Brentford vs Barnsley - Extended Highlights Analysis
Barnsley beat Bees giving Valentine's Day gift to promotion rivals - 14/02/21
Brentford 0 - 2 Barnsley
14/02/2021
13:00
Brentford Community Stadium
8 minutes
Barnsley win a free-kick 30 or so yards out from the goal after Alex Mowatt felt contact from an attempted tackle by Ivan Toney and dropped to the floor, this was an intelligently won free-kick from Mowatt that Toney could have avoided giving away. Brentford have had problems this season defending set-pieces hence the loan signing of Winston Reid as an attempt to shore up our defence’s organisation in the absence of Jansson and Norgaard, however this was a good defensive effort that nullified Mowatt’s cross.
The free kick was taken to the right hand side of the pitch and was swung in by Mowatt’s left foot, the cross was aimed centrally between the penalty spot and the 6-yard box where 3 Barnsley players looked to swarm the ball. Barnsley’s Mads Andersen and Michal Helik were the closest to the ball in what looked like Barnsley evading Brentford’s defensive structure as the ball bounced just inches in front of Andersen’s foot, in which he was trying to toe poke the ball into the net, but it was easily picked up by Raya.
Eagle eyed Bees fans will have noticed the linesman waved his flag to signal an offside once the move was complete, the reason why Andersen was so close to the ball was because Brentford’s defence held a high line, initially starting on the edge of the semi-circle and following the Barnsley attack into the box afterwards. Both Mads Andersen and Michal Helik were played offside as the ball was crossed into the box and the Bees managed to successfully defend against a set-piece in an organised manner.
12 minutes
Barnsley managed to win a corner after goalkeeper Bradley Collins fired a cross-field ball from a free kick inside their own half out towards Barnsley’s right wing where Callum Brittain beat Rico Henry to the header before getting a cross off that was quickly blocked by Henry for a corner. A good recovery from Henry and equally a good effort from Brittain as he has forced a corner out of the Brentford defence from what seemed like a fairly innocuous position.
Alex Mowatt took an outward swinging corner with his left foot as it fell centrally into the 6 yard box for David Raya to palm away outwardly past the far post, Conor Chaplin reacted quickly and drilled the ball low into the 6 yard box however it was cleared by an out-stretched foot from Ethan Pinnock. Callum Styles took the clearance on the edge of the box and played an unthreatening looped cross straight into the hands of David Raya.
This was another well defended effort from Brentford as once the ball was whipped in Henrik Dalsgaard managed to marshal Mads Andersen at the near post to render him an ineffective attacking target, Sergi Canos managed to knock Daryl Dike off balance who fell to the ground and had to quickly get back to his feet but failed to put pressure onto Raya. Vitaly Janelt did lose Michael Sollbauer at the far post and had the ball have drifted high towards the far post then Sollbauer definitely would have had a free header on goal. Janelt was trying to marshal Sollbauer away from the far post when both men initially met at the 6 yard box, however Janelt turned towards Mowatt’s cross to watch the flight of the ball and as he did he lost control of Sollbauer who managed to then get behind and leap above him.
13 minutes - Brentford 1 - Barnsley 1 - Conor Chaplin
Brentford attempted to counterattack Barnsley off of the back of winning possession at Barnsley’s corner a minute previous, David Raya had the ball in the centre of the box and threw an over armed bowl around 20 yards or so out wide to Rico Henry on the left. Henry drove midway into Barnsley’s half skipping by Michal Helik, however Helik kept the pressure on Henry along with the approaching Michael Sollbauer who used his body to close off the outside lane and stuck his heel behind to get a foot on the ball as Henry’s run began to invert. This touch from Sollbauer caused the ball to run to Callum Brittain allowing Barnsley to take possession and hold onto it as Brentford attempted to draw back into their defensive shape, Henry and Saman Ghoddos did attempt to press the ball back however it was two individual presses that did not make Barnsley sweat.
Alex Mowatt picked up possession on the half way line, jogged forward and cut in past Saman Ghoddos before playing a ball through the line to Chaplin who made an immediate one touch pass to Carlton Morris who took a touch and passed out wide to Callum Brittain on the right hand side. Brittain faked a cross and forced Henry to turn his back to the ball in an effort to block, however Brittain’s touch went loose and Henry got a knock on the ball sending it back a yard or two. Brittain reacted the quickest as he managed to squeeze a cross in-between Henry and the oncoming Sergi Canos. The ball drifted in between Ethan Pinnock and David Raya which allowed Conor Chaplin to drift in with a first time finish to give Barnsley the lead, Raya did get a hand to it however it wasn’t enough to keep the ball out.
