Frank calls on players to ‘step up’ for Leeds clash

Brentford need more players than just captain Pontus Jansson to “step up” in their clash with promotion favourites Leeds United, according to Thomas Frank.

Jansson, who was controversially sold in the summer, will play against his former club at Elland Road for the first time on Wednesday night.

He made 120 appearances and scored nine goals for the Whites before making the £5m switch to Griffin Park.

Frank said the Leeds trip will be one of Brentford’s toughest away fixtures this season, but also called on other senior squad members to take on some leadership and responsibility.

He said: “The first three games and the following 42 games he needs to be a leader, he needs to be a strong personality for us and he has shown already that he is a strong personality in many, many good ways.

“But we also need more than Pontus to step up. In a game like that, you need at least seven or eight players to hit a good, top performance, then you can have two or three who don’t hit the top.

“We need more than him to take responsibility and leadership.”

Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Hull City means Brentford have collected just four points from their first three Championship fixtures.

Bees boss Frank is keen to improve on the mixed start and, although he underlined the difficulty of their next fixture, he is confident of a good result.

He added that facing Leeds is “one of the toughest away games we can play for various reasons”.

“Everybody is praising Leeds and calling them [one of] the top favourites for promotion so, in terms of that, it must be the most difficult away fixture this season,” he explained.

“But we’re going up there confident that we know that we’re a good side. We know we can hit our top performance and top level. But we need to hit that level on Wednesday.

“Can we win? Of course we can, but we also hugely respect Leeds and what they do and they’ve been bright and sharp from the start of the season.

“We know what to expect; nothing new, but what to expect is not the same as saying it’ll be easy.

“We know what they’ll do, especially in their pressure where they’re very aggressive but also in their man-marking which is different to what we normally face.

“When you play something that’s different to what you normally face it’s not like you can just make it click straight away, and that’s one of their biggest advantages I think.”

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