Middlesbrough vs Brentford - Extended Highlights Analysis
Bees skip over potential banana skin to 4-1 victory - 06/02/21
Middlesbrough 1 - 4 Brentford
06/02/2021
15:00
Riverside Stadium
After the 3-2 win against Bristol City many Bees fans would have been looking at this fixture as a potential banana skin as we took on Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough. Boro certainly had their chances today to try and win the game but ultimately we were too good for them and could have scored another 2 or 3 ourselves.
1 minute
Middlesbrough picked up possession centrally outside the box after Henrik Dalsgaard headed clear a fairly simple long ball from Paddy McNair, George Saville took the loose ball and played a short pass to Sam Morsy who immediately played a first time pass to Britt Assomabalonga who was occupying space between Dalsgaard and Ethan Pinnock on the edge of the box, Assombalonga turned Dalsgaard to get a shot off however Pinnock blocked the shot easily resulting in a corner.
Boro were attempting to exploit the height of David Raya by trying to create a chance out-wide, hoping to simulate the weaknesses we have shown from set-pieces, however there were no recipients for McNair’s long pass and the passage of play continued centrally.
Boro’s first attempt at the corner was easily cleared back for another corner by Pinnock at the near post, it’s important to note that Assombalonga was unmarked in the box as he escaped the zonal marking and had Pinnock not cleared the ball he would have had a free header on goal. This was part of a wider tactical ploy by Boro as George Saville, being marked by Mathias Jensen, began positioned on the line next to Raya, but made a run in front of the near post, attempting to get ahead of Pinnock to knock the ball on with his head into the 6 yard box.
3 minutes - Middlesbrough 1 - 0 Brentford - David Raya (og)
Middlesbrough played the corner short as Neeskens Kebano played a quick 1-2 with Marc Bola who whipped an outwardly curled cross into the 6 yard box, David Raya jumped up to punch the ball away but missed, the ball then hit Ethan Pinnock, before bouncing back off of Raya’s leg and going into the net. Unlike the foul on Raya from Jake Bidwell at Swansea, Raya had no excuses missing this one.
There is little to analyse here from Middlesbrough’s perspective as Boro played the corner kick short with Kebano eventually crossing the ball into the box around 10 yards away from the byline, they put bodies into the 6 yard box and George Saville physically pressured Raya but did not impede the Spaniard. A moment Raya won’t want to remember as his smaller physique was targeted again by an opposition set-piece, fortunately for Raya his performance could only get better from here and it did. A lot better.
38 minutes - Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Brentford - Ivan Toney
The minutes proceeding Boro’s early opener were not the most entertaining however it did provide an insight into how the game would play out, unsurprisingly, Brentford in possession and Boro trying to hit us on the counter. The Bees did manage to get the ball into Boro’s box 3 times during this period but failed to create anything substantial.
Brentford managed to win possession of the ball deep into our own half with Rico Henry and Mads Bech Sørensen doubling up on the Britt Assombalonga, Mathias Jensen picked the ball up and expertly turned Sam Morsy who attempted to close Jensen down but found himself slipping onto the floor. Jensen played a simple long ball to the right channel towards Henrik Dalsgaard, Dalsgaard played a familiar long ball to Ivan Toney’s chest 6-8 yards outside the box, Toney knocked the ball to Fosu who was running with Toney in support and immediately drifted towards the penalty spot as Fosu returned the ball after reaching the 6 yard box for an easy tap in for Toney.
This was a quick counter attack that caught the Boro defence off-guard and in an usual turn of events once Toney had chested the ball to Fosu both Paddy McNair and Anfernee Dijksteel chased Fosu down leaving Toney wide open and unmarked to finish off the move. The long ball to Toney and lay off from him has become a staple of the way Brentford play now and has added more depth to our attack, highlighted by our goal tally this season.
