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Thomas Frank less than honest when discussing Brentford v Newcastle United

3 years ago
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Thomas Frank has been looking ahead to his next match.

For the Bees boss it is Brentford v Newcastle United on Tuesday.

That League Cup quarter-final a 5.30pm kick-off live on Sky Sports, for the right to play a semi-final in the first week of January.

Ahead of that though, both clubs had Saturday matches.

Newcastle United playing so badly and so negatively at home against relegation favourites Fulham, yet Steve Bruce carrying such massive luck yet again to somehow escape with a point.

On Saturday afternoon though it was a very different story for Thomas Frank, his sixth placed Brentford hosted fifth place Reading in a 3pm kick-off and it couldn’t have gone any better for the West London side.

Thomas Frank played as full a strength side as possible with only two enforced changes and was rewarded with as smooth and as easy a win as possible, quickly going 3-0 up inside 29 minutes. This allowed Brentford to glide to an effortless 3-1 eventual scoreline and Thomas Frank able to make early substitutions to save the legs of some players for Tuesday night, these included Mbeumo who scored two of the three goals.

Thomas Frank when now looking ahead to the Newcastle United match, has had this to say:

“There are a lot of players in our [Brentford] team who dream big and want to go to the Premier League, one way or another.

“Newcastle are a massive club.

“There are still a few other clubs that are a tiny bit bigger than us in the mix but we will be doing absolutely everything to win the game [on Tuesday night].

“We always want to win but Newcastle are massive favourites.

“So we can go out and play free and play forward and attack.”

Hmmm, Thomas Frank not altogether honest there.

Newcastle United ‘massive favourites’….I don’t think so.

A quick look at the prices generally available from the bookies and you will see Brentford are the clear favourites at 7/5 to win in 90 minutes, whilst Newcastle you can get a little higher than 2/1.

The moods of the two camps couldn’t be any more different going into the quarter-final.

Newcastle having played the three promoted sides in the space of the last week and not impressing against any of them, lucky to win with a late goal at home to West Brom, hammered by Leeds, then totally outplayed by Fulham until VAR and the referee intervened just after an hour with that penalty and red card lifeline, even then though Fulham were the more enterprising side with 10 men and came closest to getting a winner.

Brentford have now moved into fourth, only three points off automatic promotion, haven’t lost a game since 24 October and have only lost three of their 23 games in all competitions this season.

In the League Cup they have already beaten Southampton, West Brom and Fulham, hammering the Cottagers 3-0 to reach the last eight.

On top of that they have Ivan Toney, the former Newcastle striker desperate to show his old club they were wrong to let him go, the top scorer in the Championship with 16 goals and whilst he didn’t score on Saturday he got his third assist of the season, meaning he has been directly involved in 19 goals in 20 Championship appearances this season at a rate of a goal or assist every 91 minutes.

With the clueless and negative tactics continuing under Steve Bruce, even at home against relegation favourites (Fulham with 66% possession first half on Saturday), Newcastle fans will expect more of the same on Tuesday night.

For Thomas Frank and his Brentford team and fans, they will be so up for this. Indeed it will be Newcastle fans hoping to be shocked, with both attacking football and a semi-final place, as the odds are with Brentford.

Brentford have a four day break before facing Cardiff on Saturday, whilst for Steve Bruce there is now the daunting prospect of a very tough three matches over an eight day stretch.

Having struggled so badly against the three promoted clubs and playing so negatively, Newcastle fans dreading the prospects of facing Man City, Liverpool and Leicester (upcoming games detailed below), the corresponding fixtures last season seeing United lose all three and concede 11 goals, scoring only one.

A confidence boosting win over Brentford is much needed, here’s hoping it can be delivered.

Tuesday 22 December

Brentford v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 26 December

Man City v Newcastle (8pm) BT Sport

Wednesday 30 December

Liverpool v Newcastle (8pm) – Amazon Prime 

Sunday 3 January 

Newcastle v Leicester (2.15pm) Sky Sports

Tuesday 5 January / Wednesday 6 January

***If Newcastle beat Brentford, their League Cup semi-final would be played on one of these nights.

Saturday 9 January 

Arsenal v Newcastle (FA Cup third round) – (5.30pm) BBC1

Tuesday 12 January 

Sheffield Utd v Newcastle(6pm) Sky Sports

Monday 18 January 

Arsenal v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Weekend of Saturday 23 January

FA Cup fourth round weekend

Tuesday 26 January

Newcastle v Leeds (6pm) BT Sport

Saturday 30 January 

Everton v Newcastle (12.30pm) BT Sport

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