There are 4 main errors throughout this passage of play for me that allowed Barnsley to push on and take the lead, it was not a particularly great move from Barnsley but it was good enough to beat the keeper with Alex Mowatt alongside Callum Brittain being the architect’s of the goal. The first mistake is Rico Henry giving the ball away deep into Barnsley’s half, it’s not the worst mistake as players will often give the ball away in an oppositions half and rarely will it directly result in conceding a goal. In this instance Henry’s speed of attack works against Brentford as the Bees midfielders are not there in support to help press immediately after losing possession, what they did manage to do however was set up in what seemed to be a fairly solid defensive position once Henry lost the ball.
Then Alex Mowatt picked up the ball on the half-way line on the right channel with 4 players ahead of him, Daryl Dike is being marked by Mads Bech Sørensen, Brittain is being marked by Henry out wide, Morris is being marked by Vitaly Janelt centrally and Saman Ghoddos is pressing Mowatt. Conor Chaplin has found space between the centre backs and midfield, Ethan Pinnock is reluctant to push up and mark Chaplin as that would leave a gaping hole in the defence should Dike beat Sørensen to a through ball.
Once Mowatt cut in and played the ball through the midfield line to Chaplin, Vitaly Janelt attempted to cut the passing lane but he was too late to the ball as he was already marking Morris. As the ball lands at Chaplin’s feet you can see Josh Dasilva attempt to win the ball however the passage of play is too quick for him, Dasilva was caught slowly jogging back and this is the 2nd error. As Mowatt received the ball Brentford’s midfield and defence shifted in unison to the left hand side, Josh Dasilva however failed to follow along and due to him slowly jogging he remained centrally positioned. This created a gaping passing lane between Dasilva and Ghoddos/Janelt, neither of the latter could cut the passing lane as they were pressing and marking players themselves. If Dasilva had more urgency in his tracking back then he easily gets into position and smothers the passing lane, however he didn’t and this allowed Mowatt to find Chaplin with relative ease.
Brittain then has the ball out wide and is one on one with Rico Henry, Sergi Canos was approaching however he was aware of a potential overlap from a player behind him. This is where the 3rd error occurs as the overlap never came and Sergi allowed what looked to be a 10 or so yard gap between him and Brittain which meant when Sergi finally tried to sprint towards Brittain he had put too much distance between him and the Barnsley winger to realistically put in a tackle. This maybe an attacking ploy, the club may believe Henry will win the ball 9 times out of 10 in those positions and so having Canos further forward allows for the counter. Henry did get a foot to the ball which may have given the defence the impression that the danger was momentarily snuffed out, but it has been a notable part of Canos’ game to fail to get close to the winger that Henry is marking even though he has the time to do so.
The 4th and final error in this sequence belongs to Ethan Pinnock and maybe David Raya, just as Brittain lined himself up to cross the ball into the box Pinnock looked over his right shoulder to see Conor Chaplin stood just behind him. Pinnock was now aware to the danger in the 6 yard box and did not get closer to Chaplin as he felt he was already well positioned to the clear the ball. The cross came and it looked like Pinnock had the opportunity to head the ball away but instead he let it go, maybe assuming it would be an easy ball for Raya to sweep up unchallenged, he may have even heard a shout from Raya to catch. The ball moved past Pinnock and Chaplin managed to squeeze in and get a touch on it to send it into the net, you can see Raya hesitate to come out for the ball.
This was a frustrating sequence of errors to watch especially as the Bees had defended the previous free-kick and corner with a good level of organisation and determination. A collection of lapses in concentration in key defensive areas and a lack of urgency to track back allowed Barnsley to take the lead alongside a slice of good luck for the visitors after Henry’s tackle bounced back to Brittain, though credit must be given to Mowatt’s run and pass to find Chaplin and Brittain’s determination to get the ball into the box.
16 minutes
Brentford manage to create a decent chance as the back four have possession deep in their own half, David Raya and Mads Bech Sørensen played the ball out to Saman Ghoddos in the left back position who immediately played a ball up the line to Rico Henry who had broken behind out wide behind the Barnsley defence. Henry played a brilliant cross into the edge of the area where Josh Dasilva had arrived unmarked, Dasilva struggled to get the ball out from underneath his feet to hit his trademark curled shot into the corner and instead attempted a lowly struck ball to the near post on his right hand side which drifted wide for a goal-kick.
