Brentford vs Spurs | Ben's one to watch, Rob's tactical analysis | OneFootball

The boys are back! N17 matchday presenter Ben Haines and Club commentator Rob Daly will bring their expertise to the table again in 2023/24 with a new preview feature - Ben will pick his player(s) to watch, while Rob will talk us through what he expects to see tactically for every game.

First up, our Premier League curtain-raiser at Brentford...

Ben's one to watch...

Right, my players to watch... if I can be cheeky on week one and pick out one from both sides!

I’ll start with the opposition. There's no getting away from it, we had a tough time in our final home game of last season, which was against Brentford. For those who haven’t completely erased it from memory, Bryan Mbeumo was in incredible form that day. He’s pacey, has a brilliant low centre of gravity which he can use to devastating effect when driving past players and a wonderful positional sense, drifting in from wide areas to make runs between defenders. On top of that he’s a very competent finisher - the two goals he scored that day were wonderfully taken. With no Ivan Toney leading the line for the foreseeable future for Brentford a big burden will fall on Mbeumo, who will most likely have to go a step further than his impressive 17 goal contributions in the league last season.

For Spurs in Premier League match week one - like so many other fans, I can’t wait to watch James Maddison.

We’ve got such a rich history of brilliant creative players finding space in dangerous areas to unlock defences - Hoddle, van der Vaart, Gazza, Modric, Eriksen, Dele to name a few. Madders seems to be another flawless fit in that bracket. His technique is one thing, his work rate is undeniably brilliant too and his confidence is a massive asset as well. I think he could be a real gem for us this season and at the heart of a lot of what we do going forward.

I'm so excited for the start of the season - #COYS!

Rob's analysis...

"Tactically, I think we can expect the usual Brentford 3-5-2 or 4-3-3, it's mainly been 4-3-3 in pre-season, and Yoane Wissa, Thomas Frank has said, will likely play as his striker at the moment with Ivan Toney out. He feels that Wissa is the profile of player who can best play as centre forward. They will be happy to concede possession, Brentford aren't too worried about having the ball, but then they can play with it as well, which makes them such a difficult and unpredictable team to play against. They are a threat from set pieces - they scored 18 goals from set pieces last season, the most in the Premier League, jointly with Liverpool - and they beat Manchester City home and away last season. Toney is a massive loss. In their pre-season games, I feel they've missed that focal point, because they have such good delivery from wide areas. Saying that, they looked really good at the back end of last season with Bryan Mbeumo and Wissa as the front two. We'll see what Frank does, but it's normally 4-3-3. In terms of new signings, Mark Flekken is a near-identical goalkeeper profile to David Raya, you can see why they've signed him from Freiburg in the Bundesliga, likes to play out from the back, he did have a couple of shaky moments in pre-season, so let's see if Spurs can press him. Overall, Flekken seems to have settled into the Brentford style of playing, it's not just about playing it short and being brave, it's also being really accurate with diagonal passes up the pitch, as well. I also like the signing of Nathan Collins from Wolves. I was surprised he lost his place at Molineux last season because I believe he's one of the best young defenders in the Premier League, a massive hope for Irish football, and I've been impressed with him not only when Wolves have played Spurs, but also when Burnley played Spurs at the back end of the 2021/22 season. I think Brentford have improved and it's a tricky opening game of the season, but I've loved watching Ange Postecoglou's Spurs so far, and they will be a completely different proposition for Brentford this time around."