The Brentford squad for the 2024/25 season will want to greatly improve on their 16th-placed last time out - and they're already off to a great start.
With the west London side limping over the finish line last season, it would have been easy to wilt under the pressure of a revitalised Crystal Palace thanks to Oliver Glasner, but they came out on top.
The Bees’ 2023/24 season was blighted by a ludicrous number of long-term injuries, so this time around the main objective will be to get the strongest possible team out on the pitch as often as possible.
Ivan Toney’s long-mooted departure finally arrived, rather surprisingly to Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Ahli, so new striker Igor Thiago will be tasked with leading the line - though an injury setback will delay that from happening.
As a result, Thomas Frank has turned to the likes of Mikkel Damsgaard, Kevin Schade and the other young guns in his squad in the hope they can establish themselves as consistent Premier League performers. However, it is Bryan Mbeumo, already well adjusted to picking up the slack in Toney’s absence, who has been the key man to turn to, with three goals from his first three outings, including a brace against Southampton.
Inventive attacking set-pieces have been a Brentford trademark for a while now. Keith Andrews, who has been tasked with replacing Bernardo Cueva after the squad’s tactical statistician headed to Chelsea, will also need a strong start. One set-piece goal in the first three for Brentford is a decent introduction.
It turns out, though, that defending is also quite important… Brentford’s success in their first two seasons in the Premier League was built on an impressive defensive record, but suddenly the Bees’ backline became leakier than a sieve with a hole in it.
The aforementioned injury curse was a big reason for this, however other contributing factors can’t be ignored. Goalkeeper Mark Flekken and defender Nathan Collins both endured shaky starts to their Bees’ careers, and an ongoing failure to defend crosses into the box saw an eye-watering 30 points dropped from winning positions. Frank’s side are yet to keep a clean sheet in the new campaign, suggesting there is work still to be done.
Brentford squad for 2024/25
Brentford squad for 2024/25: Thomas Frank's full team
- GK: Mark Flekken
- GK: Matthew Cox
- GK: Hakon Valdimarsson
- DF: Aaron Hickey
- DF: Rico Henry
- DF: Sepp van den Berg
- DF: Kim Ji-soo
- DF: Ethan Pinnock
- DF: Ben Mee
- DF: Kristoffer Ajer
- DF: Nathan Collins
- DF: Jayden Meghoma
- DF: Mads Roerslev
- MF: Christian Norgaard
- MF: Mathias Jensen
- MF: Josh Dasilva
- MF: Fabio Carvalho
- MF: Yehor Yarmolyuk
- MF: Keane Lewis-Potter
- MF: Mikkel Damsgaard
- MF: Yunus Emre Konak
- MF: Vitaly Janelt
- MF: Ryan Trevitt
- MF: Paris Maghoma
- FW: Igor Thiago
- FW: Yoane Wissa
- FW: Kevin Schade
- FW: Bryan Mbuemo
- FW: Gustavo Nunes
Brentford squad numbers for 2024/25
Brentford manager
Thomas Frank
After a summer that included reported interest from Chelsea and Manchester United and a starring role in the BBC’s Euros coverage, Thomas Frank appears to be staying at the GTech for at least another season. Everyone connected to Brentford will be absolutely delighted about that.
Brentford's key player
Rico Henry
Of all Brentford’s long-term absentees last season, Rico Henry was arguably the most sorely missed. Not only is he a supreme defender, but his pace also makes him a vital component of Brentford’s attack. The Bees will be overjoyed to have him back.
One to watch
Keane Lewis-Potter
Keane Lewis-Potter has had a stop-start Brentford career since his move from Hull in 2022, but the flying winger started to shine in the second half of last season. If he can get an extended run in the side, KLP has the potential to be a real difference-maker for the Bees.
The mood
After the frustrations of last season, there’s optimism that with some new signings to freshen up the squad and better luck with injuries, the Bees will enjoy a more comfortable time of things in the coming months.
Most likely to...
Wind up the opposition. Frankly, who knows? The departing Neal Maupay was the undisputed s**thouse king in 2023/24, enjoying some memorable run-ins with Kyle Walker, James Maddison and Emi Martinez. The Frenchman has left some huge boots to fill.
Least likely to...
Be booked. Ethan Pinnock’s got the kind of impeccable timing that makes a Rolex look like a sundial. The big centre-back has only been cautioned twice in 91 EPL appearances, with just 19 fouls committed in that time to boot.
View from the stands
Billy Grant (@billythebee99)
Last season was challenging. Losing Ivan Toney to a ban at the start of the season was always going to test us, but we weathered the storm and started well. It was losing the other dozen or so players across the campaign, many of them to long-term injuries, that really screwed us. That didn’t stop us from having some fantastic moments: beating Chelsea for the third season in a row on their patch and the 5-1 annihilation of Luton were two high points. And we survived.
The big talking point is will Igor Thiago slot into Ivan Toney’s boots, assuming the latter leaves this summer? Selling players in their prime is just what we do, so it doesn’t phase fans any more. We’ve normally been quite good at replacing key playmakers – Scott Hogan, Neal Maupay, Ollie Watkins, now Toney. The lingering worry is the fact that one day we may get a big one wrong.
This season will be different because we learned how to survive in the Premier League on bare bones. Our squad players gained valuable experience they wouldn’t have got if we didn’t have the injuries. The club also realised that we can’t have a similar season and need to strengthen in a number of key areas to ensure we have more strength in depth. This could see a plethora of new faces pulling on the red and white stripes.
I won’t be happy unless we take at least four points off Fulham. Putney has been a fairly happy hunting ground for us over the past 10 seasons or so. Long may it continue.
Our key player will be Ethan Pinnock. It’s easy to say Bryan Mbeumo, who was brilliant last season when he wasn’t injured, but Pinnock is a rock at the back – we didn’t win for two months when he was out.
Our most underrated player is Vitaly Janelt. Costing 50p from Bochum, he’s the type of player you need in a squad: an unassuming midfielder who you can trust to play anywhere across the pitch. Works super hard, gets stuck in and scores some great goals too.
Look out for 23-year-old midfielder Paris Maghoma, who had a tremendous season for Bolton and won their young player of the year award.
Fans think our owner is quality. A Brentford fan through and through (he bunked off school to see us play top-flight Nottingham Forest in the League Cup back in the ’80s), Matthew Benham put a plan in place to get us to the Premier League 15 years ago and stuck to it – tweaking it here and there along the way. A clever man but also an ardent football fan. We’re very lucky to have him.
The opposition player I'd love here is Alexander Isak, as a safety valve in case Igor
Thiago suffers a slow start to life at Brentford.
The opposition player who grinds my gears is James Maddison. He’s had long-standing beef with Bees fans ever since his unnecessary inflammatory celebrations after scoring an audacious goal back in the Championship days.
The pantomime villain will be Neal Maupay. Absolutely loved by Brentford fans, absolutely hated by opposition fans and players. He’s actually a really nice bloke if you meet him, but boy does he love a wind-up.
The thing my club really gets right is finding players, signing players and giving them plenty of time to develop.
The one change I'd make would be resurrecting the monorail plans for our new stadium, which seem to have been shelved midway through the development progress – something Bees fans were always looking forward to.
Our season ticket prices are still reasonable. However, a 10 per cent rise in one season was fairly substantial and I would be concerned if the same were to happen year on year.
The fans' opinion of the gaffer is that he’s a fantastic manager who gets Brentford. He came in under Dean Smith and learned what was needed not only to take on an English team but also connect with the fans. He can be stubborn and is sometimes indecisive when making key changes, but he’s always learning and is humble enough to admit if he’s made a mistake.
We'll finish 12th.
