The 21 years old South Korean is from the Bayern Munich academy and will have to help us finding our good form again!

We also received an offer for Pontus Jansson for €25M but we rejected it. Even though he made 2 terrible mistake this month, he is our captain and the most powerful player in the locker room. We need him!


Trip to Anfield is never pleasant job, but with our recent form to face the 1st in the league away is a tough situation. We had nothing to loose and I gave full debuts to Oskar Buur & Flynn Downes - both played well. Of course Liverpool dominated us and scored from a set-piece early in the game but we had some decent chances. In the last five minutes Mbeumo missed great opportunity to make the score even and to draw against the reds for the third time in the season. 

January is over and hopefully we don't have another month like this in the future!


Nobody deserves an award after such a month, however Mathias Jensen always gives his 100% and is better than everybody else in the team. Finishes the month with 1 goal, 1 assist but always playing interesting passes and tries to cut the opponents defense. Overall our best player as he never fails to provide for us. He is far from his 19 assist from last season, but still has 7 for now.


Awful month for us, our worst one since we came into the division with 4 losses and just 1 win. Also we were beaten in the FA Cup, had a lot of injuries and nothing was right for us. We dropped one more position - to the 8th and now we're not so close to the 6th place that gives continental football. With one more win our survival will become almost sure but we must aim for more than that.

Liverpool finally slowed the pace and are just 5 points ahead of Man Utd, Watford & Everton continue with the good form and the bottom three is not changed much as Leicester are in deep shit.

We sold Fosu & Dervisoglu for €19.25M, and loaned Tibbling, Gunnerson and Semedo so they can play enough time to develop.

Another blank month for Isak, which is very frustrating as he is our top signing. Tried almost everything, I'm praying for a penalty so he can take it and release the curse.

Next month we have only three matches - Burnley (H), Everton (A), Watford (H). 

Here are the new guys that we bought for the price of €23M. Our finances are really great as we have another €17M in the bank, but because of our transfer policy and my wish to play without buying pricey players we won't use them. 











Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

COMMENTS:

Tango - Another FIFA maniac here (playing it until January-February) then switching to FM. Yep, he is not delivering and is quite frustrating as I tried everything - playing him in a different role, criticizing him, praising him, playing him in a attack of two, nothing works. Praying for a penalty.

ScottT - I am. Although this month shows that we are far from the good form.

TheLFCFan - Watkins also is not so consistent, but is great compared to Isak. If he doesn't get out of this till the end of the season we might look for another striker.

A pretty bleak month. The arrival of Ayoze Perez and company will be welcomed greatly and hopefully can assist in an upturn of form.

A really poor month by the standards you have set since promotion and in fairness since you arrived. The signings are promising though and that is a good sign. Hopefully the results show some more promise next month!

That really wasn't the month you were after, some very winnable games in there I would say and a few good opportunities wasted.

After the slap in the past month we need to get out of the swamp. We picked only 3 points and now we face a series of tough opponents. Our strikers are not scoring goals, our important players are injured way too often and everything is against us, but we need to find a way to escape from this.

As one of our games was postponed I will merge the games from February and March (5 games) so the episodes are not just 2 matches long.

Rico Henry still have issues with his fitness and have some minor injuries. All other players are fit, some of them as Mbeumo, Benrahma haven't played from a long time due to injury problems.

Our schedule looks like this: Burnley (H), Everton (A), Watford (H), Chelsea (A), Leicester (H). We face our rivals for the European spots, also facing some of the teams facing troubles with staying up in the PL as Burnley & Leicester.


JESUS VALLEJO (DC) will play for Brentford from the summer as the Bees get him for free as Real Madrid don't want him anymore! Another great pull for us! He haven't played much this year but will help us become more stable at the back. The arrival means that we will need to offload some defenders in the summer as their number just keep rising.


Third match against Burnley this season, 1 loss in the FA Cup, 1 draw (0-0). Oh my god! Where should I start! We start pretty great with having a penalty in the first 15 minutes. Finally a way to stop the curse that doesn't allow Alexander Isak to score. Aaaand he misses it! Speechless! By the end of the first half we manage to score from a corner - ALEXANDER ISAK FINALLY. Ups, VAR doesn't think that way! The goal is ruled out! At the break I just said to the players that I still have faith in them. We have another penalty in the start of the second half and I though that if Isak misses it again out spirits will be broken and the season will get tougher and tougher, but magic happens - he ends his drought and we break the wall that Burnley has build around their goal. In fact - this is the first goal we score against them in the three matches. We dominate the game and the young Dominic Thompson who grabbed the opportunity to replace Henry by the neck scores another beauty, wins the match and wins POTM. Oskar Buur with his first assist for the club as he gets in our starting XI really fast!


