Match Preview: Leicester City v Brentford | OneFootball

Brentford will be seeking a fourth away Premier League win in a row when they travel to Leicester City on Friday evening (8pm kick-off GMT).

After victories at Southampton and Crystal Palace, the Bees beat West Ham United 1-0 at London Stadium last weekend.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know before the game at King Power Stadium.

Pre-match analysis

Richard Cole, Playmaker Stats: Foxes must not be underestimated despite recent form

Brentford will look to continue their positive away form when they head to King Power Stadium to take on Leicester City.

For the first half of the season, the Bees just couldn't buy an away win no matter how much their performances deserved one. In typical London bus fashion, three victories on the road have now come along all at once.

This is in fact the first time Brentford have ever won three away league games in a row in the Premier League and the first time the Bees have won a trio of away league matches since beating Preston North End, Bournemouth and Bristol City towards the end of the 2020/21 Championship promotion-winning campaign.

Should Brentford grab all three points on Friday, then it would be four away league wins in a row for the first time since defeating Exeter City, Walsall, Wycombe and Oldham in League One early in the 2011/12 season.

Leicester are currently on a tough run of five successive home defeats in which they have conceded 11 goals and scored zero – Ruud van Nistelrooy's outfit will be desperate to change that.

The numbers don't look good for Leicester right now, and their goal struggles are not helped by them having the fewest shots on target (72) in the Premier League this season. They are also the only team yet to score a goal on the counter attack.

But, of course, the Foxes aren't to be underestimated despite their form in recent weeks. Denmark international full-back Victor Kristiansen ranks fifth for crosses into the area (16), something the Brentford backline will need to be ready to repel.

Kristiansen also ranks sixth in the top flight for combined tackles and interceptions (98) and eighth for dribblers tackled (35).

James Justin is another defender who has as many interceptions (33) as Christian Nørgaard but is unlikely to feature having being taken off in the first half of Saturday's defeat to Arsenal.

Going forward, Jordan Ayew is one of the league's most fouled players (41 times) and could be handy at winning set-piece situations for Leicester while Bilal El Khannouss ranks eighth for successful take-on percentage (68.8 per cent).

Then there is the perennial nuisance of Jamie Vardy. The veteran striker is his team's top scorer in the league this season with seven in total and assisted Facundo Buonanotte's goal the last time the two sides met at Gtech Community Stadium.

Buonanotte is joint-fifth for tackles in the attacking third (behind Mikkel Damsgaard who is joint-top), which is something the west Londoners will need to be cautious of, although the Argentinian has not been a regular performer in recent weeks.

Of course, in that first game between these sides earlier this season, Brentford roared back after going behind to win 4-1. Kevin Schade scored a hat-trick that day and the German was on target once again with the winner against West Ham United last time out.

Considering these two teams' contrasting form going into this game, he will be eyeing another away goal this weekend.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: The story of Leicester's season

Six days before Leicester's visit to the Gtech on 30 November, Steve Cooper was relieved of his duties as Foxes boss. The Welshman had signed a three-year deal to replace Enzo Maresca last June, but was afforded just 15 games in all competitions before the axe was swung.

Nine points from the opening eight games on the club's return to the Premier League was a respectable return, but then a stretch of five without a win - three defeats and a draw in the league and a 5-2 loss to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup fourth round - helped convince chair Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and the board that Cooper no longer featured prominently in Leicester's future plans.

Ben Dawson - who had left Newcastle to join Cooper's staff - took charge on an interim basis and led the Foxes in west London, where their misery was compounded by a 4-1 thumping at the hands of Brentford, with Kevin Schade scoring a hat-trick.

Fresh from his own caretaker spell at Manchester United, Ruud van Nistelrooy had already been appointed as Cooper's successor by this point and watched on from the stands as his new side suffered a seventh defeat of the season and third in a row.

The Dutchman got off to an ideal start at the club, with four points from his first two games after a convincing 3-1 win over West Ham and a dramatic 2-2 draw against Brighton, having been 2-0 down after 85 minutes. The two months since have been quite different, though.

Leicester are now among the favourites to be relegated from the Premier League after a run of nine defeats in the last 10. A 2-1 win at Tottenham on 26 January means they have not been cut adrift yet but, alarmingly, in those nine defeats, Van Nistelrooy's side have scored just two goals and conceded 25.

"I expected more, we were all surprised,” said Van Nistelrooy after the 4-0 loss away at Everton on 1 February. “We wanted to build on last week, it took a lot of effort to get out of the relegation zone [against Tottenham].

"It wasn't good enough today. We have to look at why it happened, we looked more solid over the past weeks and today we were open and they punished us very hard."

To keep their survival hopes alive, Leicester's run of results must improve.

