Playing 78% of available league minutes, potential outgoings and new arrivals adjusting to conditions has led to Sergi being first choice at the start of a campaign for the second season in a row. With only 0.66 worth of Expected Goals from 4 appearances he can hardly be described as setting the world alight.
Debate around whether he is worthy of his spot has unfairly swung from being objective to unashamedly abusive. In light of this, we have decided to analyse every one of his actions from Sunday’s disappointing home defeat to Preston.
We have crudely categorized his actions into two broad areas for ease. Here goes.
Sergi Canos v Preston North End
First Half
Minute 1 - ATTACKING Ball is picked up in middle third by Nørgaard and he loops a ball into the empty space behind Preston. Sergi is on the shoulder of the RB with half of the pitch in front of him. A good touch here takes him through on goal in a foot race with Rafferty. He gets into the box but only after struggling to gain real control of the ball. No shot on goal, situation is seen out.
Minute 4 - DEFENDING Brentford Defensive corner. Canos alongside Thompson have the job of picking up the late runners preventing them from a clean run at the ball. Sergi’s man is Hughes. He does well, Hughes tries to lose him, Sergi tracks him well and gets a good block on Hughes as the corner is swung in.
Minute 5 - DEFENDING Second phase of corner, Pearson swings in, ball is cleared to safety in left back area. Potts picks the ball up, controls ready to cross or take on, Sergi closes down brilliantly, times his contact well and comes away with the ball. He settles himself, nothing is on and he knocks the ball against Potts to win a throw.
Minute 6 - DEFENDING Desperately tries to sprint back and block a first time cross coming in from Preston right. Comes close but does not prevent cross from coming in. Danger is cleared by Thompson and as a foul is called.
Minute 7 - DEFENDING Daniels tries to go long from a kick out. Seems to misscue and it swings towards the left wing, Sergi does not challenge header with Rafferty.
Minute 8 - Goal 1-0 ATTACKING Ball is played out wide left to Thompson's feet. Sergi is 10 yards up the line. Thompson can see Josh Dasilva making a run in the left half space, inside Rafferty and Bauer and beyond Bronwe. Thompson misses out Canos and executes the high risk forward ball perfectly. From here Dasilva drives forward and fires a powerful ball across goal for Toney to attack and direct home. Sergi’s positional impact here cannot be dismissed although it is really the ability of Thompson, Dasilva and Toney that has taken maximum advantage of the situation to score.
Minute 9 - ATTACKING Brentford Attacking throw left hand side. Good three players rotation. Dasilva and Canos wait for Norgaard to join in and then swap positions to try to create space. Thompson goes long and square to Marcondes who peels backwards from the forward line as Bees try to switch play.
Minute 10 - ATTACKING Marcondes picks the ball up centrally and Sergi is free out wide to his left. Pass from Emiliano should be a given here but does not come and instead goes backwards in Dasilva's general direction and the ball is given away. Preston have possession, Sergi chases the ball and pressures Rafferty in possession.
Minute 11 - ATTACKING Ball goes long from Daniels to Toney. Toney knocks down and Marcondes is first to react. Sergi has come narrow at this point and crosses paths with Marcondes trying to control the ball.
Minute 12 - ATTACKING Ball goes long, Marcondes flicks on to Toney who rolls his defender. Sergi is square and makes a strong and clever run towards goal. Dasilva receives the pass and could play Sergi in early but decides not to and travels forward himself. Sergi is still waiting and Dasiva keeps going. In the end he has ignored Sergi and gone for the shot from a difficult position himself. Easy save from Rudd.
Break in play due to Nørgaard injury. Ball gets played high form Brentford defensive third to restart the game.
Minute 17 - DEFENDING Intense pressure from Sergi through the middle of the pitch. He chases down the touch of Ledson who passes back to Davies under pressure. Sergi continues his pressing and sprints towards Davies so that he has to move the ball on quickly. Davies calmly goes square to Hughes at left back. Mbeumo slipped during this move.
