Brentford manager, Thomas Frank has revealed that he is anticipating a “difficult” test for his Bees at Manchester United.
Brentford will visit Man Utd at Old Trafford in a rearranged match on Wednesday (5 April), with just one loss in their last 15 league matches and beat Utd 4-0 at home in August with first-half goals from Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo.
Frank’s Bees also currently sit seventh in the Premier League and a win at Old Trafford would move them to within four points of United and a potential Champions League spot, having lost 3-0 away to Utd last season.
“We are potentially going into the most difficult game of the season, with everything taken into consideration”, commented Frank on the task ahead for his Bees as they chase a possible European qualification spot in just their second Premier League campaign.
Frank though iterated that Utd are in a better place than when they lost at Brentford in August, as he added: “We are going away to the biggest away ground, with those fans, against a very good side that are much more stable.
“Erik ten Hag and his staff have done a very good job. They’ve just won their first trophy and they’re fighting for a Champions League spot.
“They lost [on Sunday] so they will want to bounce back. Plus, we beat them last time, so they’ll doubly want to bounce back.
“And they’re a very good team with top players.”
Frank also admitted that he expects Utd to “come flying out and fighting for every single ball” with “unbelievable determination” to be on top of all aspects of the game given their quality even without Casemiro who is suspended for the match.
Frank’s Bees though can take heart from their clinical display in a 3-3 draw at Brighton but hasn’t ruled out causing a shock, as he continued: “It will be difficult but, of course, we believe in ourselves that we can do something.”
Reflecting on the memories of their win over Utd earlier this season, Frank described the result as “a very, very good win in the history of Brentford,” but iterated that he does expect “a completely different game” this time round
Frank also stated that his players can’t use that win as a base to play upon at Old Trafford, as he concluded: “But that’s history, we can’t use that for anything on Wednesday night. That was a completely different game.”
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