Correlation FC

Thomas Frank's first 300 games with Brentford

Thomas Frank and team celebrate their wet victory over Crystal Palace

Thomas Frank recently completed his 300th game in charge of Brentford. Obviously the major success during that period the Bees getting promoted to the Premier League after back-to-back seasons near the top of the Championship.

We've looked at the data and found a few interesting stories in the data along the way.

Frank's formations over the years

Frank has changed his team's starting formations many times over the years. He also uses personnel and formation changes during a game to change the nature of the game.

When the Bees were dominant in the Championship, Frank leaned heavily on a Back 4, often a 4-3-3 leaning on a mix of Saïd Benrahma, Ollie Watkins, Bryan Mbeumo, Sergi Canós and Ivan Toney as part of his front three.

In the Premier League, Frank relied more on a Back 5 to provide more defensive support, particularly in their first season 2021-22 and in later seasons either when injuries struck or they were playing against top opponents. Keys to the back 5 have been central defenders such as Ethan Pinnock, Pontus Jansson, Ben Mee and Nathan Collins and a variety of full backs and versatile forwards filling the wide positions.

Frank's first 20 games in charge

The Christmas season of 2018 was very kind to Frank and the Bees. Frank and the Bees only won once in the first 10 games after Frank took over from Dean Smith. During that time, he continued to use the 4-2-3-1 formation that Smith had used. For the 22nd of December home match vs Bolton, Frank switched to a back 5, with BWM (Benrahma, Watkins and Maupay) up front for scoring muscle. Brentford won the game 1-0 on a goal from Maupay, and went on a 10 game unbeaten streak. In the 10 game before the change, Brentford averaged 1.3 goals for per game and 2.0 goals against. After the change they scored an average of 2.2 per game, giving up only 1.1 – the change seemed to bring about improvement at both ends of the pitch, and Frank kept the Back 5 for the remainder of the season.

The captains

Frank has had a number of captains over his tenure. Initially, he leaned on Romaine Sawyers and Henrik Dalsgaard. Pontus Jansson took the helm after he joined for the 2019-20 season. It was Jansson who famously captained the Bees in their promotion season and first two seasons in the Premier League. Of course injuries and cup matches lead to others getting a chance as well. Here are all of the players who have worn the armband for Thomas's Bees.

Captain's position impact results

Looking at the positions that Frank's captains play, it's clear that he's leaned on defenders and midfielders the most. However, the few times he's chosen a goalkeeper, the team has done remarkably well. In fact, David Raya was undefeated (4 wins, 2 draws) in his six matches as captain.