Daniel Farke doesn’t often sound rattled in a press conference, but ahead of Sunday’s trip to Elland Road he came close. Facing Brentford at the moment, the Leeds boss admitted, is “one of the most complicated tasks you can have right now.” He wasn’t just being polite. “If you analyse not just their last season, but also what they have done in the last weeks, it’s more than impressive,” he said, before landing on the line that’ll get Bees fans excited ahead of the clash: “In the last weeks no other team were able to find a solution, how to stop them from scoring goals and winning games.” That’s the manager of a side also unbeaten in their first two, and he still thinks we’re the standout team so far.
It’s easy to see why. A 3-0 demolition of Tottenham followed by a 6-1 hammering of Birmingham City in the League Cup has Brentford travelling to Yorkshire with genuine belief rather than the usual away-day trepidation. Keith Andrews isn’t getting carried away publicly, but he isn’t hiding it either. “The boys are in a good place,” he said this week. “We’ve worked really hard to get into that place. The game gives you absolutely nothing – you’ve got to go on and earn it and that’ll be no different on Sunday.” Asked about the mood in the camp, he was honest: “We’re in a good place. The boys are feeling really confident, enjoying the football, enjoying being together, so we will hopefully keep that going.”
There’s substance behind the confidence too. Andrews framed this season as a step change from the last one: “Last year was a season of stabilisation, of regrouping and trying to build a new team and new dynamics, trust. I think we got there, and this season’s slightly different. We’ve got a really good foundation in place, we’ve added some really good players into the equation that give us that depth to be able to make changes and freshen things and look after players but doesn’t change the outlook to keep pushing.” New arrival Malick Diouf gets a mention too – “eye-catching performances” at West Ham, Andrews reckons, and a player who “fits what we are about” – while Keane Lewis-Potter’s versatility across the back line remains, in Andrews’ words, “a super strength.”
Back on the Beesotted podcast, Sherlock was less interested in the stats sheet and more in the margins. “I just think that this is two teams who have improved on last season and they’re going to go into it quite confident against each other, and it’s going to be fine margins,” he said, before laying out the game plan in blunt terms: don’t concede from a Leeds free-kick, break fast and turn their attacks into ours. Jacob “The Gowler” Gowler’s stats breakdown backed that up – Leeds’ back three likes to spring underlapping runs from the centre-backs, something Joe Rodon did to good effect in preseason, and exactly the kind of unexpected run that’s hard to track when Brentford are pressing high.
Farke, on his own team’s form, sid: “We are in a good, good mood, a good position right now and also in a good moment after two impressive wins, but yeah, they are the standout team so far, and we have to be at our very best to make sure that we have a chance also to win the points.” He finished with the line that sums up how the away supporters will feel walking into Elland Road on Sunday: “We have a very, very difficult task on Sunday, and we are focused and want to win the next points.”
Back on the Beesotted podcast, as for how it plays out, Laney went with a bold 3-1 win to the Bees – having correctly called last week’s 3-0 – Billy backed a closer 3-1 win, while Sherlock, typically pragmatic, predicts a smash-and-grab 2-1 victory, conceding an equaliser before nicking it late. Whatever the final score, both managers agree on one thing: this is the toughest test either side has faced so far this season. Come on you Bees.
Dave Lane