Barnsley were caught out by this move, Ghoddos and Henry swapped positions early on and as soon as Ghoddos played the ball over the top of the Barnsley defence Henry managed to burst clear of everyone. The drag back meant 4 Barnsley defenders were caught trying to cover an expected drilled ball across the face of the goal and it gave Dasilva time to tee up a shot, one positive from Barnsley here that actually impeded Dasilva’s shot was as he got ready to take it 2 Barnsley defenders blocked the shooting lane towards the top left hand corner which helped force Dasilva into trying to shoot towards the near post. Dasilva had attracted the attention of all 3 Barnsley defenders in the box and had a simple pass open to Mbeumo on his right hand side who certainly would have had a much better chance at scoring with a 1 on 1 against the keeper. Against Reading Josh Dasilva was both very poor and brilliant in his performance, so far against Barnsley his lack of tracking back had helped Barnsley take the lead and his desire to go for goal in a difficult position had missed a pass to Mbeumo in which the Bees could have scored.
35 minutes
Brentford had the ball amongst the back line however Barnsley pressed hard forcing Ethan Pinnock to clear the ball up the pitch, Michael Sollbauer managed to head clear before Rico Henry tried to play a first time pass over the Barnsley defence in front of Sergi Canos. The ball was then headed backwards and forward between Sollbauer, Mads Bech Sørensen, Carlton Morris and Ethan Pinnock before the ball eventually landed to Romal Palmer who played the ball out to the right to Callum Brittain. Brittain played a lovely 1-2 with Conor Chaplin before dinking a cross on the edge of the box to Morris who’s diving header forced David Raya to make a diving save to the right hand side of the goal. This was a good effort from Barnsley that was eventually saved well by Raya though the header looked to have come off of Morris’ shoulder. The Bees though will be concerned with how Chaplin found himself between Sørensen, Janelt and Henry unmarked before making a run into the box to get on the end of Brittain’s pass. Henry was forced to put pressure on the ball out-wide in part because Sergi Canos had not got back in time, Canos again had distance between himself and the ball and it looked like he may have been preparing for a counterattack.
38 minutes
Brentford were again being pressed high up the pitch by Barnsley and Josh Dasilva laid the ball off to Henrik Dalsgaard who played a lofted ball 25 yards ahead down the right channel to Bryan Mbeumo. The ball bounced past Mbeumo and the pressing defender to Ivan Toney, who played a neat back heel to the overlapping Mbeumo as he charged on into Barnsley’s half. Mbeumo had two defenders on him trying to prevent him from cutting in as Sergi Canos was free on the left hand side with a potential 1 on 1 vs the keeper. Mbeumo lost the ball as he cut in but was subsequently fouled by the second defender Mads Andersen, Brentford wanted to play the free-kick quickly however Romal Palmer intelligently kept running with the ball after the referee blew the whistle. This annoyed Ivan Toney who happily attempted to clatter Palmer as he tried to get the ball back for a quick free kick, Palmer did play up to this however as he jumped up in the air before making contact with Toney in an attempt to have the league’s top goal scorer booked.
Barnsley’s press may have been bypassed but they managed to recover by tackling and then fouling Bryan Mbeumo, Mbeumo has had an up and down season, with more downs than ups, he could and should have done better with this attack but this could also be the result of a man lacking in confidence.
Saman Ghoddos took the free-kick for the Bees which swung in to the far post for Ethan Pinnock who lashed at the ball on the volley but his attempt was blocked by Daryl Dike, Pinnock received the ball again and tried to play a lowly drilled ball into the 6 yard box but it was blocked by Dike again for a corner. Barnsley defended the corner very high up the pitch, around 25 yards or so from goal not allowing Brentford an aerial challenge within the box, Ethan Pinnock was completely unmarked and allowed a free run and strike on goal.
45+2 minutes
Ivan Toney intelligently won a free-kick out to the left hand-side of the box as he positioned his back between the ball and the overly tenacious Mads Andersen who ended up barging Toney in the back and to the ground. Toney took a quick free-kick to Sergi Canos who was just inside the corner of the box, Canos played the ball centrally to Saman Ghoddos who was free on the edge of the box. Ghoddos will be disappointed as his effort was hit straight at the keeper, in that position he really should have been trying to hit a corner of the net. Alternatively Ghoddos had Bryan Mbeumo and Josh Dasilva to his right who may have proven better options, especially Mbeumo who Ghoddos could have played a pass in front of for a first time shot. It’s difficult to begrudge a striker going for goal when another option presents itself as you want your strikers to have that greed and killer instinct, but Ghoddos’ strike being poorly hit centrally towards the keeper makes the missed opportunity for a pass to Mbeumo look like a poor end to a bright move.