Grudge match! We had 6 yellow cards, they had 3! However our wrestling abilities are weaker and we receive sloppy goal after pin-ball situation in our box after a set-piece. We tried to push them in the end but again our striker fail to score. The things are getting out of hands as neither of the 5-6 main players that I'm using is not in form. Everton has great squad and it's fighting for a spot in the CL, they also reached the final in the Carabao Cup. Despite the loss another POTM performance by Dominic Thompson. Our main player at the left back Rico Henry will be fully fit for the next match but with this form of the young lad, I can't give him chance.

Our wingbacks in the face of Thompson & Andersson are not on the same level as last year and we suffer from that. Henry is injured, Roerslev was sold. The young Thompson is performing okay and last month was one of the best in the team but again - he is not consistent. We need some options out there if we want things to happen.


This time the game against Watford the game is not so dramatic (3-2 in the first match) as we take the lead early as our captain puts in it the net after another great assist by Jensen. In the end of the half we score the most ridiculous goal I've ever seen. Benrahma hits the side bar, the ball comes back to a Watford defender who kicks it with full power only to hit his nearby teammate and the ball is in the net for the second time after the rebound. All the players done well this match, Pedro Chirivella gets the POTM. Great win against direct rival!

Bad news from our medical team as Christian Norgaard will miss the next 6 weeks after an injury.

Meanwhile Chelsea retain the Carabao Cup after winning the final against Everton! 1 Premier League title, 2 Carabao Cups and Community Shield. Not a bad year for the blues which are our next opponent!


We get destroyed by the team in high spirits! After another unlucky rebound from Kehrer we are loosing after just 19 minutes. After that we hit the bar but overall Chelsea just are the better team. Only a few teams have been dominating us so much, but Chelsea did it two times this season. We have no answers for their attack. Two losses with 3-0. Rico Henry returned finally after almost 3 months but couldn't contribute.

Brentford FC makes another signing as the young PSG winger Hussayn Touati will play for us from the summer. Great potential for no money - what we can ask for more?


Even though Leicester are fighting against relegation they are a great team and the match was really close. However we had the most chances, we missed a lot, they clear from the goal-line twice and in the second half we finally break them with the first goal for Jeong Woo, who comes as a sub! Oskar Buur provides the assist and also wins POTM with his great display! We thought that we've won it the same as last time against foxes (1-0) but Vardy spoils our party with a counter attacking goal in the final minutes of the game. We deserved to win, however I'm not so disappointed.


Terrific month for the young lad, scoring 1, winning 2 POTM and gets 2 clean sheets! Pulling all from the opportunity to be a starting player and showing that can be trusted. He only missed the game against Chelsea. I had plans to search for a new left back but with his performances I'm not sure if we need another. He also becomes 2nd in the PL YPOTM. Bright future for him!


We get on our feet after these two months and even though we drop to 9th place we are just 3 points away from the spot that potentially can give us some continental football. It was vital that we had really great first half of the season, because we are not performing so well now. The main problem is that our attackers don't score, none of them, none of them is in form, nothing! Isak finally scored but then again was silent for the next 4 matches, Watkins also hasn't scored in 2 months. Benrahma & Mbeumo can't find their form after the injuries. It's too soon to judge Ayoze & Jeong. Our first signing last year Niclas Eliasson also is far away from the desired form and if he doesn't show anything until the end of the season will be transfer listed. The good part is that our back line and the midfielders are playing really well and are providing for the team for now.

In the table - Liverpool is slipping his advance, Everton is marching through and are close to playing CL football. We, Watford & Tottenham will fight for the last place giving EL football and finally Leicester are out of the bottom three, but just look at their stats - 3 wins and 15 DRAWS (!!!).

We will look for some potential transfers until the end of the season as we need to be sure not to get in situations like this - with nobody that can score goals. Also I'm thinking that we can try and implement some different tactics next year reverting our main 4-3-3 into 4-3-2-1 in some of the matches. Maybe I'll try this in some of the upcoming games.

Next month will see almost the same games as November when we played all London clubs:
Crystal Palace (H), Tottenham (A), QPR, (A), Arsenal (H), Manchester City (A).

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

COMMENTS:

ScottT - Hopefully the new guys will push the team further but for now nothing special.

TheLFCFan & Jack - Absolutely, the month was awful and we should have won at least 1 or 2 games more but this time the luck was against us, plus the form of our strikers.

Really nice work! As a manager who has opted for a brentford save a few times (and have just found this site -in awe at the write-ups) i’m mightily impressed! keep up the good work

The main talking-point has to be that Isak has finally scored despite doing everything in his power not to!

Good to see Isak finally break his goalless streak even if it did take two attempts from the spot and a VAR intervention. Although the worrying form of your strikers is something that needs solving as soon as possible as simply you are not scoring near enough.

Great to see you picking up points against the weaker teams as those are the games that will eventually lead to success, combined with a few good results against the higher teams.

quite nice what you are doing in there, you managed to keep your consistency in a league where you were an obvious underdog

you can start to think about higher targets now