I went to Brentford v Stoke today as my mate had a spare freebie.
Apart from Ollie Watkins, I wasn't familiar with anyone in the Brentford team, although Dalsgaard played for Denmark in the World Cup while Stoke had Butland in goal, Ryan Shawcross, Joe Allen, Sam Clucas, Tom Ince, Saido Berahino and Benik Afobe in their team. But that meant nothing as Stoke mustered two measly shots all game, one went in and Brentford outclassed them in all departments, had 16 shots and won easily 3-1. It could easily have been more. Crouchy came on with 10 mins to go but was too little too late.
Briefly then, Brentford are a very young and athletic team, play with pace and directness and if they put out a similar team against us, we would find it very difficult to cope with the speed and accuracy of their passing and movement. Their main man is central midfielder Romaine Sawyers who was simply outstanding. He directed everything, he controlled everything and he created everything. His languid style reminded me of Dwayne Lee, only a million times better. He's a superb player and one to watch out for. They play a 3-5-1-1 formation with Watkins behind Maupay up front. He's scored 15 this season but was a bit isolated today.
I'd be surprised if Brentford made many changes against us but even their subs who came looked equally as lively as the ones they replaced. We are going to have to play our AAA game to beat them, I honestly think their pace, movement, speed and accuracy of their passing will be too much for us. They looked a very useful outfit but as we know, anything can happen in the Cup and not taking anything away from the Sheff U game, but they made ten changes and suffered for it, I don't think Brentford will do the same, so expect a very tough game.