Minute 18 - DEFENDING Preston have a throw in on their left side and cleverly switch play quickly going down their right. Sergi slightly out of position recovers well and blocks Rafferty progressing down his side.
Minutes 19 - DEFENDING Preston attacking throw, players rotate, Sergi is on the thrower and is caught watching the ball a little as it is played towards Rafferty who again likes to cross first time. Sergi fails to prevent the cross. No Danger, Daniels easily collects the cross.
Minute 20 - ATTACKING Ball goes out to Thompson wide left. Similar positional move to the goal. Sergi is short and Dasilva has made the advanced run. This time Thompson tries to go to Sergi, who is static right on the touchline but Potts makes an interception and the ball goes out for a throw. Attacking throw from Thompson goes infield.
Minute 21 - ATTACKING Thompson receives the ball. Sergi is advanced and in good space wide left but Thompson does not play the ball to him. Instead he tries to go inside onto his right foot and gives the ball away. Brilliant counterpresing here form Sergi and Marcondes who both compress around the ball and it is Sergi who connects well and makes the left foot flick to knock the ball away from Ledson. Marcondes nips in and wins a foul.
Minute 22 - DEFENDING Ball comes back down the right side and Sergi who has come narrow has to sprint back over to his left wing to pressure Rafferty in possession. Good off the ball work but Preston still manage to move the ball forward with quick passing and beyond the defensive two of Brentford to get a deep cross in. Cross is harmless and Daniels collects.
Minute 24 - DEFENDING Ball goes wide to Browne who is 1v1 with Thompson, Sergi quickly runs over to support and gets tight to the situation doubling up with his LB but in doing so Rafferty is left free, Browne turns away and plays a simple ball back to the RB. Sergi now has to sprint to close Rafferty down. Rafferty plays a calm pass into the box which is dangerously directed straight to the feet of Potts. He controls well and then shifts the ball on and another cross comes in which Jansson is fortunately able to head away.
Minute 25 - DEFENDING Preston play a cross field ball to Brentford left. Sergi plays a good cushioned first touch square to Josh Dasilva aftera touch towards him from Thompson. He turns, Brentford retains the ball and clears it down the wind under heavy Preston pressing.
Minute 26 - DEFENDING Throw to Preston, ball goes back to Bauer. Sergi moves towards him to reduce options but is fairly slow in doing so. Bauer picks out a clever forward pass to Browne on the inside of Sergi. Browne plays it wide to Potts. He controls turns back and waits for options. Sergi is watching play here as the 2v2 appears to have the situation under control. Rafferty plays a first time left footed pass through Dasilva's legs and into the box beyond Jensen. Browne crosses but Pinnock blocks. Thompson tries to play the ball to Dasilva but over hits and the ball goes out for a Preston throw. Quickly taken Preston then win a corner.
Brentford Left Wing is starting to look ragged and Preston are totally dominant in that area from an attacking perspective.
Minute 27 - DEFENDING Preston corner from the right. Sergi marks Ledson and controls him well. Ball is cleared via header to safety.
Minute 28 - ATTACKING Petulance from Sergi as Thompson again tries the ball forward from the left wing that misses Sergi out and goes to the feet of Dasilva. It is blocked and goes out for a throw. Sergi believes that time should have seen the ball played to his feet. Resulting throw from Thompson is eventually played down the line towards Sergi, who is being tightly marked by Rafferty. The throw is well short and headed clear by Potts.
Minute 29 - ATTACKING Pinnock has the ball in defence and looks forward for an option.
Sergi has come inside from the wing and positioned central in the middle third. Pinnock finds him. Canos expertly lays the ball off first time to the waiting Dasilva and in one action turns and makes a good forward forward run.
Thompson has supported down the left on the outside and we are at last seeing the type of positional rotations Benrahma and Henry can almost perform at will.
LW moving narrow and Henry using this as a trigger during build up to go marauding down the wing. Thompson turns back and returns the ball to Dasilva as Sergi has made his way into the forward line.
