Brentford boss Dean Smith has no plans to change formation following his side’s failure to find the net against Barnsley.
The Bees drew a blank at Griffin Park, with Neal Maupay toiling in the role of lone forward as Barnsley’s stubborn defence dug in for a 0-0 draw.
However, Smith made it clear he intends to stick with his 4-3-2-1 system and cited a lack of clinical finishing as the reason for their failure to overcome the Tykes.
“We play with a single striker,” said Smith. “Ryan Woods was in a more advanced role and he’s had chances. Yoann Barbet had two or three shots from 30 yards.
“Probably some of our decision-making at times was poor and the better option would have been to take a short pass and open them up.
“We’ve got to be more clinical in the box. We didn’t take our chances in a game where I thought we were the better team.
“It’s difficult when a team comes to kill the game and they certainly did that – they didn’t show an awful lot of ambition.”
Despite their dominance, Brentford only seriously tested Tykes goalkeeper Adam Davies on two occasions – through Maupay early in the game and Ollie Watkins deep into added time.
The Bees will assess the extent of the injury to full-back Josh Clarke, who limped off after turning his ankle midway through the second half.
However, Denmark international defender Henrik Dalsgaard, who has been out for the last six weeks, is expected to resume full training on Monday.
This post was last modified on 17/12/2017