End-of-season analysis: The incredible numbers behind Brentford's prolific attack | OneFootball

The paint is drying on Brentford's polished 2024/25 Premier League campaign, and Playmaker's final word on a prolific and exciting season has been neatly bundled into a series of stat summaries; the first of which focuses on the west Londoners' explosive form in front of goal.

Rather remarkably, in hindsight, there were question marks surrounding Brentford as an attacking force in the Premier League going into the season.

England international Ivan Toney had moved on to Al-Ahli last summer, and his intended replacement Igor Thiago suffered a meniscus injury in pre-season to throw an unexpected spanner in the works.

Undeterred, head coach Thomas Frank crafted an attacking shape that played to his side’s strengths, and Brentford incredibly finished the season as the joint-fifth most prolific team in the top flight (only Newcastle United, Arsenal, Manchester City and champions Liverpool outscored them).

The trio of Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade took the division by storm, as the Bees plundered a club record tally of 66 Premier League goals - with the mercurial Mikkel Damsgaard supplying the bullets behind them.

Before we dive into the stats of that exciting Brentford quartet, let’s review some of the Bees’ best attacking numbers from 2024/25.

High-quality chance creation; ruthless finishing

Brentford’s bumper goal haul last season saw them lead several attacking metrics, underscoring their smart and clinical approach in the final third.

That said, Brentford’s shooting data last season looks distinctly unremarkable at first glance. The Bees ranked 15th in the division for shots taken (434) and shots-per-90 (11.4).

Frank’s side actually fired off 36 fewer shots overall than they did in the 2023/24 season, when they scored a dozen fewer goals (54).

The key difference between 2024/25 and its predecessor, however, was how accurate and ruthless Brentford were in their opponents’ box.

An outstanding stat in this regard relates to the Bees’ shot-on-target percentage of 40 per cent in the Premier League last season, which was by far the best in the division.

To give this some context, Manchester United actually took 90 shots more (524) than Brentford (434) last season, but while the Red Devils only hit the target with 168 of their efforts, Frank’s side (173 on target) were far more accurate and ultimately ended the campaign with 24 more goals than Ruben Amorim’s men (42).

The Bees took their shots closer to goal (14.9 yards) on average than any team in the top tier and only three teams in the Premier League (Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Arsenal) outperformed their expected goals by more than Brentford (+6.0), whose aerial prowess saw them score the most headers (14) in the division.

Now, as promised, let’s hone in on the individuals who spearheaded Brentford’s groundbreaking season.

Kevin Schade

As the season progressed, Brentford’s formidable attacking duo of Mbeumo and Wissa morphed into a free-scoring trio as German international Schade gatecrashed the party.

In fact, the Bees were one of only four teams to see three players each reach 10+ Premier League goals last season, alongside Liverpool (Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo), Brighton (João Pedro, Danny Welbeck and Kaoru Mitoma) and Bournemouth (Justin Kluivert, Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson).

The jet-heeled forward had to wait to open his account but, after netting in a Carabao Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday in October, the 23-year-old made the Premier League sit up and take notice with a hat-trick against Leicester the following month.

Schade's electric display against the Foxes saw him also bag an assist to join an exclusive group of players to rack up four goal involvements in a single Premier League game in 2024/25 (plus Chelsea's Cole Palmer (two), Salah and Kluivert).

The former Freiburg forward’s exceptional ability in the air saw him rank 14th for headers won across the entire Premier League and, in fact, Raúl Jiménez, Paul Onuachu and Chris Wood were the only forwards to win more aerial duels than the Brentford flyer (90) last season.

Fantastic at attacking the ball in the box, Schade was clinical in his finishing (with a goals-per-shot ratio of 0.20) and offered genuine cutting edge from open play: all but one of his 11 top-flight goals last term came from live situations.

Yoane Wissa

Wissa’s formidable strike partnership with Mbeumo was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the season, and the duo's strong bond on and off the pitch was clear for all to see.

Mbeumo (20) may have finished a goal ahead of Wissa (19) in the Premier League goal charts but, if you factor out goals from the penalty spot, only Liverpool's runaway Player of the Season Salah (20) outscored Wissa (19).

Head coach Frank has often touched upon the importance of his team adding layers to their game - and Wissa has certainly been a keen student in this regard.

After netting a dozen goals in the 2023/24 season from open play, the DR Congo international remained electric from fluid attacking situations while developing an uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time in set-piece scenarios.

In fact, Wissa (six) scored more Premier League goals from free-kicks, corners and throw-ins than any other player last term, with his poacher's instincts underlined by the fact that only Newcastle's Alexander Isak (eight) notched more goals inside the six-yard box than Brentford's 28-year-old (seven).

Sharp, tenacious and ruthless in front of goal, Wissa ranked in the top five players in the division for shots on target (41), and his ability to sniff out chances and make them count was essential to Brentford's ground-breaking goal tally.

Mikkel Damsgaard

Voted Brentford's Supporters' Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year, Damsgaard enjoyed a glorious 2024/25 season to vanquish any frustrations he may have harboured in relation to his slow-burning start to life in TW8.

After only 1816 minutes of Premier League game time during his first two seasons in west London, Damsgaard clocked up just shy of 3000 top-flight minutes last term, and notably featured in every game the Bees played across all competitions.

A mercurial presence in Brentford's midfield, the Dane's ability to receive the ball under pressure and thread passes in the final third provided the Bees with a weapon they had arguably lacked since their Premier League adventure began - and the 24-year-old posted some phenomenal stats.

Only three players (Salah, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Elanga) racked up more Premier League assists than Damsgaard (10), who laid on four goals via through-balls - more than any other player in the division - and the 24-year-old also ranked joint-seventh in the top tier for key passes (63).

Also in the top 20 of top-flight players for successful dribbles, with 50, Damsgaard's numbers shed light on the deceptive intensity in his work off the ball.

The Dane won more tackles (83) than any Brentford player in 2024/25, a Premier League high 27 of them in the attacking third, and Damsgaard also topped the charts for the Bees for passes blocked (37).

Bryan Mbeumo

At just 25, Mbeumo stepped confidently out of Toney’s shadow, firing 20 Premier League goals for the first time in his career, thereby joining his old strike partner as one of only two Brentford players ever to reach that milestone.

The Cameroon international (20 goals and seven assists) finished the season as the third-most productive player in the Premier League, behind only Salah and Isak, and the sheer quality of his finishing was highlighted by his over-performance of +6.79 against his expected goals data.

In xG terms, Mbeumo should, by rights, have scored only 13.21 goals last season!

Mbeumo offers so much more than goals, however, and the winger ranked fifth in the top tier for key passes made, with 70, while also ranking narrowly outside the Premier League top 10 for successful dribbles (52).

There are few better out balls in the Premier League than Mbeumo, which is illustrated by the fact that only Salah (488) received more progressive passes than the Brentford man (351) last season and only the Premier League Player of the Year, Kai Havertz, and Ipswich Town's Liam Delap scored more goals via counter attacks than Mbeumo (three) last term.

What a season he and his attacking team-mates enjoyed.