In the Dugout

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy started out at Den Bosch in the mid-1990s, but it was an exquisite record of 93 goals in 140 games between 1997/98 and 2000/01 - during one season with Heerenveen and three with PSV - that earned him a move to Manchester United in the summer of 2001, which had been delayed by a year due to an ACL rupture.

Van Nistelrooy quickly became a legend at Old Trafford, with 36 goals in 49 games in his first season and 150 in 219 across five campaigns, which puts him 11th in the club's list of all-time top scorers.

During his time at United, the striker won the Premier League, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Community Shield, before he left for Real Madrid in July 2006.

He spent three full seasons at the Bernabeu and won La Liga twice, before moving on to Hamburg and finishing his career at Malaga in 2011/12.

In 2013, Van Nistelrooy returned to PSV for the first time in 12 years and started working with the club's U17s. While also having worked with the Netherlands national team, he continued at the club for a decade in various roles, which culminated in becoming head coach for the 2022/23 campaign.

He won 33 of his 51 games in charge, and lifted the KNVB Cup and Johan Cruyff Shield, but his side were pipped to the title by Feyenoord.

Van Nistelrooy resigned one match before the end of the season and it was not until July 2024 that he was appointed in a new role: as an assistant to Erik ten Hag at United.

Just over three months later, his fellow Dutchman was sacked and he was thrust into the spotlight as interim head coach. In four games at the helm, Van Nistelrooy won three and drew one.

Ruben Amorim opted against keeping Van Nistelrooy at the club when he replaced Ten Hag on a permanent basis, but less than three weeks after leaving United, he was appointed manager of a Leicester on a two-and-a-half year contract.

The Gameplan

With Jordan Blackwell, Leicestershire Live

Jordan Blackwell, Leicester City reporter for Leicestershire Live, explains how the Foxes are likely to be set up to face Brentford on Friday night.

"It will be different to the shape and style that Brentford fans saw from Leicester in the away game because there was a caretaker in charge and they went for a back five," said Blackwell.

"That was the only game this season that they have played that formation!

"It will be a 4-2-3-1 shape, I think. What I can definitely say is that, fitness-dependent, it will be Wilfred Ndidi and Boubakary Soumaré as the two holding midfielders because I think Ruud van Nistelrooy wants the physicality in there.

"Bilal El Khannouss and Jamie Vardy will definitely play. With the wingers, it could be any two or four depending on what they are feeling on any given day.

"In terms of style of play, they do like to get it down and play if they can. Particularly being at home, Leicester will want to do that, so I think they will look to play confidently and try and dominate the ball.

"I think that is the only way Van Nistelrooy really feels comfortable with. When they play on the counter, which they do occasionally, I think there is a sense that they would prefer to be having the ball, but the counter is the next best option."

Last Premier League starting XI v Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen; Ndidi, Soumaré; Reid, El Khannouss, Ayew; Vardy

Read the full interview with Jordan Blackwell here

Team News

Frank delivers 'positive' van den Berg update

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank provided an update on Sepp van den Berg ahead of the Bees’ Premier League game against Leicester.

The defender, who has made 25 appearances for the club since signing from Liverpool last summer, limped off during the 1-0 win over West Ham United last time out.

“Sepp got a minor knee injury,” Frank revealed.

“It’s good news. You’re always a little bit worried with the knee, but it’s a minor one and we’re talking about weeks instead of months.

“How many weeks, it depends on how quick he is recovering.

“Straight after the game I was hoping it was a minor one, so I’d say it’s as positive as it can be.”

Josh Dasilva (knee), Rico Henry (hamstring), Aaron Hickey (hamstring), Gustavo Nunes (back) and Igor Thiago (joint infection) remain sidelined.

Match Officials

Harrington in charge for another Bees away clash

Referee: Tony Harrington

Assistants: Scott Ledger and Sian Massey-Ellis

Fourth official: Dean Whitestone

VAR: Craig Pawson

Tony Harrington will be the man in the middle for Friday night's Premier League game at Leicester.

The Yorkshire-born referee was in charge of the Bees' 2-1 win at Crystal Palace in January and has had the whistle for 12 further top-flight fixtures this term.

Harrington oversaw a 1-1 draw between Cardiff City and Bristol City in the Championship last weekend and handed out two yellow cards to each side.

Last Meeting

Brentford 4 Leicester City 1 (Premier League, 30 November 2024)

Kevin Schade netted a hat-trick as Brentford secured a 4-1 victory against Leicester City at Gtech Community Stadium.

Facundo Buonanotte put the Foxes in front on 21 minutes but the Bees took next to no time in restoring parity as Yoane Wissa finished off a well-worked move.

Four minutes after levelling the game, Schade - who also got the assist for Wissa's equaliser - put the west Londoners in front with his first Premier League goal of the season.

The German dinked in his second and Brentford's third in first-half stoppage-time before slotting in to complete the scoring with just under an hour played.