Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Malik Ouzia

Brentford banking on Kevin Schade pace to provide edge in race for Europe

Should they continue their excellent form, it will not be long before Brentford are being talked about in the conversation for Europe.

Thomas Frank’s Bees are eighth and will fancy their chances of extending their unbeaten run in the Premier League to nine matches when they host bottom side Southampton tomorrow.

After a battling 0-0 draw against Leeds at Elland Road last time out, Brentford have enjoyed a two-week break and will be hoping to pick up where they left off.

They have not tasted defeat in the League since October and strengthened an already well-rounded squad in January with the signing of Kevin Schade, who joined on loan from Freiburg ahead of a £21million permanent move in the summer.

Schade has made two substitute appearances since arriving and Brentford director of football Phil Giles believe that the speedy forward will help the team build on their strong start.

“The strategy for a while has been to add a bit of pace and power to the squad,” said Giles. “We looked at that once we got promoted, we wanted to add a bit of that.

“I think we added a lot of power, we needed a bit more pace, so that was the key thing. We looked at it last summer as well.

“There was a player who went to Chelsea [Mykhailo Mudryk] that we looked at, that was quite well known, and we also looked at Kevin Schade last summer as well.

“He carried an injury into the season, so we didn’t get that done in the summer, but we followed that through the World Cup break and looked to conclude that pretty early in January, so that was a really good start to the window for us.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.