Canos then tries a bent run around the back of Rafferty who tracks him well and puts Dasilva off from playing the pass.
Sergi is again left frustrated that the ball has not arrived. It goes square towards Marcondes, Pearson intercepts and the danger has passed as Preston counter attack right through the middle of the side.
Minute 30 - ATTACKING The ball changes hands as it is given away from Marcondes trying to play in Mbeumo on the right, it comes back to Brentford who recycles it out to Thompson in space on the right.
He controls and fires a ball towards Sergi.
Sergi instantly flicks the ball up and around into the space behind him feeling Rafferty who has come too tight to the winger. Rafferty slips but is able to recover as Sergis second touch is not clean and out of his feet. As he stabilizes and gets control he faces Rafferty 1v1 on the touchline with acres behind the RB.
He travels forward well getting the RB on to the back foot. Sergi teases the ball and pushes it onto his left and the outside of the fullback and gets to the edge of the box where he smashes a low left footed cross past Rafferty and back through the penalty spot towards the edge of the box.
It’s a brilliant cross and Mbeumo reads it well, peels away from the back post and towards it but hits it off balance. The French winger manages to get right under the ball and hit it high over the bar for what would be 5 points when London Irish eventually play a match here.
Minute 30 - DEFENDING Fails to stop Browne playing a quick cross into the box as he cushions and takes down a cross field ball.
Minute 31 - DEFENDING simple pressure with Toney to speed Preston up as they attempt to build up from the backline. Ball is forced back to the goalkeeper and they go long.
Minute 34 - DEFENDING Comes narrow into the central area to provide pressure and chase a loose ball. Keeper goes long. Sergi then puts Rafferty under heavy pressure on the wing in the middle third and forces the right back to go all the way back to the keeper.
Minute 35 - ATTACKING Comes very narrow again on the edge of the centre circle and flicks a header into the path of Toney who controls and wins a foul.
Minute 36 - Director of TV cameras pans to Benrahma and Ghoddos sitting in the stands.
Minute 37 - DEFENDING Thomas Frank tells Sergi he is too deep and to push forward approximately 15 yards at a Preston throw in restart. Sergi gestures that he is marking Ledson.
Minute 38 - DEFENDING Ball is hit long and high by Daniels towards Sergi who gets under it and battles with Bauer. Bauer wins the header but the knockdown is immediately pushed forward back towards Canos and the Preston goal. He almost gets a touch but Bauer recovers with a toe and he cannot bring it under control as Davies mops and clears into Brentford's half.
Minute 40 - DEFENDING Safe possession for Preston and we see a 4141 or 451 shape from Brentford. Toney isolated on his own as Brentford and Canos try to shift right to prevent wide progression. Sergi gets out in time and faces up to Rafferty who cleverly plays it square infield to Pearson, just missing out the waiting Toney.
Minute 40 - DEFENDING Mbeumo picks up the ball on the right wing and plays it forward poorly to neither Sergi or Thompson. Sergi had made a forward run on the shoulder of Bauer. It is a woefully poor low percentage ball with both of Brentford’s left wide players high up the field. Sergi furiously tries to recover the situation as Thompson slips trying to recover his position. Ball goes wide to Potts and Sergi is still tracking back. It is now Potts turn to slip but he still still gets a good forward pass away. Mbeumo gets a good tackle in on Maguire and is unluckily pulled up for a foul, Brentford survive the counter attack.
Minute 43 - Goal 2-0 ATTACKING Arguably Canos’ big moment felt even more impactful due to Preston continuing to grow in dominance.
Preston hit a hopeful ball long into the Brentford box. Pinnock heads clear and Sergi picks up the loose ball under tight pressure from Rafferty. Facing his own goal, Sergi brings the ball under control well but doesn't have too many options. He does well to hold off the RB, get the ball out of his feet, gain a yard in breathing space from his marker and look up and see what is on further down the pitch.
