Give Bees the ‘huge credit’ they deserve, says Frank

Thomas Frank says Brentford’s 4-0 win over Manchester United was more about his team’s own performance than United’s failings.

First-half goals from Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo gave the Bees a comfortable victory and their first Premier League win of the season.

And Frank hopes his team are given the credit they deserve.

“I like to only speak about my team, and I hope you guys give us a lot of credit because I think the easiest thing is to say that it’s just Man United,” he said.

“I think we deserve a huge amount of credit. It’s not the first time we have put in a good performance in the Premier League so there must be something we do right overall.”

United struggled to deal with Brentford’s pressing and directness in a one-sided first half, and Frank admits he highlighted playing the ball long as an area where Erik Ten Hag’s side could be exploited.

“I like us to dominate the ball more but I also know where we are in the food chain,” he said.

“I think in some games we need to be a little bit pragmatic, which we also showed last year.

“An ongoing theme is that we like to press high by running a lot, and we were also very good in the low block.

“But of course part of the game plan was that we went long. Every goal-kick, every time it went back to David (Raya) we went long because we knew that we would be most likely stronger there and better there.

“We watched Brighton and they were very successful. I think Brighton are a very good possession team but they went long every single time against them.

“I think it also fits with some of the strengths we have in Ivan (Toney) and Bryan (Mbeumo).”