47 minutes - Brentford 0 - 2 Barnsley - Carlton Morris
Barnsley came out quickly in the second half to force another goal that appeared to be gift wrapped by the Bees, this is frustrating to see as on the balance of chances created Brentford could have already scored 1 or 2 goals but have instead conceded 2 that were littered with mistakes. Mads Bech Sørensen was pressed by Barnsley into playing a long ball which was intended to go over the Barnsley defence into the pathway of Sergi Canos, however his pass was intercepted and headed on to Callum Brittain who immediately dinked the ball forward to Conor Chaplin who then dinked the ball over the oncoming Sørensen, this allowed Daryl Dike a free run into the box just as he was being closed down by Vitaly Janelt. Dike attempted to rifle the ball across the goal but didn’t strike the ball cleanly as it began to bobble along the floor, this may have been a miss-hit shot, Ethan Pinnock appeared to have lost concentration when the ball came towards him as he tried scoop the ball clear but instead it just deflected off of him into the path of Carlton Morris who calmly struck the ball past Raya into the corner of the net.
There were three main mistakes here from Brentford and they were made by Sørensen and Pinnock. Firstly Sørensen’s long ball was not high enough to beat the Barnsley defence, there were about 30 yards between Sørensen and Barnsley’s backline so this was a ball Sørensen had the ability to play. Then as Sørensen had struck the ball Ethan Pinnock was still positioned on the far right of the area as that was where he needed to be to help recycle possession previously. Daryl Dike was stood between the two centre backs and Sørensen had Chaplin directly ahead of him, Mads should have been aware to the potential danger of a. a 2v1 against him and b. Dike drifting in acres of space centrally just outside the area. As Brittain dinked the ball to Chaplin Sørensen made the decision to close down Chaplin, this was poor decision making as it allowed Daryl Dike the freedom of the entire half of the box Sørensen was meant to be defending. Had Sørensen of dropped off of Chaplin he would have been able to challenge Dike with Janelt in support, unfortunately a moment of poor decision making allowed Barnsley the chance to double their lead.
Finally Pinnock’s poor clearance handed Morris a free strike on goal, both centre backs really let themselves down here and it does point to the need for someone like Jansson, or a recent purchase such as Reid, to help instil more confidence in Pinnock and Sørensen. Granted Sørensen will most likely make way for Jansson or Reid, but Pinnock hasn’t been impervious to mistakes himself as recently he was at fault for both of Bristol City’s goals and will really benefit from a leader and organiser alongside him.
59 minutes
Barnsley created a decent chance from the edge of the box after a period of sustained pressure, the Bees managed to get the ball clear after a Sørensen header however Mads Andersen picked up the loose ball and fired it back into the box. Cauley Woodrow was stood on the edge of the box and chested the ball down into the path of Victor Adeboyejo who took the ball after it bounced in front of him, set himself up with his right thigh and leathered a left footed half volley towards goal that drove wide.
This was a difficult chance to defend against but it highlighted a lack of concentration, maybe unfairly, in the two centre backs and in Janelt. As the ball was fired back in they were all jogging forward not entirely close to the Barnsley forwards. Woodrow was between Sørensen and Pinnock and then Adeboyejo was stood just behind them in space as Vitaly Janelt, the closest midfielder to him, looked on. Janelt only really began to charge Adeboyejo down as the striker began to control the ball before shooting, previous to this Sørensen didn’t have a chance to smother Woodrow. It is difficult and I don’t want to be too harsh here as the ball was just cleared upfield and no one would have expected the ball to be fired back in so directly, but as the ball was cleared out towards the Barnsley defence both of Pinnock and Sørensen drifted away from each other and Woodrow which left him in space. Janelt was closer to Adeboyejo than the centre backs were to Woodrow, but he reacted too late, and in that position should have looked to close down Adeboyejo the moment the ball was lofted back into the defence, rather than the moment Woodrow laid the ball off.
Again this is coming close to nit-picking and I don’t want to make the lack of concentration as the be all and end all of this move as it was a good lay-off and half-volley from Barnsley to create the chance. But these are moments where we lack concentration and can get punished, and this if anything highlights the need for a leader in defence who can constantly push the players around him to consistently concentrate.