Due to his angle he is only able to see what is in advanced areas diagonally to his left - right wing. He spots Mbeumo on this wing and hits a long diagonal that sours perfectly towards the Frenchman and into his path. Hughes is caught out by the flight and the ball inside of him forces him to turn onto his weak side. He makes an aimless attempt off balance to control the ball or get a touch mid air. The touch from Mbeumo is exquisite and it is his reading of the ball and control while not breaking his stride that elevates the pass to an even higher level. Mbeumo feeds Toney who takes two touches to settle and place low and hard beyond a helpless Rudd.
Minute 44 - DEFENDING Sergi is a lucky boy. Only minutes after the second goal he loses his head. The ball is switched to right and the dangerous Browne. Canos has seen ahead and the repeating of a ball knocked back to Rafferty and he makes the stupid decision of trying to block a cross from the right and ends up making a dangerous and desperate slide tackle scissor challenge to prevent Rafferty from delivering the ball into the box.
He is nowhere near timing this correctly or getting close to the ball. It is late, high and reckless and puts the team in jeopardy. Only seconds before the half-time whistle, Frank must have been boiling inside. The only reasoning can be he was still buzzing after the goal. He could quite easily have been sent off. He is out of control yet claims he won the ball and hoped to play on. Free kick to Preston is whipped in from the right. Canos picks up a front post zonal position. Set-piece is defended and cleared.
Minute 45+2 - DEFENDING Misjudges a long cross field ball from Preston left and gets caught underneath it. Luckily Browne mis-controls and the ball goes out for a Brentford throw.
Minute 45+4 - Confusion over referee stopping play and Browne arguing results in Brentford restarting from their own half with a long ball upfield towards Sergi. It is defended and hit high as the referee sensibly blows the whistle for half-time before he loses more control of the game.
Second Half
Minute 45-47 - DEFENDING Off ball work staying in shape and closing down of RB and charging goalkeeper. Ball spends time on the right hand side.
Minute 49 - DEFENDING Rafferty attacks down the right with Sergi caught ahead of the ball. He makes a good recovery and gets back into a defensive position outside of Thompson. This turns into a long possession for Preston who continuously have overloaded the right hand wing and corner of Brentford's box 4 v3. The team has good defensive structure albeit putting minimal pressure on the ball, inclusive of Sergi. Preston forward pass is eventually intercepted by Pinnoc, he plays it to Sergi, Canos controls and plays it inside to Dasilva and Brentford counter attack through the middle of the pitch.
Minute 50 - ATTACKING Dasilva breaks away and is fouled. The resulting free kick is taken by Jensen and chipped into the box. Defensive Header knockdown is collected by Sergi on the edge of the box and he has a low value shot that is blocked. Sergi collects the rebounding ball and spreads it to Mbeumo in space on the right wing.
Minute 51 - ATTACKING Thompson gives the ball away near the opponents corner flag and Pearson can counter attack. Sergi pressures the midfielder. He continues tracking back into a central midfield position as Brentford eventually win the ball back the left back area. Mbeumo moves the ball into the centre to Sergis feet he controls and then gives away the ball trying to find Toney in the centre circle. Preston go on a dangerous counter attack as Brentford have no midfielders behind the ball.
Minute 52 - Goal 2-1 Jensen recovers his position but Preston are still probing and they move the ball to the right wing. Pearson puts in a deep cross, Dalsgaard is beaten at the back post, the ball is knocked down to Sinclair right in the middle of the goal who volleys home.
Minute 53 - ATTACKING From the kick off, Dasilva cuts through the middle of Preston and works the ball out to the left wing and Sergi Canos free in space. Shot! Sergi travels into the box from the left corner and settles himself before trying to shoot into the top corner on the angle. Rafferty gets something on the ball and it deflects up just falling over and wide of the bar and post. Corner.
