Brentford vs Bristol City - Extended Highlights Analysis
Bees extend unbeaten run with win over Robins - 03/02/21
Brentford 3 - 2 Bristol City
03/02/2021
19:45
Brentford Community Stadium
2 minutes
Bristol City put Brentford under pressure early on by winning a free-kick just outside of the box, in the build up to the foul Massengo had the ball in the right channel outside the area and put a cross in that was headed clear by Dalsgaard just after the ball floated over the heads of Ethan Pinnock and Bristol City striker Famara Diedhiou. This ball caught Pinnock by surprise and was a momentary let off for the Bees as not only did Pinnock find himself underneath the cross but Diedhiou had managed to put a meters distance between him and his marker by the time the ball came close to either of them. Dalsgaard’s headed clearance however was undercooked and the ball found itself deflecting between Diedhiou and Pinnock before bouncing back out of the area and towards Bristol City’s midfield. This was where Owura Edwards cleverly won a free kick on the left channel attempting to flick the ball through the legs of the oncoming Dalsgaard who looked to have clumsily clattered Edwards to the floor, however the replay showed that Dalsgaard may have touched the ball first.
3 minutes - Brentford 0 - 1 Bristol City - Zak Vyner
Bristol City whipped their free-kick into the back post and Zak Vyner poked the ball into the net, this was frustrating for Brentford defensively as both Ivan Toney and Ethan Pinnock made attempts at clearing the ball but couldn’t. The ball was whipped in too high for Toney to clear and Pinnock who was marking Vyner at that point did not manage to contest for the ball, his only attempt to defend the set-piece was to try and marshal Vyner away from it but Vyner’s response was too quick. An opening three minutes of the game that a normally excellent Pinnock would like to forget.
4 minutes
Brentford broke down the left hand-side with Rico Henry however he was deemed by the referee to have been fairly barged off of the ball by goal scorer Zak Vyner, Bristol City failed to control the loose ball as it entered the left-side of the area and Sergi Canos nicked it from the defenders and took two shots on goal with the first being blocked and the rebound going wide. This moment particularly was an example of the transformation that we have seen from Canos this season, going from a player low on confidence who didn’t seem massively competent on the pitch to a player that chases everything down and has no problem attempting to score anywhere in or around the box. One criticism of Canos in that position was that had he of looked up he would have seen Ivan Toney in front of him with a freer shot on goal and in the past Canos has been a player who likes to get his head down and go.
He has though at the beginning of last season and this season been a much better creator of chances and unfortunately for him this was a chance to pass to a player in a better position. He took one too many touches on the ball and went for goal instead, at the very least however we can admire the confidence on Canos as he is a player that thrives on it. The block on Canos’ shot though was a good example of the defensive solidity Bristol City showed in the first half as they managed to double up on Sergi before he could do any damage, whilst 3 more City players attempted to swarm Canos on the ball and cut off a passing lane to Toney.
14 minutes
Mathias Jensen had possession on the halfway line and pinged a long ball into the chest of Ivan Toney who immediately laid it off for Saman Ghoddos on the edge of the box to take a first time strike on goal, it took a deflection that fizzed the ball towards the keeper and forced an awkward save from Bentley’s right hand leading to a corner kick to the Bees. This was a no thrills passage of play that highlighted Brentford’s ability to not only play quick passing movements around an oppositions defence, but to also effectively play the ball long and create a dangerous chance out of nothing that wouldn’t always be picked up as a dangerous attempt by xG.
Jensen was again the creator of another chance for Brentford as he floated a cross from a corner that found Ethan Pinnock perfectly, unfortunately the centre back couldn’t find the net in what was so far the best chance of the game. Brentford attacked this corner with a very simple yet effective move; Pinnock, Dalsgaard, Sørensen and Toney attempted to line up by the penalty spot in that order with Toney at the front of the pack. Pinnock was being marked by Tomas Kalas and was slightly tucked behind Dalsgaard before the kick was taken, as Jensen swung the ball in Pinnock made a winding run around the block of players towards the front post.
Kalas failed to keep close to Pinnock as once the run began Dalsgaard had managed to block both him and ex-Bee Alfie Mawson, who was initially marking Dalsgaard, away from Pinnock.
