50 Games Under Keith Andrews: How Brentford Have Evolved

Fifty games is enough time for patterns to become clear. Keith Andrews took charge of a Brentford side that already had a strong identity, but one facing considerable change after the departure of Thomas Frank and several important players.

The question was never simply whether Andrews could keep the Bees in the Premier League. It was whether he could preserve the qualities that had made the club successful while beginning to shape the team in his own way, having wrapped up his 50th game with a 2-2 draw, the answer across his first half-century of matches is a lot clearer.

Brentford have not been reinvented per se. They remain physical, direct when the game requires it, dangerous from set-pieces and comfortable playing without dominating possession. Andrews knew the club well enough before taking the job to understand there was little value in stripping those things away.

What has happened instead has been more gradual. Twenty wins from his first 50 games have included a ninth-place Premier League finish, matching Brentford’s best since promotion, while the club remained in contention for European football until the final day of last season.

There have also been the two biggest away wins in Brentford’s League Cup history, with Grimsby Town beaten 5-0 before a 6-1 victory at Birmingham City.

The numbers are useful, but the changes underneath them tell more of the story, with one of the biggest coming from the Bees whilst off the ball.

Brentford allowed opponents around 17 shots per Premier League game in 2024/25. During Andrews’ first season as head coach that dropped to 13.3. A considerable reduction without Brentford becoming a side built around sitting deep and protecting their own box.

The midfield became more compact, the spaces opponents could attack through became smaller and Brentford were more selective over when they committed players to the press. There were still games when they were forced to defend for long periods, but opponents were generally finding it harder to play through them cleanly.

That defensive improvement was particularly important because of everything else changing around Andrews during his first summer. Mark Flekken, Christian Nørgaard, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa all left. Frank had gone too, along with several members of the coaching staff.

Mbeumo and Wissa alone had provided 39 Premier League goals in their final season together. Brentford were not going to replace that by simply finding two players capable of producing exactly the same output in exactly the same way.

Igor Thiago finally had the opportunity to establish himself as Brentford’s focal point after his first season in England had been disrupted by injury, while Kevin Schade was given greater responsibility around him.

The pace remained, but the execution has been perhaps a little different.The Bees became particularly effective when matches opened up. They scored nine goals from counter-attacks during Andrews’ first Premier League season, with only six teams across Europe’s five major leagues producing more.

Thiago could give Brentford somewhere to play into when going forward early, while runners around him had space to attack once possession changed hands. Schade increasingly became more than simply a player capable of stretching a defence, developing into somebody the Bees could expect to contribute goals as well.

His start to this season, showing exactly why they kept their trust in the winger.

Elsewhere, set-pieces have remained another obvious part of Brentford’s game, hardly surprising given Andrews’ previous role at the club, but there was never any attempt to turn his promotion into an excuse to make Brentford’s football entirely about dead-ball situations.

The Bees are still one of the strongest aerial sides in the division and continued to use direct passes more frequently than most, averaging 23.4 accurate long passes per league game last season. For some managers taking their first senior job, there might have been a temptation to make obvious changes simply to show that the team was now theirs.

Brentford still have games that become chaotic. They still look comfortable competing physically and do not need huge amounts of possession to feel in control of what they are trying to do. The evolution has come in making those existing qualities work alongside a tighter defensive structure and a slightly different attack. E

Brentford have had games where possession has been wasteful and others where they have struggled to create enough when opponents deny them space to counter into. Andrews has regularly spoken about wanting greater control with the ball, an area that still feels capable of developing further, something he wasn’t content with following the draw at Bournemouth.

The circumstances around Andrews’ appointment meant his first challenge was establishing that Brentford could remain competitive after losing a manager and several players who had been central to their Premier League rise. This was needed for the Bees as a club, but also served well for his own profile, proving exactly why he was chosen for the role, when many questioned the decision.

A ninth-place finish dealt with much of that uncertainty, but it has also set a new benchmark for the Bees. Finishing safely in mid-table would once have represented obvious success for Brentford. After coming so close to European football last season, simply standing still is unlikely to feel quite as satisfying.

But aside from on the pitch, the summer window also showed the continued evolution off of the pitch. Perhaps not all down to Andrews, but having a manager which the players believe in and can see the vision, certainly help. The Bees have had a great summer window. They’ve held onto the core of the team which pushed for Europe, with no mass exodus, whilst showcasing yet again how well organised the recruitment team are behind closed doors, with the additions of the likes of Sangare and Schuster.

Brentford still remain difficult to beat and have enough attacking threat to cause problems even when the overall performance is not particularly fluent.

There is still plenty Andrews will want to improve, but game 50 arrives with Brentford no longer being judged against what might have happened after Frank left. Instead, Andrews has created his own standards to be judged against.

Brentford still look like the club Andrews inherited, which is probably one of the reasons the transition worked.

They just no longer look exactly like the same team.