60 minutes
Brentford had the opportunity to win a penalty here however it looked like the referee deemed Ivan Toney as going down too easily. Toney initially won a free-kick after a long ball from Rico Henry down the left channel found him, Toney was deemed to have been fouled by Michael Helik as Helik looked to barge the the league’s top goal scorer to the ground. Vitaly Janelt put an in swinging cross into the box with his left foot and Ivan Toney went down in the box after appearing to have been pushed in the back by Mads Andersen. Having seen the replay Andersen clearly pushed Toney’s back, but Ivan may have went down too easily, however in a world of VAR that definitely would have been given. Had the role of been reversed Bees fans would probably be questioning why the striker went down as easily as Toney did, which is understandable given what we see in modern football, but by the letter of the law it looked like Toney was fouled and a penalty should have been given to Brentford.
67 minutes
Barnsley may have won this game 2-0 but this game could easily have followed the script of Bristol City, Middlesbrough and Reading where the Bees went behind early on, conceded a couple of chances but managed to bounce back and put 3 goals past the opposition. Josh Dasilva took the ball in the middle of the park and spread it out wide to Sergi Canos on the left channel, Rico Henry’s overlapping run drew away both of the Barnsley defenders that were covering Canos allowing him a free run on the inside. Canos teed himself up firing a bullet of an effort that bounced lowly against the ground just before keeper Bradley Collins made a save, Collins tried to collect the ball into his chest however the power of the strike caused it to bounce back out where Saman Ghoddos and Tariqe Fosu were waiting in the 6 yard box. Unfortunately the ball drifted wide and Henrik Dalsgaard ended up running it out of play, Ghoddos was very unlucky as the ball bounced away from him right in front of goal.
Ghoddos hasn’t had the greatest scoring record this season and his last goal came at home against Bristol City, however one thing Ghoddos has been doing that has been highlighted here is positioning himself in goal scoring positions. Whether Saman finds a run of goal scoring form is yet to be seen but he is definitely playing himself into positions to score goals and I believe sooner or later his constant persistence will pay off.
Overall thoughts
This was a difficult loss to take against a good and well drilled side that we clearly should have beat. I mentioned previously that based on the chances we’ve had in this game, even though we performed below our usual level, on another day we could have won this match scoring 3 goals. That has been how our matches have unfolded recently, in our last 3 games we have conceded first and in our last 4 games we have conceded early into the first half or have conceded serious goal scoring chances throughout the game. We have then gone on to blitz teams after a difficult start, such as the 7-2 win over Wycombe, leading Bristol City 3-1 towards the end of the game, beating Boro 4-1 and coming back after being penned down by Reading for so long to simply blast 3 goals past them. Even though we have for periods of these games played badly and defended badly the team has found a way to still win, and as I said on another day this could well have been one of those games. But for a lot of teams if they don’t score, they can still hope to draw thanks to a decent defence, but teams playing against us at the moment seem to be guaranteed a goal so if we don’t score, we lose. And us not scoring doesn’t happen often, but Barnsley managed to keep a clean sheet and that clean sheet was most of the battle won as their goals were essentially guaranteed. Annoyingly outside of the two goals we managed to keep Barnsley’s attack fairly quiet but the two goals that we did concede were largely down to human error and were put on a plate for the Tykes.
Away from the centre back’s mistakes we missed the presence of Mathias Jensen in midfield, we simply can’t play games with Ghoddos and Dasilva partnering Janelt and expect to keep a clean sheet. Jensen does however need to be rested as he cannot play every minute of the season and maybe Frank was resting him ahead of a tough derby at Loftus Road.
One question Bees fans might have is that if conceding early has been a problem, if making consistent mistakes has been a problem, why have we not tried to work on it? Why have we not tried to prevent goals being conceded before we score them? And we may have an answer thanks to an interview Vitaly Janelt had with Transfermrkt.co.uk. In it a fan asked how do other aspects of the Championship influence Janelt’s work, and Vitaly’s response was aimed towards training sessions. In short Vitaly stated that in comparison to what he was doing in Germany the Bees don’t actually train much due to the packed schedule; they play a game, have a day off, then have regeneration and video studies before having a final training session before a match day. In the Premier League or other leagues around Europe you may be afforded more time throughout the week to learn your craft and work on weaknesses, in the Championship you will inevitably have to do more of that learning on the pitch. And hopefully for the Bees this loss to Barnsley can be considered a significant learning curve learnt on the pitch, after the loss Thomas Frank would only really talk about how he wanted to focus on the next game, how he wants the fans and the players to focus on it and how he expects a response from the players. 1 training session before a game isn’t a lot, if you’re making consistent mistakes but still winning those games you can become complacent, it can take a loss to a well drilled side to exploit that weakness fully and create a learning moment for the players where they collectively, for lack of a better phrase, get their shit together.
And what a better stage to do so than on Wednesday night under the lights at Loftus Road, come on you Bees!