Exclusive Interview with Thomas Frank: Brentford Head Coach Says the Bees’ Tough Season is a Reminder of the Brutality of Football

Thomas Frank is in a cheerful mood as he leaves his press conference and heads to a back room at Brentford’s Jersey Road training ground to meet Sky Sports.

The cameraman asks him to say a few words to make sure his microphone is working properly.

“Soon we’ll need some sunshine so we can go to a nice pub, sit in the garden and drink a nice cold beer,” he says. You can always rely on the Dane to set the mood, especially when things are going well.

Last weekend he celebrated his side’s 5-1 win at Luton – the Bees’ biggest win in the Premier League to date – with a flying visit to Madrid The classic. Immediately after this interview he heads to “a very important padel match” on the other side of the complex in west London.

It all contributes to the idea of ​​staying calm, something he often emphasizes how important it is. However, there is no doubt that his patience and calm have been tested countless times this season.

Brentford are now unbeaten in five games, with what Frank describes as a “statement win” against the Hatters at Kenilworth Road taking them 10 points clear of the relegation zone and all but certain of a fourth successive season in the to play in the top division.

But things didn’t look quite so rosy when they lost 14 of 18 league games between November 12th and March 16th, although they never once fell below 16th place.

“Hard!” is Frank’s one-word assessment of the season so far. “But every football season is tough.

“The biggest thing compared to last season is that we lost way too many games and when you don’t win you don’t get that little bit of sugar, that natural little bit of feedback to the brain that says all the hard work pays off from.

“A big thing is to look at the processes, to look at the performances, to see how the players develop, because they continue to develop even if we lose. A defeat is just a result on the scoreboard and performances are the most important thing.” “

Brentford are 15th in the table ahead of the trip to Goodison Park, where they face Everton on Saturday evening, live on Sky Sports Premier League.

A graphic popped up earlier this week

Frank pauses for thought, reflects and smiles after being asked if he thinks they are in the wrong position, given Brentford’s statistical approach to the game.

“Given the expected goals and these kinds of statistics, we can definitely understand that,” he says.

“Then there are the performances that we look at with video, my eyes, the feeling and all sorts of other statistics. When you put all of that together, there’s definitely a feeling that we could have gotten more out of the season – and that’s without talking about it.” The injuries.

“I think we have the shortest distance to goal of any team in the Premier League when we fire our shots, which I really like because we want to focus on taking the biggest chances possible.”

“We also rely on a lot of crosses or passing the ball backwards, which I think is the best way to create chances. This shows that we are very good at creating opportunities and it is extremely impressive that we continue to be very good at it.” This.

“One of the reasons why we perhaps didn’t get as many points as we should is that too many of the chances we missed were of too high a quality. That’s a combination of us not defending well enough in certain situations and “We made some bad mistakes that we don’t normally make; I think we did three where we passed it straight to the opponent.

“It adds up and confirms the belief I had in the team before the season. I thought, even without Ivan.” [Toney]It could be an interesting season, a positive season.

“It’s not as positive as I would have hoped – definitely not – and it’s just a big reminder that football is brutal and you can’t get too carried away or plan too much for the future.”

Brentford’s injury list this season is long.

Ben Mee, Josh Dasilva, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry are out for the season.

Ethan Pinnock, Christian Norgaard, Kevin Schade, Bryan Mbeumo and Kristoffer Ajer all had to take a long break but are now fit again.

Ivan Toney – who was only available in January after an eight-month ban for breaching FA gambling rules – missed the wins against Sheffield United and Luton with a hip injury. Frank says the striker is “making progress” and hopes he will be available for Saturday’s game.

But he does not dwell on her misfortune in this regard. The same applies here: keep calm; Frustration is wasted energy.

“You always dream of your strongest 11! Sometimes you think, ‘Come on, give us a little bit of happiness here’.”

“I can say pretty well: if a player is injured, don’t think about it. Just think about the next player in line and make sure they can prepare in the best way possible. I’m just focusing on what players I have available.”

Thanks to the returning players, Frank has been able to play a 4-3-3 formation in recent weeks, as opposed to the commonly used 3-5-2 formation at the height of the injury crisis.

“There is no doubt that I would prefer to play a 4-3-3, but we have shown that we can play many different systems and I don’t think one is better than the other, depending on the players.”

“I probably still prefer the 4-3-3 system, but we need to have the right players available for that. For most of the season we were without our two best full-backs and without our two best wingers.” It is very difficult to set up a 4-3-3 system because they are crucial to that system.

“It’s very gratifying that we finally have a full firing squad.”

As the interview nears its end, it’s time to focus on Frank himself.

The 50-year-old has now been head coach at Brentford for five and a half years – the longest-serving head coach since Malky MacDonald’s reign from May 1957 to January 1965 – and in his time the Bees have arguably never had as much opposition as they have this term.

Does he think he has grown as a result?

“This was probably the biggest test yet,” he admits. “Of course it’s tough, especially in the second phase when we didn’t win nine times. But you know that this can happen in football and it doesn’t just affect me or this club. You see it in every league around the world.”

“Back in Bröndby I decided not to win the first eight games, but only to test the chairman and everyone in charge of the club! Then I did the same thing here where I lost eight out of ten games. This is really hard because “You’re new to the club.

“There is only one thing: stay calm – or as calm as possible – do what you believe in, keep the energy, keep the faith and keep going.”

“You learn something new every year and just become more experienced. We’re pretty process-oriented, so we do more or less the same thing every day, every week, with small changes. That helps a lot, especially when things go wrong, that we keep doing what we believe in.

“But that takes something because the emotions ebb and flow and there’s all the influence you get from outside people. I take in everyone’s emotions and just have to keep them down.”

Another win would complete the job for Brentford and allow them to fully plan for next season, something they have already started to do, with the record signing of Igor Thiago from Club Brugge set to be completed on July 1.

“We’re getting closer and I’m looking forward to it,” adds Frank.

“One of the strengths of this club is that there are always two paths: one where we have to do something every now and then and then the longer term development and planning. I know when we get there we’re going to be really excited about it because I love that planning part.

“But with four games left, we want to finish on a high note. We want to finish with momentum. It’s one game at a time and hopefully we can get another win against Everton on Saturday.”

Watch Everton vs Brentford live Sky Sports Premier League And Main event from 5 p.m. on Saturday; Kick-off 5:30 p.m