Squad depth and form changes after the January Transfer Window
Warning signs mounted for 2 losses in a row, but will fortunes change in TW8?
What losing Jansson to injury has meant for Brentford
Brentford’s unbeaten run finally came to an end against Barnsley and was then followed up by a loss to QPR, question marks have been raised over the immediate future of this team and how they will handle the pressure of getting back to a winning mentality. To understand what’s happened in the Championship for the Bees over the past month or so and how that compares to other clubs who have seen an upturn in results we need to go back to the beginning of December as Brentford had just kept a clean sheet against Derby County and with that had only conceded 9 goals in the previous 13 league games. At the time of writing this article that match against the Rams would be the last time Jansson played for the Bees and Brentford went on to concede 17 goals in a further 13 league games which may sound like a familiar stat because the same thing happened last season. Jansson became injured in early January during the 19/20 season and missed 13 league games, in those games the Bees defence conceded 13 goals where in the previous 13 games with Jansson as a constant figure within the team the defence conceded only 7 goals.
Pontus’ position within the team and defence as a leader, organiser and motivator is clear to see, it is difficult to play an expansive game of football in the way Brentford play and concede as little as we did last season whilst only playing 2 at the back. It’s been difficult to try and live up to the expectation of last year’s defensive record when we’ve already gone 13 league games without Jansson with no return date in sight, Pontus wanted to be fit for the European Championships in the Summer and for the end of season run in so he bit the bullet and went under the knife to settle a reoccurring ankle injury.
A baptism of fire for Mads Bech Sørensen
The man that has been given the unfortunate task of trying to fill the boots of Jansson has been B Team graduate Mads Bech Sørensen who started the season well with a string of fringe performances that suggested the Bees had really got the depth in defence right with him and Charlie Goode. Sørensen has unfortunately come in for a bit of criticism as the period of time we spend playing without Jansson grows bigger and bigger, however the reason Sørensen makes good back-up is because he’s young, determined and can do everything well at a base level. Mads can tackle well, head the ball well, wrestle with forwards, he can pass around the defence and pick out a decent long ball option as he showed us against Middlesbrough when he found Ivan Toney who laid Sørensen’s pass off to Janelt to volley home. The problem with Mads is he is not yet as refined as Pinnock, Jansson or the recently added Winston Reid; Jansson has played over 169 games for Leeds and Brentford and played 128 for Malmo previously, Reid played 222 games for West Ham and Pinnock has made 125 appearances for Barnsley and Brentford being a bit of a late bloomer rising from non-league. Sørensen has made just under 50 first team appearances for Brentford and Wimbledon stretching over 4 years, whilst he is good backup he is severely lacking in experience and this season has been his first full season playing at this level.
Mads Bech Sørensen has shown that if he plays every now and then alongside Jansson or Pinnock he is composed and a good back-up centre half, if you rely on him heavily cracks begin to appear. And that is why Reid was brought in, to reduce the amount of games Mads is playing and to bring a sense of organisation back to the defence that Jansson gave to the team. Towards the end of the season we may find that we have Reid, Sørensen, Pinnock and Goode fit and healthy which would be great for the final run in. But at the moment the squad is stretched and we're just starting to come back to a place where we can see it getting back to full strength.
Improving squad depth has improved our rivals, but did we need to improve ours?
Norwich, Swansea, Watford, Cardiff and QPR have all picked up wins either in the last two games or since the end of the January transfer window and one thing in common these teams have is that they all signed 4-5 players during the winter transfer window and have since fielded at least 2-3 of those players in each game since they signed for their respective clubs. This injection of new signings has given our play-off rivals a boost in recent games and has propelled them closer to the top of the table than before they signed.
The Bees however made only one new signing in Winston Reid, Reid was severely lacking in match fitness when he arrived and had to be slowly blooded into the team. Winston was signed because we had just 2 fit centre backs with one of them being extremely inexperienced and overall the defensive partnership lacked leadership and organisational skills. Unfortunately Ethan Pinnock had run himself into the ground having notched up the most amount of minutes of any outfield Brentford player this season and so whilst we finally saw the introduction of Winston Reid against QPR, the same issue of a partially inexperienced defensive partnership continued. The signs are good in that there is still a quality player in Reid and he should form a good partnership with Pinnock, Reid’s inclusion will mean alongside sharing the defensive work the bulk of the passing from the centre backs will not need to come from Pinnock specifically.
Then we have our midfield, we didn't bring anyone in during the January transfer window because the club were confident with our options. Currently our go to midfield selection is Vitaly Janelt holding with Jensen and Dasilva playing ahead of him, after that we only have Ghoddos and Zamburek to provide cover however Zamburek has been more of a bit part player and Ghoddos is at heart a forward. We do have Emiliano Marcondes but he injured himself in January, Christian Norgaard has been coming back from an injury since October and his return keeps getting closer before it has then been prolonged. The view from Thomas Frank and the coaching staff currently is that over the next couple of weeks we should see Marcondes and Norgaard making a return to the match day squad. Mads Bidstrup who we signed from RB Leipzig has recently come back from a long-term injury and the intention appears to be to give him immediate game time as he was on the bench against QPR after only playing 1 game since returning from injury for the B Team against Stevenage.
Marcondes and Norgaard coming back is not only important for our midfield but it’s important for our forward line as well as it means we won’t have to rely on all of our wingers and forwards to consistently play to relieve the pressure of a hectic schedule on the midfield. Our preferred front 3 currently is Canos, Toney and Fosu, beyond them we have Mbeumo, Forss and Ghoddos. Because Ghoddos is covering midfield right now it puts more pressure on Bryan Mbeumo to play who is struggling for form and is low on confidence. Even if we just have one of Marcondes or Norgaard back it then frees up Ghoddos who can play more minutes as a winger rather than a centre mid/forward, which means we don't have to put as much pressure on Mbeumo to perform which could be the break he needs.
Where does this all leave us then?
We have just gone through a tumultuous period where we have been playing twice a week every week due to our League Cup and FA Cup involvement, we have played the last two months with 2 fit centre halves and one of them being Mads Bech Sørensen who is only used to playing as a back up option, 2 key midfielders have been injured leaving our squad rotation light and we have still managed to come away with 9 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in 13 games. As disappointing as the last two losses and the conceding of the same type of goal since Jansson’s injury have been I think we've done well throughout the winter run in and a drop off in performance level is eventually expected. Getting to a period where we have a full strength squad fit and healthy is ideal, but at this point seeing consistent minutes played by Reid, Pinnock and Marcondes without suffering any further injuries would be a happy medium as we wait for Norgaard, Goode and Jansson to gain their fitness back.
The next game away to Coventry is vital for our confidence as they’ve struggled this season, it appears to be a great opportunity for the defence to put a clean sheet together and for the team to try and get a couple of wins on the bounce before we play Norwich. After we play against Norwich gaps begin to appear in our calendar and the Sat-Weds-Sat game schedule begins to reduce down to more Sat-Sat fixtures, it’s important that we come into this period in good form as the reduction in fixture congestion will allow us to extend any good results we have through finding more rest and training days during the week. This will give us the best possible chance at carrying on our push for an automatic promotion spot.