Brentford FC v Queens Park Rangers FC - Tactical Preview
Brentford Community Stadium 7.45pm - 27/11/20
With the echo of the final whistle at Oakwell still ringing it is already time to welcome QPR to Lionel Road.
Having a day less to prepare for the tie, Warburton has extra reason to be aggrieved, as squads up and down the leagues collectively suffer through the laughable schedule.
What we feel should be mentioned at this point is the outstanding job coaches and analysts are doing and how the schedule must be playing havoc on planning and team selection. It won’t be long until we are hearing Klopp style outbursts every other match-day.
Managing squads, players’ load and the little knocks picked up here and there is sophisticated science during a regular season let alone one that is insanely congested.
Something needed to give this strange term and with more players representing their nations and plying their trade in a broader spectrum of leagues, including the English second tier, international football should have been it, before we address the implications of international travel.
Anyway, rant over, kind of, let’s get back to QPR.
Thomas Frank let slip in his last post-match interview that the team had watched Barnsley's last 5 games in the run-up to Tuesday night.
It got us thinking about opposition analysis and the difficulties a condensed schedule places upon an already difficult duty.
When preparing for an opponent there are a number ways you can approach the task which ultimately come down to preference, time and resources.
For example, let’s start with the job at hand - we have an upcoming fixture at home to QPR, managed by a coach we know well, Mark Warburton.
Where to begin with our opponent?
Well, we need to review useful data from any sources we have access to and watch matches and various in game situations to get a feel for the team.
Who is the coach and is he experienced? How does he approach his games? Is his job comfortable or is he under heavy pressure? Will any of these factors affect his usual approach to games? Is he proactive or reactive in nature? Does he have tricks up his sleeve or is he mostly predictable?
Then we delve into his team and former teams.
What formation do Rangers play, who plays where, most likely selections, most common substitutions in order, are they creating much, how do they defend, do they defend high, mid or low. Set-pieces for and against, key players, how do they differ playing home versus away, and so on and so on.
We’ve observed our coach and certain team stylistic characteristics from data but where are we getting firther information from so that is not anecdotal but based on fact.
What can we gain from their last fixture? Were they hanging on for dear life, are they confident off the back of a deserved win or walking wounded after mass injuries and a 3-0 drubbing. So many questions arise in an extraordinarily short amount of time to find useful information about your opponent.
What happened the last time we played? Did anything work particularly well, are the same weaknesses we noticed back then still relevant today?
Reviewing your next opponent's last 3 matches expands the picture further. You can see their form coming into the game and search out any obvious trends but this is where recent information can become noisy.
For instance, QPR’s previous games could be against teams that have nothing in common with your own game ideals. How much value is there in watching QPR at home to Millwall or away to Coventry or Birmingham? Not as much when you know these teams defend low in a back 3 or 5.
Early on, before we do anything we have to decide what to spend our limited amount of time on.
Watching Warburton’s team in their last match against Rotherham is helpful in this instance for a number of reasons. Rotherham play a familiar shape to Brentford, they defend with a back 4 with two or three in front and in attack they have a main forward with two wide players supporting.
Their midfield 3 has varying skills and likes to get on the ball and play through the thirds.
Warne’s team with Jozefzoon out wide, likes to penetrate down the wings, switching play comfortably across the back line especially out to the right. Combinations between the full-backs and advanced wingers teeing each other up for crosses into a centre forward are frequent. And they worked against QPR, who struggled all night to deal with crosses. They neither closed them down well or dealt with them when they arrived. Noted.
Selecting which of QPRs matches to re-watch to mimic our own upcoming tie sounds useful. How QPR performed v Norwich, Swansea, Blackburn or Rotherham in recent times should help you gain the knowledge you are after.
On top of this, listening to local reporters trying to get a scoop by putting out quotes, looking out for breaking injury news, upset players, weaknesses, even clubs' vocal Twitter pages to try and gain an edge on the day can all add to the growing pool of information.
All of this and so much more (remember each head coach will demand their specifics are pulled out from all the info on the opponent) has to be researched, collated and condensed into bite size or digestible information to help our guy choose the right tactics and pick the team. 10 or so minutes should do it, then.
As much as we like to mock QPR, there are interesting signals coming from Brentford’s noisiest of noisy West London neighbours. Mark Warburton has put in a surprisingly long stint as head coach and having lost their best player in the summer, some astute signings have been brought in as they try to strengthen the overall level of the squad. Sound familiar?
Eze going to Palace leaves a Benrahma shaped hole in their team but out on the left in his place comes Chris Willock, signed permanently for around, checks notes, £750k. He compliments the rumoured soon to depart Bright Osayi-Samuel as left and right wide men flanking Dykes in Warburton’s 4-2-3-1.
Other clever signings include Bonne (24), the aforementioned Dykes (24) Dickie (24) (you get the age picture), all purchased for around a savvy £6.5m. Eze departed for The Eagles at upwards of £15m.
Last time out for QPR vs Rotherham we saw everything about Warburton and his teams in a game microcosm. Outscoring the opposition in a high scoring match, dedication to moving the ball forward, good one touch passing, wingers working hard to impact the game and not defending or preventing crosses.
His double pivot of Cameron and Ball defended side by side under the ball and go for coverage of space in front of CBs.
Once an opponent's attack breaks down or DMs intercept a ball it is funnelled out wide to either full-backs or wingers leaving them to attack and progress depending on positioning.
Where Warburton’s sides tend to struggle is his commitment to pitch coverage and stretching the game in possession.
Warburton’s principles of wingers stretching the pitch high and wide with fullbacks supporting and ball playing defenders starting attacks is expansive and makes it difficult when the ball is turned over for them to shrink back into a compact defensive team unit.
They’re regularly stretched and the single greatest thing Thomas Frank has done to Brentford is to control the pitch from front to back. From this level of control and the positions of midfielders, Brentford can quickly spring from a compact unit into an expansive shape.
When purring, last year's team looked as if there was very little pay-off between defensive stability and attacking flair. We still have a way to get there this season.
Rotherham’s playing style of committing players high and trying to match the tempo of QPR played into their hands. Possession was frantically turned over and Samuel and Willock along with Ilias Chair floating around as a ten had multiple openings in transition.
Brentford should offer Warburton less of those transitional situations and pose equally as dangerous a threat from set pieces and crosses.
It’s been a clunky period for Bees with a great deal of tension released with the win against Barnsley but what should not be forgotten is how dominant over it’s opponent the team still remains. It would be good if somebody other than Toney would score, though.
The main threat to watch out for in Warburtons arsenal is Bright Osayi-Samuel. Rico Henry could have an interesting night in store unless Warburton decides to face Samuel up against Dalsgaard on the left. Strong at carrying the ball and holding onto possession in tight spaces he has a quality that Benrahma possesses in that he can attract 4-5 of even 6 players to the ball. We don’t need to explain how this can benefit other players on the pitch.
So, a slightly different preview for this fixture, hopefully you’ve enjoyed a change in tact.
Here are our predicted line-ups for Friday night. You Bees.