41 minutes
Middlesbrough can’t complain about conceding 4 goals on Saturday, but they will think what could have been as they began the first of a number of brilliant chances that produced excellent saves from David Raya. It began with a Boro throw in on the right hand side next to the half way line, the throw went long to Yannick Bolasie who headed the ball up field to Britt Assombalonga, it was then headed it on toward Sam Morsy who was on the right hand side of the box. Morsy got ahead of Janelt who was marking him after he turned for the returning headed pass from Assombalonga the quickest, Morsy made his way into the box and passed the ball across to Assombalonga who shot at Raya and forced a save that slapped the ball against the post. George Saville swooped up for the rebound and shot centrally but Raya managed to jump across and get a hand to the ball sending it out of play, Raya had less than half a second between each shot and still found a way to spring up off the ground to block the ball from heading into the net. David has received a lot of criticism regarding a certain type of goal he seems to concede a lot recently, however this was an example of just how brilliant a keeper he is and why it is important to remember what he offers the team.
There was no major defensive issue here for Brentford that caused this attack other than a lack of concentration in certain areas, however it was too simple for Boro to get in on goal. Darnell Fisher took a long throw in that was aimed to Bolasie down the right channel, whilst Bolasie is considerably taller than Rico Henry anyone who has paid close attention to Rico will know that he is extremely astute at defending aerial challenges and that this is not the mismatch the height of them would lead you to believe. However Bolasie does win the ball and heads it on to Assombalonga who outmuscled Mads Bech Sørensen and knocked the ball down to Morsy, hopefully Mads can learn from this and improve on his one on one aerial duels though in his defence Assombalonga is considerably bigger than him.
The key issue here defensively is Vitaly Janelt who switches off momentarily, he is marking Morsy and actually pushes Morsy in the back to push him higher up the pitch to prevent him from overlapping down the right hand side as the ball comes to Bolasie. Janelt see’s the ball bounce from Bolasie’s head towards Assombalonga and for half a second forgets about Morsy, maybe expecting for the ball to be cleared, unfortunately Morsy uses this to his advantage and sprints past Janelt into the box.
It is only when Morsy is ahead of Janelt do we see Vitaly in full speed attempting to win the ball back, but by this point it is too late. When watching the replay back, I don’t think Janelt was being lazy by switching off, I believe Janelt was probably trying to take on too much and was getting ready to dispossess Assombalonga but once he looked away from Morsy he was on the backfoot. Janelt is not the only player guilty of switching off here as Saman Ghoddos was tasked with marking Saville from the throw in, as soon as the ball is thrown Ghoddos is caught watching the ball for most of the passage of play which leads Saville to make a run into the box unmarked to help overload Ethan Pinnock alongside Morsy and Assombalonga.
Had Janelt and Ghoddos been completely switched on this move could have been stifled before Raya was forced to make a save and it will certainly be something for them to be aware of in future matches, specifically if Janelt will continue to deputise for Norgaard and Ghoddos carries on playing as part of a 3 man midfield when out of possession. Though I don’t want to sound like I’m being overly critical of both as throughout the game as whole they were excellent.
46 minutes
Boro began the second half in similar fashion to the first, attacking from the off and attempting to hurt us down the wings. Darnell Fisher took a throw in 6-8 yards away from the corner flag and played a 1-2 with George Saville who returned the ball to Fisher at the byline, Fisher played a first time ball across the mouth of the goal towards Assombalonga who attempted to side foot the ball into the near post however David Raya’s reflexes were too quick as he pushed his toe into the ground and raised his heel to cover a slightly larger area, this prevented a goal as the shot was saved. The ball then rebounded out to Saville who immediately attempted to play the ball in centrally towards the edge of the 6 yard box however Vitaly Janelt reacted quickly and blocked the pass, accidentally kicking the ball back towards the goal where Raya managed to stretch his right foot out and prevent an own goal as Henrik Dalsgaard booted the ball clear.
Brentford began defending the throw-in using a mixture of zonal and man marking, Saman Ghoddos was marking Saville in the middle of the box however Saville made a run towards the byline which Ghoddos stopped following as it would have left a passing lane open to Boro attackers on the edge of the box. This meant Saville was easily able to return Fisher’s throw back to him, Fisher was unmarked after throwing the ball and both Janelt and Rico Henry were man marking opponents. Sergi Canos and Mathias Jensen were not marking anyone, Jensen gravitated towards Saville on the ball which left Canos as the closest man to Fisher though he did not make an effort to get close to Fisher to prevent the cross into the box as Canos was ball watching.
It was difficult to find any issues defensively after the cross was made as Janelt, Raya and Dalsgaard all made attempts at clearing/saving the ball. The only opportunity to clear the ball before it came to Assombalonga was for Jensen who misjudged the direction of the ball after Yannick Bolasie played a dummy and raised his foot over the ball to allow it to go on to Assombalonga.
