'Hungry Yet Humble Brentford Have Strength & Conviction'
- Leicester City face Brentford at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday
- Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, has previewed that fixture for LCFC Radio
- He says that Thomas Frank's 'hungry yet humble' side is working in the capital
The west London outfit are eighth in the Premier League table, just three points from fifth. Thomas Frank's men will be searching for their 11th win of the season when Leicester City visit Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
Ahead of that clash, a 3pm GMT kick-off, Parry caught up with LCFC Radio's Matchday Live show to provide his insight into Brentford. He thinks players have continued to improve after an assured first-ever Premier League campaign last year. Improved squad depth is also helping Frank's men to challenge in top half of the table, he says.
"They’ve been very good," Parry explained this week. "They’ve only lost once at home and that was against Arsenal. They’ve had one or two poor performances. Arsenal at home was one, Newcastle and Villa away back-to-back were two more.
"Apart from that, they’ve put in some really strong performances. Players who benefited from the first year in the Premier League have stepped up again. It’s not just Ivan Toney, although there’s been a lot of focus on him. Bryan Mbeumo has improved.
"I think the World Cup has helped him. Mathias Jensen maybe benefited from having Christian Eriksen in the squad and training with him for a period of time last season. Mathias has really stepped it up again this season. There’s definitely some more depth to the squad this season, which I think is very helpful at this moment in time.
"The last game I was at, the home game against Fulham, they had Josh Dasilva, Vitaly Janelt, Mads Roerslev and Kevin Schade on the bench. Schade has started to show why they brought him in.
"He’s still young and got things to learn, but he’s lightening quick and he scares defenders. There is that strength, when everyone’s fit, and they have that depth now that they maybe didn’t have last year."
Parry says that a 'real progress ethos' is pushing Brentford on towards success in 2022/23. The latest success being Wednesday's evening 2-0 win at Southampton.
"They’ve continued to make progress," he added. "The aim of the club is to progress forward and they’re not that far shy of the points they got last season. That would be the first point of improvement. All this talk about Europe and what could happen… obviously, that talk is on the outside. Thomas Frank constantly refers to being hungry yet humble.
"They have this desire to want to go and win. They have this real progress ethos. But they’re not doing it lauding all over the place. They move on from the last game and they focus on the one after it.
"That is probably why they were able to recover from losing at Everton and bounce back really, really well by going to Southampton and getting a win. The did that against Fulham as well.
"They went ahead and, if they get ahead, they just don’t lose in the Premier League. That will come to an end at some point, but they do have this strength and conviction. They won’t rest on their laurels."