Brentford boss Thomas Frank reacts to disappointing draw and snubs Club World Cup - audio fixed
06/04/2025
Gtech Stadium, London, UK
06/04/2025
Gtech Stadium, London, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00He said he thought his team deserved to win. I wonder if he thought maybe your team deserved to win?
00:07I guess we are all slightly biased as coaches and we definitely look at our side of the elephant.
00:17It's probably difficult to look from the other side of the elephant unless you are on top of it.
00:22I felt we performed well and I felt that we were clearly on top first half.
00:29We definitely got momentum, had better opportunities and probably should have scored.
00:33I thought second half were more even. They were a bit more on the ball.
00:37I thought throughout the game we defended very well.
00:42We limited Chelsea to half a chance for James on a corner.
00:48The rest for me were shots outside the box which we were quite happy with.
00:54Then I thought we were really good to go behind them and run at them.
01:00For me, maybe I'm slightly biased, I saw five very good chances to us.
01:06If you look at the big chances, then probably up there for that.
01:11The whizzer header, the dumps chance, the Brian shot on a transition, the keen free header on a set piece
01:21and of course Sepp's big header.
01:23I think it should have been a winner, I think it should have been us.
01:26I thought it was an even game, a good game between two teams.
01:30Very happy with our performance against a top club.
01:33Spent a few quid on players over the last year or two and a good manager and a good coach.
01:40I was listening to you there and you said you defended well,
01:43but maybe in the second half attacking in general was more difficult.
01:47Do you wish you had maybe more options on the bench?
01:51No, I think that's spot on.
01:54If you look at OK quality players they put on the pitch, I think it's called Neto from Wolves, 50-60 million.
02:03Paul Palmer, maybe one of the best tens in the division. Jackson, done brilliantly for them.
02:07And what did the Gorilla, one more?
02:10I think it's fair to say they had a little bit more to shoot with than us.
02:14We have that in our squad, unfortunately some of them are injured.
02:17I think again if we had something to shoot with I think maybe they would have tipped it even more.
02:21You said it was unfair that Chelsea had to play Thursday, a quick turnaround.
02:27When they're unable to make changes, like Maderweire comes in,
02:30you have much sympathy for that?
02:40I think that must be his opinion.
02:46It's football, I know there are many games and a big programme,
02:51but I can just look from our perspective.
02:56We try to deal with it when we have short turnarounds.
03:00Do you think 24 hours makes a difference?
03:03I think it does. To be fair to that, I think it does.
03:06But that happens all the time.
03:12Once this season I felt we were the team that had the least rest between games
03:17before we played our quarter-final against Newcastle,
03:20and the furthest away of all the other bigger clubs.
03:23So that definitely got bigger squads.
03:26That was the only time I raced it, because I don't think it was fair.
03:29All of them had one more day. So I think the 24 hours means something.
03:32If we have two days between, we'll deal with it, we'll manage, no problem.
03:36Three days, that's good. Always, that's not a problem.
03:41Then there's a bigger talk about the amount of games over a year.
03:45Not for us.
03:48But if we play a lot in Europe and go far in the Cups and all that,
03:52and need to play the Club World Cup, which is still ridiculous in my opinion,
03:56then I don't understand it too much.
04:00Can I dwell on that? Why is the Club World Cup ridiculous?
04:03It's just another tournament.
04:06So how many wants the Club World Cup? Do you want it?
04:10I don't. Chelsea do.
04:14It's one of the few, I think.
04:17Will you watch it?
04:19Me? No. I'll enjoy my summer. I'll not watch it, no chance.
04:23Does it ruin the competitive balance as well?
04:27There's going to be two clubs in the Premier League with over 100 million in extra.
04:31Does that concern you?
04:34I think from my point of view and where we are,
04:37we can't really compete with that sort of money.
04:41The good bit is that we can compete out here.
04:44So that's something I'm very proud of,
04:47even though they have hundreds of millions more to spend than us.
04:50And if I should say one thing I said, I think we were closer to winning than they were.
04:54Which I'm very proud of.
04:57You're so positive.
05:00I was about to say.
05:03I understand why you have to ask the question,
05:06because you haven't won in eight games.
05:09Of course, it's definitely a stat I prefer not to have.
05:12The same way we couldn't win in the beginning of the season away from home.
05:15We won five on a bounce.
05:18Sometimes it goes up and down.
05:21Sometimes it's more consistently over a season.
05:24I think it's a good thing.
05:27I think it's a good thing.
05:30Sometimes it goes up and down.
05:33Sometimes it's more consistently over a season.
05:36Sometimes it's not.
05:39But it's down to our performances, which we always look at.
05:42I think we've been really consistent in performance throughout this season.
05:45We just played two good games against two good teams, Newcastle and Chelsea.
05:48Everybody expects to fight for the Champions League spot.
05:51Both games should easily have won.
05:54Which I'm very, very proud of.
05:57I think we performed more than well enough to win.
06:00Same against Everton, same against Tottenham.
06:03I can't remember the other games we just played there.
06:06It's just games that we couldn't edge.
06:09With Sepp Van Den Berg and Nathan Collins,
06:12they've come back in as a centre-back partnership.
06:15How good was it to be able to have them two playing together?
06:18I think they looked good before Sepp got injured.
06:21I think they're a really good, interesting partnership.
06:24I think they performed well today.
06:27How do they complement each other?
06:33I think sometimes it's relationship between the two of them.
06:37I think they're very good to communicate and, how can you say,
06:41guide each other, which is a big thing in the middle of the pitch.
06:46Obviously, Michael Kovac came on today.
06:49He said he wanted something a little bit more different from right-back.
06:53I wondered what you made of this.
06:55Fine. Solid. Good. Happy.
07:00Just on the wider subject of the calendar,
07:03do you think it is affecting football negatively now?
07:06Do you find it when you play teams who have been in Europe?
07:09There's a lot of talk about how this Premier League season
07:12is beginning to feel a little bit flatter.
07:17I don't know what the right thing is, what is the perfect calendar.
07:24But the intensity in football goes up, Premier League, European football,
07:30and there's no doubt there is a limit to how good you can perform
07:36or at what intensity you can keep performing at over a year.
07:41That will affect performances. That will affect players.
07:45That will give more injuries.
07:48Do we need bigger squads then or not?
07:50Or do we need to find a better calendar? I don't know.
07:52One thing for sure, we can't keep adding, adding, adding, adding.
07:55It doesn't work.
07:58Do you feel a bit disrespected that Chelsea missed out on their attack today?
08:06No. I guess they got their reasons.
08:09Did you look at the team sheet?
08:12No, I think...
08:17I think Mkunku is a very good player.
08:22Giusperi Hall is a very good player.
08:24They played James and Gustaf instead of Coccarella.
08:28Thorsen is just a strong squad.
08:31I think it fits with what we talked about.
08:33There's a lot of games. You need to try to balance your team.
08:37I haven't asked him, but I guess that's what he tries to do.