The other two goal threats here were Ivan Toney who had found himself ready to leap for the ball centrally on the edge of the 6 yard box, though he was being effectively marked by Diedhiou, and Mads Bech Sørensen who had got ahead of his man at the back post.
27 minutes - Brentford 1 - 1 Bristol City - Sergi Canos
Brentford began this move passing the ball around the back just inside their own half, Pinnock passed the ball sideways to Henrik Dalsgaard who took a touch and immediately played a floating pass down the right hand side towards Tariqe Fosu who was being marked by Alfie Mawson. Fosu had taken up a more central role between the centre back and the right back, Mawson jumped and raised his right foot high to make contact with the ball in an attempt to clear it but the ball accidentally bounced off of his laces, against his head and then over his and Fosu’s heads back towards Bristol City’s goal. Fosu picked up the loose ball and broke into the area onto the right hand side of the 6 yard box and put in a cross that looked to try and find the head of Ivan Toney who was a couple of yards in front of an empty net. Unfortunately for Ivan Toney and his goal tally Daniel Bentley at the near post managed to get a hand to the ball first by diving towards it, palming it back towards the centre of the area where Sergi Canos took the ball on the volley and calmly placed it towards the ground before the ball found the net. Canos’ finish was an example of a level of composure he has found over the last couple of years that has certainly factored into the Spaniard’s improved performances.
It was a mistake by Alfie Mawson, who has now finally contributed to a first team goal for Brentford, that led to the attack. Brentford were lined up in a 4-2-4 formation with Jensen and Janelt deep on the halfway line sat in front of Pinnock and Sørensen; the front four of Canos, Toney, Fosu and Ghoddos were positioned about 15 to 20 yards ahead of the midfield.
As the ball was played down Bristol City’s left hand side their defence gravitated towards both Fosu and Ghoddos, which meant their right back Hunt had left Canos completely open on the far side of the pitch as the defender kept in touching distance of his centre backs and prolific goal scorer Ivan Toney. Dalsgaard plays the ball forward, Mawson makes a mistake, Fosu picks up the ball and drive towards the 6 yard box, his cross to Toney is palmed into the centre of the area and Canos has a free run into the box and hit on goal. Bristol City’s right back and centre backs had remained so focused on stopping Toney that it was only as Fosu’s cross was delivered into the box that Bristol City midfielder Ádám Nagy had noticed Canos in acres of space but he was too late to do anything about it.
46 minutes
Bristol City’s Zak Vyner attempted to score for a second time by completing the final phases of a counter attack as he took the ball on the edge of the area, struck the ball towards goal and forced a close save from David Raya who pushed the ball past the post and off for a corner. This effort was the result of an overly ambitious Brentford losing the ball, Ivan Toney kicked off the second half by rolling the ball to Jensen and immediately 5 Brentford players sprinted towards Bristol City’s back line. Jensen lofted the ball over for Toney to collect however the target man had not looked up whilst sprinting and by the time he had looked around him Tomas Kalas had intercepted the ball and headed it to Zak Vyner. Brentford were looking to force the play immediately between Ivan Toney, Saman Ghoddos and the Bristol City defence which had previously resulted in Ghoddos firing a shot at David Bentley that went off for a corner.
Zak Vyner collected the ball 3 yards or so from goal and took it to the halfway line whilst being pressured by Jensen, Brentford were still trying to recover their defensive formation after a failed attacking overload and Antoine Semenyo took advantage of this for the Robins by drifting past Jensen, then creating a rare moment in the Championship as he took the ball down the by-line and turned Rico Henry as Henry slide to the floor, played it back across goal towards the outside of the area where Nagy played a dummy and Vyner took a first touch as the referee got in the way before striking the ball with a slight bounce in front of Raya’s hands attempting to make it a difficult save for the Spaniard. A lapse in concentration for the Bees, beginning with Jensen and Toney playing on different wavelengths as Jensen played a shorter long ball than Toney wanted as he ran for a ball behind the defence had created a decent chance for Bristol City, but the positive here for Brentford is that once the midfield and defence recovered their positions they forced Bristol City to take a chance from the edge of the area rather than inside it. Both Ghoddos and Janelt managed to block the passing lanes into and around the penalty area from Semenyo which whilst not being a testament to great defending within the passage of play, it was a testament to the love to defend mentality Thomas Frank has instilled in this side as other Brentford sides may have crumbled under the pressure of this counter attack.
