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Whatever you do this weekend, don’t miss the start brentfordmatch against Wolves in Premier League – Especially the first minute. thomas frankHas made Premier League history with his fiery start, scoring within the opening minutes of three consecutive matches against Manchester City, Tottenham and West Ham.
Brentford’s recent run of early goals is a Premier League record – it might even be a world record – but can it continue? On Saturday, Brentford take on Wolves and if the hosts win the toss and receive the early kick-off, Gary O’Neill’s side will prepare as if they were defending a corner in the 95th minute.
However, West Ham were warned, and it did not help the Hammers. Yoane Wissa scored after 22 seconds against Manchester City on 15 September, then Brian Mbeumo scored after 23 seconds against Tottenham a week later. Remarkably, Mbuemo scored again against West Ham after only 38 seconds.
Admittedly, Brentford haven’t won any of those games. Manchester City and Tottenham both came from behind to win, while West Ham secured a point. But it remains a shocking part of Premier League history. So how does Brentford keep scoring goals so often? And what can the Wolves do to stop it?
Kick-off is a new set-piece in the Premier League
Set-pieces are important – you only have to look at Arsenal and the emphasis Mikel Arteta and Set-piece coach Nicolas Jover places him on – So why not plan the kick-off routine as if it were a free-kick or a corner?
Of course, Bournemouth produced a brilliant performance against Fulham in the Championship three years ago, when Dominic Solanke finished a sensational team move straight from kick-off at Craven Cottage.
The set-piece, which was built around a series of four passes and a diagonal run behind the defensive line, looked like something straight out of an NFL coaches play-book. It also went viral and was later copied by PSG and Real Madrid.
You may also remember a week of extraordinary record goals in international football earlier this year, where Germany’s Florian Wirtz scored after just eight seconds against France and Christoph Baumgartner scored after six seconds for Austria Which was the fastest international goal ever.
Both goals came straight from the kick-off, consisting of a routine designed to get Wirtz and Baumgartner into position and running and the opponent’s defense in the first action of the match.
Brentford takes a different but effective approach
Thomas Frank’s team may be setting records, but their routine from kick-off is not as complex as the set-piece play designed by Scott Parker and his Bournemouth coaching staff.
Instead, Brentford take a fairly simple approach: they line up several players at halfway, send a long pass into the opposition half, and get as many bodies as possible around the ball to win a knockdown high up the pitch. Let’s try to do.
From there, Brentford hope to silence the opposition defense by throwing a cross into the box and making first contact. It’s not rocket science, but it has worked three times in a row.
Against Manchester City and Tottenham, Brentford played the kick-off back to goalkeeper Mark Flekken, before he sent a long pass forward down the right wing and in the direction of 6’4″ centre-back Kristoffer Ajer, who Was deployed on wing-back.
However, the main thing is not Ajer winning the header but Brentford winning the second ball. Here, Mikael Damsgaard has been important in the counter-press. Against Tottenham, Brentford squeezed Dejan Kulusevci and gained possession before attacking the box.
It was very poor against City, but the end result was the same. Brentford got the ball wide, crossed early, and had strikers on hand in the form of Wisa and Mbeumo to clinically finish off the chances that came their way in the box.
Variation against West Ham
After lining up players on the right side of the centre-circle against Manchester City and Tottenham, Brentford deployed even more divisions against West Ham. Frank’s team also played a pass back to Nathan Collins instead of the goalkeeper.
Before the ball could be advanced, Collins passed to Ethan Pinnock on the left. Even though Ajer was playing at left-back, Brentford targeted down the right wing and Pinnock delivered his long pass towards Kevin Schade.
Although the opening goal came after the early stages of the game, West Ham were no more prepared than Manchester City and Tottenham and could not defend a series of crosses thrown into the box by Brentford.
The hosts were sharp and relentless, dominating possession and staying on the front foot, and Mbeumo produced another outstanding debut performance and became the first Premier League player to score consecutive goals in the first minute since Sergio Aguero in 2019.
“We’re embarrassed,” admitted West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek. “We saw how he scored those two goals (against Tottenham and Manchester City) and he did it against us. We all prepared very well for it and we still scored goals.”
Can Wolves stop Brentford’s run?
Gary O’Neill and his players have been studying Brentford’s last three games and insists they have prepared.
He said, “Unbelievable, they perform brilliantly on set.” “They use the kick off as the beginning of it. The boys have seen all three (against Manchester City, Tottenham and West Ham), we know we need to be prepared. Three goals in consecutive weeks increases that awareness.
But there has also been a huge stroke of luck from Brentford, and the fine margins involved have gone in their favour. Brentford have also taken seven more kick-offs after conceding, in the last three Premier League games, but have not scored on any of those restarts.
Brentford have also won the pre-match coin toss three times in a row, although Thomas Frank claimed, tongue in cheek, that winning the coin toss is “no coincidence”. But if Brentford can score in the opening minutes of the fourth game in a row, then perhaps we should believe it.
