Here’s the last of our FPL newly promoted teams articles where we look the Championship’s 3rd place finisher Brentford. We look at a potential lineup as it stands now plus their stats in the Championship and FPL prospects including the best players for your FPL team
FPL Newly Promoted Teams – Brentford
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Team stats in the Championship
I’ve also completed an article on Norwich and also on Watford
Brentford finished 3rd in the Championship and secured promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs.
Basic team attacking stats
They scored 79 goals which was 1st in the Championship. Note WBA and Leeds scored 77 in their promotion season. Fulham 64.
They were 2nd in Shots per game with 13.4. They had the 2nd least failure to score % in the Championship with 20% and were 5th with possession at 54.2%
Basic team defensive stats
They were 5th equal in clean sheets with 17. Leeds had 22, WBA 14 and Fulham 17 in their promotion season. It worth noting though that Fulham had to virtually change their entire defence to improve it in the PL.
Their shots per game conceded was good with 8.6 ranked 2nd. They were 4th for goals conceded with 42. Leeds were 35, WBA 45 and Fulham 48.
Team Stats Summary
A very good attacking side and a surprisingly ok defensive side even if they were the worst of the 3 promoted sides
The fixtures
I’ve rated them in my attacking players fixture ease article as having the 15th best fixtures for the first 6 gameweeks and for defensive players the 7th best fixtures for the same period
Here they are from the FPL site
Transfers in and out so far
I’ve taken this graphic below from the Guardian. It will be useful for later discussion.
Nathan Young-Coombes is an 18 year old RW who’s yet to play first team football. He’s not in FPL
Frank Onyeka is a CM/DM who started 26 games plus 1 as sub for Midtjylland last season for 3 goals and 21 assists at a goal or assist every 436 minutes. He also isn’t in FPL as yet.
It also appears that Brentford are in the final stages of signing Celtic CB Kristoffer Ajer. He’s a 23 year old CB from Norway. He’s played 117 times in the Scottish Premiership for 4 goals and 3 assists at a goal or assist every 1417 minutes so he’s hardly going to be an attacking asset.
A potential lineup as things stand today
The Brentford lineup has an interesting history. Up to gameweek 40 they pretty much played 4-3-3 with Mbeumo playing as wide forwards alongside Toney.
After 4 consecutive draws culminating in a 0-0 with Birmingham things changed to a 3-5-2. That saw Mbeumo and Canas share LWB/LM duties and Forss playing up front with Toney. That pretty much continued up to the first game of the playoffs when they lost to Bournemouth 1-0. 3 key changes happened there with Mbeumo becoming Toney’s strike partner and Forss, Fosu and Norgaard were all dropped.
I don’t particularly follow the Championship so I’m piecing stuff together so anyone who does can happliy comment below.
None of this takes away from having to follow them in pre-season.
It’s also worth noting that Jensen and Norgaard were in the Denmark squad for the Euros. They were both perpetual subs but it will at an element of uncerainty to the lineups in pre-season as I imagine they will get some time off.
The above players stats from last season in the Championship
For me none of the defenders have sufficient attacking potential to override concerns about lack of clean sheets. I would say the same for the GK at the moment. Brentford conceded goals, didn’t get clean sheets particularly but didn’t concede shots either which is not the recipe for a cheap GK.
As for midfielders there’s Canos and Mbeumo who have the best stats. It’s hard to separate the positional changes over the season and the effect on stats but certainly if Mbeumo plays as Toney’s strike partner he has to be worth thinking about given the lack of many alternative options out there
Toney is the obvious option but £6.5m isn’t cheap when you think of the step up of £1m to Antonio, Iheanacho and Watkins. He does have a very high ownership overall and is in the current youtube and twitter template team I gathered together so there is risk to be managed if that’s how you think as an FPL manager
The hunt for the £4.0m Def and Gk and £4.5m Mid
There’s one £4.0m defender in Charlie Goode who’s a CB who started 4 games and 4 as sub last season for a total of 434 minutes. Given the imminent transfer of Ajer, even with the Dalsgaard sale he doesn’t seem a likely starter and will be behind Norgaard and there are also 3 other CBs at the club apart from Jansson and Pinnock and the incoming Ajer
£4.0m GK Gunnarson is a 20 year old GK who played 14 games last season but Raja had the spot for the remaining parts of the season. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be another GK on the books as Luke Daniels last seasons reserve GK was released
There are 2 £4.5m mids. Both are 20 year old CMs. Bidstrup was on the bench and got on the pitch for the play off final but only started 1 game last season and 6 sub appearances for a total of 116 minutes.
£4.5m mid Zamburek wasn’t on the bench for the play off final and managed a total of 6 sub appearances for 49 minutes last season
Neither Bidstrup or Zamburek are going to be realistic starters this season
There are no £4.5m forwards for Brentford in FPL.
Summary
Brentford seems a strong attacking team but not a defensive team worth investing in with no particularly strong attacking defender either.
£6.5m Toney is the obvious player to invest in who’s Championship record last season was incredible. It’s worth remembering that he’s only played 1 season in the Championship and only 5 minutes total in the Premier League. He has a very high ownership overall and in the youtube/twitter template I’ve complied. So it’s a case of balancing the unknown quantity vs the ownership risk on your rank. The fixtures from an attacking perspective aren’t the best
There are 2 mids we’ll be monitoring in pre-season for position mainly. They are £5.5m Mbeumo and £5.5m Canas. Mbeumo has played as Toney’s strike partner and Canas has played as a wide forward but lately as an LWB/LM. Both have reasonable attacking records
Very little prospect of a starting £4.0m GK or Def or £4.5m mid and no £4.5m forward in the squad.
Other posts
Attacking players fixture difficulty Schedule
Defensive players fixture difficulty schedule
Kev and Rob’s first draft teams
The FFGeek Tracker team (8k OR last season)
An overview of Promoted Norwich City
Players who could miss GW1 due to International tournaments
The FFGeek Pre-season watchlist
Andrew Whitfield’s latest draft team
The Youtube and Twitter template
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