Brentford take on Manchester United at Old Trafford tonight in the first of three tough tests ahead of their Premier League curtain raiser against Arsenal in a little over a fortnight’s time.
Thomas Frank’s players have been enjoying a week at England’s training facilities at St. George’s Park and look set to field a far stronger starting XI than in the warm-up games to date – Brentford fans will be hoping to see the first glimpses of the recent new signings on one of the biggest stages in the game.
Kristoffer Ajer, Frank Onyeka and Myles Peart-Harris are likely to enjoy minutes against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, however, the United manager and his Brentford counterpart face similar issues, with several key players remaining unavailable due to their Euro 2020 participation. Either way, the match plays an important part in both clubs’ preparations for the tough campaign ahead.
Speaking to his club’s website on Tuesday, Solskjaer said of the fixture: “The training group is bigger with more quality and, hopefully, we’ll add layer to layer, but, of course, the season starts quickly and we haven’t got time to wait for anyone, whoever is the fittest and in the best shape will be in line to play.”
The Bees have won their first two first team friendlies to date with Thomas Frank throwing his returning loanees, Joel Valencia and Halil Dervişoğlu, back into the mix, plus reintroducing long term injury victim Shandon Baptiste, who missed the whole of last season. Top striker Ivan Toney will no doubt be chomping at the bit to lead the line at Old Trafford, with fans’ favourite Sergi Canos looking to shine in front of the fans again.
More than 30,000 are expectedto be at the match, which kicks off at 8pm.
Dave Lane
@beesotted100
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