58 minutes - Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Brentford - Vitaly Janelt
Brentford took the lead with a fairly simple move that finished with a brilliant strike from Vitaly Janelt. The Bees began playing the ball around their own half with David Raya passing to Mads Bech Sørensen on the edge of the box, Sørensen pushed the ball up 10-15 yards or so into the Boro half with a Mathias Jensen 1-2 in between. The Bees had Janelt, Ivan Toney and Tariqe Fosu forward in a 3 with Canos and Ghoddos following in behind, Sørensen played a delicious left footed cross to the head of Toney who was unmarked and then immediately headed the ball to the feet of Janelt centrally on the edge of the box. Janelt took the ball on his right foot and swung in a half volley that beat the keeper to his far post, the strike was a composed one as Janelt preferred accuracy over power and volleyed the ball into the ground before it hit the net and it was a particularly difficult strike to master as Janelt hit the ball just as it bounced off of the ground after Toney’s lay off.
It’s difficult to prevent a goal as good as that however Boro’s defending was all over the place, nobody got close to either Toney or Janelt which allowed them to play with the ball as they wanted.
64 minutes - Middlesbrough 1 - 3 Brentford - Mathias Jensen
Darnell Fisher took a throw in for Boro deep into the Bees half, it was aimed at Yannick Bolasie however Tariqe Fosu intercepted the ball and tackled twice to win it back before passing to Saman Ghoddos who cleared it up field centrally to Boro’s Paddy McNair. Immediately as the ball was cleared Brentford pushed up with Mathias Jensen sprinting from the edge of the box to the halfway line within 7 seconds. This press forced an error from McNair as he slipped on the wet and cut up Riverside pitch and allowed Jensen to take the ball, Jensen ran towards the keeper and used the support run from Toney to his left as bait, he then rounded the keeper to the right and slotted the ball into an empty net.
The nuts and bolts of this move were good defending from Fosu and Ghoddos to win the ball and clear it, good pressing from the Bees as they immediately put Boro under pressure and then simply having the ability to capitalise on a chance on goal that was presented on a plate by Paddy McNair.
76 minutes
Middlesbrough forced another great save from David Raya as he kept the Bees 2 goal lead intact. Rico Henry had possession deep into Boro’s half however was tackled by Darnell Fisher which sent the ball up the pitch to George Saville, Saville and Jan Zamburek competed for the same ball however it went loose to Sam Morsy who managed to get past the harrying Vitaly Janelt. Morsy played the ball outwide to Yannick Bolasie on the left hand side who played a looped cross towards the penalty spot that found itself under the feet of George Saville, Saville struck with his left foot straight at Raya who looked to have saved the ball with the inside of his arm/wrist.
Rico Henry lost possession early on to Djed Spence however from here on out the issues with defending this goal were created by the state of the pitch, Zamburek struggled for footing when attempting to tackle Saville which allowed Morsy to pick up the loose ball and skip past Janelt. Due to the numbers Brentford had upfield Dalsgaard wasn’t able to get close to winger Bolasie as he was helping tighten the defence with Pinnock and Sørensen.
However one man who did not come off particularly well in this sequence of play was very surprisingly Mr. Reliable, Rico Henry who not only gave possession away initially but was not alive to the threat Saville faced him when the ball came into the box as Henry was slower to react. A small but important detail here though was Henry’s awareness of the game around him, before he ran into the box alongside Saville the camera showed him turning his head to the right anticipating a potential attack from the wing, as no one was there he carried on centrally. Many players would have ignored that detail when running with an attacker and potentially have found themselves overloaded moments after.
If we have learnt one thing from this game it is that when the opposition are breaking quickly against you, or have quickly created the beginning of a passage of play out of nothing, you must stay aware to the player next to you as they have on multiple occasions drifted past our defenders when they’re not fully concentrating.
