Frank calls on Brentford attackers to ease burden on Toney

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Brentford boss has Thomas Frank has urged his attacking players to lighten the load on Ivan Toney and start chipping in with some goals to help kick-start the Bees’ spluttering automatic promotion push.

Toney leads the Championship’s goalscoring charts with 28 strikes this season, but no other Brentford player has reached double figures and Frank admits his side have struggled to deal with the loss of Said Benrahma, who departed the club for West Ham last September.


Benrahma scored 17 goals last season, which is 10 more than wingers Tarique Fosu and Saman Ghoddos, who are viewed as his long-term replacements, combined this campaign.

Toney’s past three goals have been penalties, taking his tally from the spot this season to eight, and he has not scored in open play since Brentford beat Stoke on February 27.

That run has coincided with the Bees winning just one of their past six matches and Frank admitted his side need to rediscover the creative spark that Benrahma provided before his move the Hammers in September.

“I know there are goals in Tariqe Fosu, Saman Ghoddos and even Matty (Mathias Jensen),” Frank said.

“But all of those players need to chip in with more goals, but the key thing is that we need to create more chances in each game to give us better possibilities of scoring goals.”

Frank admitted he’d love to still have Benharama in his ranks for the final seven matches of the season as Brentford aim to close the gap on runaway leaders Norwich and second-placed Watford.

Brentford host Watford in the penultimate match of the season on May 1 and will have a game in hand over the Hornets after Saturday’s trip to Preston, which is now shaping up as a must-win match.

“I think Said Benharama was the the best offensive player in the division last year with his skillset and I don’t see one player as good as him (in the Championship) this year,” Frank said.

“So of course we could have done with him as he is a remarkable player.

“But we have what we have and that is three good wingers, all of them have a top level in them but it is about finding a higher level of consistency in their games.

“We are aware that Preston are a good side. They are high-pressing, have good energy and will have a lot of players in the middle who will pick off second balls and be very aggressive and try and get behind us to get in good crosses.

“We need to be able to deal with that.”