50 minutes - Brentford 2 - 1 Bristol City - Ivan Toney
The Bees had possession through their back four deep into their own half, Mads Bech Sørensen played the ball to Ethan Pinnock to his right who took one touch and then passed it deep into Mathias Jensen’s feet in the right channel who turned and passed it onto Tariqe Fosu. Fosu then had the ball near the corner of the area on the right channel and played a pinpoint cross into Ivan Toney’s feet who swept the ball into the back of the net with a well timed volley.
Brentford pushed forward with a lot of bodies in this attack, potentially spurred on by the success they had with the equaliser. The attacking formation again began with a back 4 and a 2 man midfield, as Sørensen passed the ball to Pinnock Sergi Canos was beginning a run from the left back position into the middle of the pitch where he was looking to provide support centrally as the ball moved towards the right channel. Pinnock passed to Jensen who attacked the right channel with Fosu, this left Vitaly Janelt back alone with the two centre backs plus Rico Henry whilst Canos joined Toney up front looking to pick up on any loose balls or rebounds and Ghoddos took Canos’ position out wide on the left.
When Mathias Jensen initially received the ball Alfie Mawson looked over his should past Kalas towards Ivan Toney, he did this again as Fosu received the ball on the right and instructed Kalas to keep an eye on Toney as the Robins would have been well aware of the threat Fosu’s delivery and Toney’s prolificacy create for opposition defences.
Toney and Fosu deserve plaudits here for how they worked this goal, Toney hung out towards the far post and both of the times Mawson looked at him he was positioned closer to the far post. When Kalas looked at him he was still positioned closer to the far post and this meant Bristol City’s defence were not anticipating Toney to come towards the near post, this led to Fosu whipping the ball in and Toney curving his run to get ahead of Kalas and score his first goal of the game.
This goal specifically was a good example of the relationship Fosu and Toney have developed on the pitch and will create will problems for Bryan Mbeumo trying to make it back into the right wing position when he returns from injury. The goal also highlights the Bees commitment to attacking the game as they tried to get at least 4 bodies into the box once Fosu had crossed the ball in.
65 minutes - Brentford 3 - 1 Bristol City - Saman Ghoddos
Dalsgaard had the ball on the right hand side of the pitch close to the halfway line and played a ball forward to Fosu down the line, Fosu was immediately surrounded by 3 Bristol City players but drifted past them with ease and played the ball ahead of him to Saman Ghoddos who received it in the box. Ghoddos, on the right hand side in the area, takes the ball to the corner of the 6 yard box and rifles an effort at Daniel Bentley who saved the ball onto the crossbar however the power of the strike allowed the ball to rebound back towards Ghoddos who struck the ball on a half volley with his left foot into the net. Luck may have played on Ghoddos’ side here, but there’s no doubting the power that he strikes the ball with has caused Bentley problems today and has meant he had the opportunity to put home a rebound. This is Ghoddos’ 3rd goal since signing permanently and he’s starting to look like a consistent and dangerous component within the starting eleven.
Ghoddos had a particularly easy run on goal and this was down to Alfie Mawson drifting out of position closer to the left back in an attempt to close down Mathias Jensen who was overlapping Fosu’s run, this led Mawson to be standing behind the trio of players attempting to close Fosu down. As a centre back you would expect Mawson to hold his position next to Kalas, especially as Kalas was now the only person marking Ivan Toney and had the ball come to Toney then Kalas would have been dealt with easily. But Mawson’s decision to try and block off a potential cross from Jensen to Toney meant that he completely disregarded any threat from another Brentford player and Ghoddos made City pay for that.
