Brentford’s draws are frustrating but not a cause for alarm
Brentford have drawn five of their opening eight Premier League games this season.
That follows eight draws in their final 13 matches of last season – a run of 13 stalemates in 21 league games.
So why are the Bees finding it so hard to turn draws into wins?
Journalist and Brentford fan Ian Westbrook gives his view.
Brentford go into Saturday’s game with Nottingham Forest sitting comfortably in sixth place in the Premier League table.
The Bees have only lost once in their opening eight games of the season, but have become the competition’s draw specialists.
They have already drawn five times so far this campaign after ending last season with eight draws from their final 13 matches – to make a total of 13 stalemates from their last 21 Premier League games going back to mid-February.
We have won four and drawn four of the other matches, and while being difficult to beat is clearly a positive factor, failing to finish off games could prove costly – as it did last season when we missed out on European competition on goal difference.
It is hard to pinpoint why this is happening from watching games and by looking at the league table.
The Bees are the fourth-highest scorers in this season’s Premier League, with 14 goals – and have found the net in every match – while only five teams in the division have conceded fewer than our nine goals.
It would be easy to point to Igor Thiago’s drop-off in goalscoring. The Brazilian has only scored once in the league this season and, after scoring 17 goals in the opening 25 games of the last campaign, he hit only five goals in those closing 13 matches.
But it is not all down to him, especially as he is making goals and he is also one of 10 different players to find the net in the Premier League this season.
Some of last season’s draws could be put down to the injury crisis which left Keith Andrews reluctant to make substitutions at times, as he had a bench full of youngsters.
However, that has not been the case this season, with Brentford’s strength in depth more impressive than for many years.
It could simply be that several teams in the league are so similar in quality that they are cancelling each other out. Three of this season’s five draws seemed like the right result, and in the other two, it felt like we had got out of jail and rescued a point in games we could have lost.
Andrews has tried to win games late on – pairing Thiago and Callum Wilson up front in the closing stages at both Aston Villa and Hull in an effort to turn one point into three, rather than swapping one for the other and trying to hold on for a point – and he should be applauded for that.
And ultimately it may not be the worst thing in the world to keep on picking up a point in every game. After all, Bournemouth drew 18 games last season, finished sixth and are now beating teams like AC Milan.
So while it is frustrating not to have won more, it would be more concerning if we were losing every week.
