It was a difficult afternoon at Anfield for Brentford yesterday as they went down to a 3-0 defeat against Liverpool.
The Bees looked like going into the break on level terms, but were struck very late on when Fabinho got the better of Kristoffer Ajer to head the Reds into the lead.
Bryan Mbeumo had a glorious opportunity to level proceedings in the second half, and that proved to bite Brentford big time as Liverpool sealed victory with goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Takumi Minamino.
football.London looks at the talking points from a tough lesson on Merseyside.
Sucker punch before the break
The Bees were dominated by the Reds for the vast majority of the first half, with Trent Alexander-Arnold a revelation at right-back even though Rico Henry did do very well against him having come back from injury.
For all of the domination by Jurgen Klopp's side, it appeared Brentford would go into half-time on level terms before Fabinho headed home the Reds' opener. It deflated the Bees and gave the Reds a massive sigh of relief.
Time for Lössl?
It was another torrid afternoon for Alvaro Fernandez, although he did make a number of key saves to deny Liverpool an empathetic victory. However, many Brentford fans are frustrated with the Spaniard's distribution and his tendency to let in cheap goals, like Minamino's after the Bees made a hash playing out from the back in embarrassing fashion.
Many fans just aren't convinced with Fernandez so far, and that could pave the way for Jonas Lössl to start. Whether Frank chooses to do so, especially against Manchester United, is another matter but the Dane will feel his chance surely has to come sooner rather than later.
Time to invest
Brentford need new blood in order to refresh the squad. It's important they do so to avoid getting sucked into a relegation battle, and the potential signing of Christian Eriksen would solve their creativity problems hugely, although the Dane would need time to settle in after a long time without playing assuming he does sign.
They also need to recruit a right-wing back to challenge Mads Roerslev, who has certainly risen to the plate. Signing a new right-back would lead to Fin Stevens leaving on loan, the 18-year-old is highly rated at the club and could do with game-time somewhere else.
Another player who needs to leave on loan is Marcus Forss - the Finn has only played six Premier League games so far and he doesn't seem to have Thomas Frank's trust at the moment. Brentford signing a forward would mean that Forss can leave on loan to play regular football and challenge for a place next season.