The first and second goals specifically are an example of an opposition looking at the threat Ivan Toney has possessed all season, looking at the threats Canos and Ghoddos have possessed all season and deciding that all efforts should be made to prevent Toney from getting the ball as the latter two players will ultimately provide little to no threat. Unfortunately for Bristol City both players have seen a resurgence of sorts over the last couple of months and are ready to take chances should they be created, Tariqe Fosu has also developed a homing missile of sorts that means any cross he puts into the box automatically finds Toney’s head or foot. On top of this Brentford had Jensen pressing the outside of the area on the right channel, Ghoddos, Toney and Canos all inside the box and Fosu following in behind them. Another example of our commitment to getting bodies forward to help create a goal scoring opportunity.
90 minutes - Brentford 3 - 2 Bristol City - Nahki Wells
Brentford had possession outside their own half and Bristol City began a slow press as Pinnock, Sørensen and Raya played the ball between themselves. Brentford were still in control of the ball and Ethan Pinnock now playing at left sided centre back played a ball forward to Jan Zamburek who gestured for the ball to be played to his feet, this was however intercepted by Antoine Semenyo who passed the ball centrally to Famara Diedhiou on the edge of the box who managed to knock the ball back past defender Winston Reid to Nahki Wells who rounded the keeper before scoring an open goal.
An immediate shout that can be heard after the goal was scored is “he’s offside”, which was a correct shout as Wells’ left leg is behind Ethan Pinnock who was the last man back. However, regardless of the lino not waving his flag, once Pinnock made the risky and misplaced pass that was picked up by Semenyo the good defending we’d seen from the Bees throughout the game disappeared. Pinnock fell over immediately after playing the pass, Reid who was at this point the last man back ignored the run of Nahki Wells to his right hand side and stepped up to press Diedhiou who was in possession, Diedhiou slipped the ball in behind Reid and Wells managed to finish.
Under normal circumstances this would be a difficult goal to concede, the linesman not picking up the offside and the poor defending does not make for good viewing. However the main reason we conceded this goal was because of the change to our centre back pairing, Reid has been brought in to play immediately and help settle the defence’s organisational issues now Jansson is out injured. He needs minutes as soon as possible and so the last 5 minutes of a game that we led by 2 goals was a good opportunity to do that. Pinnock had been playing the game as a right sided centre back up until that point and does so whenever Sørensen is paired with him, this was Bristol City’s first real press on Pinnock playing as a left sided centre back and he made a mistake not having time to gel into the position. Winston Reid was then put under immense pressure as he had Diedhiou in front of him with the ball and Wells running towards him from the right.
Reid has been playing in the MLS which is of varying skill levels in my opinion that range from mid table League One to mid table Championship level players with the occasional Premier League or retired world class footballer thrown in. The 5 minutes or so Reid was on the pitch for were not long enough for him to get used to the quality and speed of the Championship and a mistake by another player threw him into a baptism of fire on his debut for the Bees.
Overall thoughts
I think on any other day we could have kept a clean sheet and still have scored 2 or 3 goals, the score line suggests it was a tight affair but in actuality Bristol City never looked like winning or even drawing the game and annoyingly both of their goals should not have stood. Their defence paid too much attention to Ivan Toney after seeing him score a hat-trick against Wycombe Wanderers 4 days earlier and this meant that the front four of Toney, Canos, Ghoddos and Fosu were able to contribute all 3 goals and 3 assists Brentford created.
The shuffling of the backline to include Winston Reid into the game today did cause us to concede an unnecessary goal however the need for him to gain match fitness and provide strong organisation when defending which was highlighted by the first goal of the game which was the 5th set-piece in 9 league games Brentford have conceded since losing Pontus Jansson to injury.
If Reid was only fit enough to play 5 minutes against Bristol City then I doubt he will be fit enough to start against Middlesbrough who are now managed by Neil Warnock and will definitely be looking to exploit our defensive frailties at set-pieces. Fortunately we have now scored 11 goals in our last 3 games and so will definitely provide a threat on Boro’s goal, especially as we have proven we can play direct alongside the fluid passing football that a Neil Warnock side is normally good at stifling, but I wouldn’t expect Middlesbrough to defend as naively as Wycombe and Bristol City did.
Fantastic analysis. Really good to read after watching the game. Surprised me just how much I have taken for granted without understanding why we do what we do ! Well done enjoyed it.