Minute 54 - DEFENDING Corner. Sergi’s role is to disrupt the goalkeeper. Battles with Rafferty who is trying to prevent Canos from affecting Rudd centrally in the middle of goal.
Minute 55 - ATTACKING Comes short on the left wing to receive a pass from Pinnock during build.
Controls well under pressure from Pearson. Instead of moving a pass on early to Jensen he delays and tries a pirouette turn on the ball to be crowded out by three Preston players and loses possession. Again with all of Brentford’s midfielders ahead of the ball. Preston attacked again and the feeling of no midfield has truly cemented itself.
Minute 56 - DEFENDING Attack continues out on the right, Ledson, faced up by Sergi deep on the right wing, goes to cross and dummies, Canos loses his footing and slips. The ball is played back to Rafferty and another cross from Preston right comes into the box. Preston upping pressure now and sense blood.
Minute 57 - DEFENDING Cross field ball form left to right is met with a defensive header from Thompson. Sergi tries to volley the header clear and hits it high and far out for a Preston throw in the middle third. Dasilva picks up the ball and has a shot that is blocked. Sergi contests Potts from breaking away at the rebounded block on the edge of Preston box. Fails to stop the midfielder. Ball goes back to keeper and Brentford can stabilize and recover back into the 451 shape with heavy leaning towards the left hand side, Prestons right.
Minute 58 - DEFENDING Ball played out wide on right around Sergi to Rafferty in advanced position. The RB combines with Pearson and they exchange passes to work it back to Ledson who puts in another cross. Brentford left is seemingly under continuous pressure as shortly after Preston again have sustained deep right wing possession the ball in triangles at will. Sergi does attempt to win the ball back. Marcondes and Dasilva are now pulled over to this side to help cope with opponent numbers in the zone.
Minute 60 - Goal 2-2 Comes down completely down Brentford left through Mbeumo giving the ball away, good cross Sinclair finished after controlling the ball right in front of goal. No concern with Canos or the left side.
Minute 62 - DEFENDING Ball hit long by Preston to the right wing. Thompson and Sergi try to swap passes and escape from the zone under heavy Preston pressing and combine to win a throw.
Minute 63 - Goal 2-3 Toney wins free kick from throw. Ball is hit by Mbeumo high into the box. Brentford have a number of players forward. Easily collected by Rudd and Preston counter attack down their left wing. Ball finds its way to Potts on the corner of Brentford box. He disguises a near post shot and fools Daniels who claims he was missighted. Pontus believes he has the angle covered and wants more from his goalkeeper. Sergi on the opposite wing.
Minute 66 - DEFENDING Loose ball is contested in the centre circle. Sergi one of the contesting Brentford players vs 3 Preston. Preston win the ball and shift it out to the right and attack through Pearson. Because Sergi is narrow there is huge space down this wing.
Minute 67 - ATTACKING Brentford counter attack through Dasilva, the ball moves around and rests with Dalsgaard who puts in a cross from the right wing position. Sergi makes a run towards the front post. Pearson gets there first and clears for a corner.
Minute 68ATTACKING Corner to Brentford. Canos is causing problems as a central disrupter around goalkeeper Rudd again. Second phase ends with a header off target from Marcondes.
Minute 68 - Brentford Double Substitution. Sergi Canos is substituted for Saman Ghoddos, Marcondes is Substituted off for Benrahma.
We have attempted to produce an objective analysis of every Sergi Canos v Preston North End action from the video we have available. We have used a basic interpretation of actions to categorize and describe on and off ball events.
Attacking contributions - 19
Defensive contributions - 29
To finalise, one contribution heavily outweighs the other. Especially when taking into account this was a home tie. Playing as part of the forward line in Brentford's system requires many defensive actions. In this particular game, Preston used the overloading of the right hand wing to great effect. Canos is doing a huge amount of defending both in his own half and in offensive areas. The greater question is would Preston commit so much offensively if a more dangerous attacking player was on the pitch and is Canos contributing enough offensively to warrant a starting place in the team?
We’ll let you decide.