FRANK’S TROOPS LEARN HARSH LESSONS
IT WAS the kind of week Thomas Frank wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy, but the Brentford boss believes the lessons learned may prove beneficial in the long run.
After putting together an incredible 21-game unbeaten run to briefly reach the Championship summit, the Bees’ bubble well and truly burst when they lost three in a row to Barnsley, QPR and Coventry, conceding two goals in each game.
To Frank’s relief, a solid 3-0 victory against relegation-haunted Sheffield Wednesday in midweek saw them get back on track.
And he saw promising signs that his players had cottoned on to what they needed to do to turn the tables. The 47-year-old Dane pointed to bookings for winger Sergi Canos and right-back Henrik Dalsgaard, both for bringing down opponents to stop breakaways, as evidence that his team had become more streetwise.
The Bees had let Chris Willock run unchecked the previous week and QPR ultimately scored their equaliser at the end of that passage of play.
Frank said: “I think that we showed that we learned, especially from the last two games.
“From the QPR game, I think we showed that we learned that hopefully we will be clever enough to make those professional fouls. We did that twice, which every team is doing against us – it’s just a part of the game, we all know that.”
And Frank was also pleased that his troops regained their defensive resilience to record a much-needed clean sheet.
“One of the reasons we have been so solid and had that 21-games unbeaten was that we were very good defensively,” he added. “Not only was there a very good structure but we loved to defend as a team – that was back.”