Data drives Brentford's rise but don't crunch Keith Andrews' credit
Keith Andrews, Manager of Brentford, applauds the fans after victory in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round match with Sheffield Wednesday (Photo by Harriet Massey/Getty Images)
Soon Keith Andrews may start to get the credit he deserves.
Overwhelming favourite at the start of the season to be the first Premier League head coach dismissed, the Dubliner has guided Brentford to fifth in the table before today’s short trip to Chelsea.
Yet throughout a run that has already brought deserved wins against Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United, a narrative has blossomed that the Bees are buzzing around European football because they are among the world’s smartest-run clubs, with just a sprinkling of praise for their neophyte in the dugout.
Andrews, understated and careful in front of a microphone, is not prone to bigging himself up and that has been a major factor in how such impressive work has flown under the radars of a majority beyond West London.
Even now he speaks of how “humbled” he is to be in this position. "I feel blessed to be at this football club,” he said yesterday. “The people that I work with and the way we make decisions for the good of the club on all fronts. Amazing people.”
Stripped of all context, those words read as if they were uttered by a competition winner, not a head coach at the forefront of what is developing into a marvellous underdog success story.
At Stamford Bridge this afternoon Andrews will tell his players to perform “in a pretty fearless way … we want to approach the game to win it.”
Financial muscle dictates that matches such as these should be one-sided but no one will be surprised if the result is an away win, especially as Liam Rosenior, a "friend” of Andrews from their time in punditry, settles into the Chelsea hotseat.
Brentford’s league position and recent form is not “black and white” but Andrews cautiously agreed “we're obviously content with where we are and the progress we've made".
"I’m proud of the journey we've taken the club on, the team, the players. It's been an immense effort."
One, again, he deserves a bit more praise for having been belittled and questioned before taking charge of a single match.
It was never going to be easy to replace Thomas Frank, who was not far off deity status by the end of his seven-year reign as head coach. And the fact Frank is struggling to impact results at Tottenham Hotspur plays into that theory of Brentford succeeding because their wider structure is brilliant.
It is, of course. No one will argue otherwise.
For years now there has been so much intrigue around how their use of data gives them an edge. The precise workings of their analysis models is one of the Premier League’s great secrets and it continues to work handsomely both on and off the pitch.
Their recruitment of unheralded talents – this week the Belgian teenage centre forward Kayo Fure arrived from Club Brugge – has been praised to the hilt and the number-crunching has a weighty influence on how they tactically approach a match.
Brentford were, it would be remiss to ignore, at the forefront of making long throws fashionable again when Andrews served as Frank’s set-piece coach, and they are the first team to chuck more than 100 of them into the box this season, yielding a joint-high three goals.
Andrews, as with his predecessors, is being set up to succeed thanks to what he describes as “forward planning, common sense and good values".
Except there are rather large caveats to apply. Frank’s departure coincided with the club selling captain Christian Norgaard to Arsenal, plus Bryan Mbeumo to Manchester United and Yoane Wissa to Newcastle United.
Combined the latter pair scored 39 league goals last season as part of a three-pronged attack also featuring Kevin Schade, who contributed 11 and is up to half a dozen so far this season.
The headline signing was Caoimhín Kelleher, who has quickly set about solidifying his status as one of the league’s most dependable goalkeepers, while Jordan Henderson arrived on a free as Norgaard’s replacement.
Up front, though, the acquistion of Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth did not quite seem to balance out what was lost. The counterpoint was that few had considered Igor Thiago, whose debut campaign at the club was effectively written off owing to long-term injury, swiftly becoming the most dominant Brazilian goalscorer in competition history.
He is already up to 16 goals, five of them in the past two fixtures, eyeing a place at the World Cup and, inevitably, being viewed as Brentford’s next big-money departure.
Andrews describes him as a "complete centre-forward" with "serious grit" but he has also been given a platform to thrive, capitalising on how the boss has set the team up to counterattack.
Staples of the team that won promotion from the Championship in 2020/21, such as midfielders Vitaly Janelt and Mathias Jensen, are not just regulars but have appeared to reach even higher levels in recent weeks.
That can only be down to Andrews’ coaching, the foundations of which he described yesterday with a catalogue of buzzwords.
"Hard work, I think, would be the basis,” he said. “Hard work and humility. A real hunger to achieve and strive towards something. Training with a real purpose. A togetherness and spirit around how we do things as a collective."
For a fanbase still pinching itself, singing sarcastically about being “a bus stop in Hounslow”, following a transformation from fourth- to top-tier staples in less than two decades, these are simply moments to enjoy and not fret.
Externally, securing survival would have been a pass score before a ball was kicked this season but the goalposts have shifted considerably.
How far, then, can Brentford go? Is European football a realistic ambition or, considering how congested the mid-table remains after 21 fixtures, should remaining in the top half for a second straight campaign be viewed as a success from here?
"There have been very healthy discussions from an ambitious group of staff and players around what we want to achieve in the next part of the season,” Andrews added yesterday. “It’s going to be a tough test but I want to see our momentum continue."
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