80 minutes - Middlesbrough 1 - 4 Brentford - Ivan Toney
Brentford’s fourth and final goal of the day began with a vital press and dispossession of Djed Spence by Mathias Jensen who played a quick 1-2 with Saman Ghoddos and then played the ball centrally to Jan Zamburek who turned and played a long pass out into the right channel toward Bryan Mbeumo. Mbeumo cut in alongside the byline and jogged into the box before passing the ball outwards to Rico Henry on the edge of the box. Henry cut the ball back behind Spence who was marking him and released a stinging left footed shot that forced a save from keeper Marcus Bettinelli. The ball rebounded off the bar and out to Mbeumo who hit a first time cross back into the box for Ivan Toney to head home, Toney’s header struck Bettinelli’s leg but the contact wasn’t enough to prevent a goal as the ball went through the ex-Fulham keepers legs and into the net.
This goal came off of the back of a team press against the Middlesbrough centre backs, Zamburek forced Paddy McNair into passing the ball to Jonny Howson, Howson was quickly closed down by Ghoddos and so was forced to make a pass to Spence over to the right. Spence was immediately pressed by Jensen and actually fell over trying to get to the ball.
Zamburek received the ball from Jensen and played a long ball outwide to Mbeumo, the reason Bryan had so much space down the right wing was because Boro were creating an overload on their left handside with their left back and winger as it was now all or nothing for them being 3-1 down. It is the press on Middlesbrough’s defence which is key here as Boro had 5 men forward in line with our defence, two of those being the left back and the left winger who were occupying the same position. Once the ball is won back it is an easy attack for the Bees as Mbeumo is always going to outrun McNair and Morsy. Another key point to this goal is that when Ivan Toney headed the ball in, Brentford had pushed 5 players into the box with Janelt waiting on the edge, a commitment to creating goal scoring chances.
82 minutes
Another long ball to Ivan Toney came close to producing a 5th goal for the Bees, there was very little to this attempt other than Toney’s sheer strength and determination to create an effort on goal and grab his hattrick. The ball was kicked long to Toney who managed to meet the ball with his head, the ball landed and defender Darnell Fisher tried to knock the it away from Toney however the striker’s touch was too good as he managed to intercept the defenders pass and flick the ball ahead to put himself through on goal. Unfortunately Fisher pressed Toney into a quick effort which meant he poked the ball with his toe and the striker wasn’t able to get the accuracy on the strike to prevent it rolling off past the post for a goal-kick.
This was another chance that was created by a long ball to Toney but more importantly Saman Ghoddos was there again to help provide attacking pressure. If Ghoddos keeps getting into these positions next to Toney then he is bound to carry on improving his goal tally. Ghoddos did earlier in the match find himself striking a shot just wide of the post when inside the area after playing a 1-2 with Mathias Jensen, the Iranian is definitely feeling confident in himself.
90 minutes
Brentford attack again as a high press forced Paddy McNair into passing the ball back to the keeper who cleared it up field where both Rico Henry and Henrik Dalsgaard had swapped positions. Henry headed the ball down to Ethan Pinnock who made a quick pass forward to Vitaly Janelt, Janelt looked around before receiving the ball and saw Jensen clear ahead. Vitaly Janelt made a first time pass as his body swivelled round to push the ball up to Jensen who then had a free run to the edge of the box before striking from distance and hitting the post.
This was a good effort from Jensen that could have been a goal for the Bees, however I’d like to highlight Janelt’s passing here. Something we have become accustomed to seeing from Janelt are constant passes that look as if he has not even looked up before playing them, a sign of an intelligent player is how often they scan the players around them before and after receiving the ball and if we are to judge Janelt’s on field intelligence through this then the German has been channelling the smarts of Albert Einstein whilst trying to channel the passing range of Toni Kroos. Janelt does not move or look to receive the ball without first analysing the positioning of players around him and this is what makes him such a difficult player to both attack and defend against.
Overall thoughts
The game was largely set up around us keeping possession and Boro hitting us on the counter which was highlighted by the 60% possession that we ended the match with, the Bees did however use any chance they could to try and bypass the Boro midfield when transitioning by playing a long ball to Toney in order to beat the bus Warnock’s side were trying to park at times. This allowed us to equalise and score early in the second half, drawing Middlesbrough out and finishing the game with 4 goals on the scoreboard.
There were signs that we were going to concede a lot today however David Raya and some poor finishing from George Saville proved otherwise. A lapse in concentration caused multiple chances on goal for Middlesbrough and whilst Thomas Frank will want to improve on the defending he saw, it was partially expected considering the conditions, how cut up the pitch was and how physical Boro wanted to play.