No one can blame Ben Dawson for attempting to try something different in his first and only game in charge of Leicester. The interim manager named a very different side at Brentford, in shape and personnel, as the incoming Ruud van Nistelrooy watched from the stands. Unfortunately for him, Kevin Schade’s incredible hat-trick at the Gtech not only inflicted more misery on the visitors, who remain one point above the relegation zone, but proved their problems will require more than a simple formation change.
Van Nistelrooy’s first session with the squad will be on Sunday morning, Dawson confirmed and while the two will be meeting for the first time, he expects there will be a mix of analysis from the loss and looking ahead to West Ham.
“The challenge we have going forward will be to have more good parts for larger periods of the game and trying to put in a 90-minute performance. [The goals conceded] are not something looked at in isolation. We attack as a team and defend as a team.”
Brentford almost scored within five minutes after Schade’s looping header was palmed on to the roof of the net by a leaping Mads Hermansen. Leicester were pinned back but Dawson’s decision to name a back three left the box overcrowded and Bryan Mbeumo’s seven crosses in the first half were all met with a blue shirt.
Leicester’s valiant defensive effort was rewarded when Jamie Vardy shrugged off Ethan Pinnock before offloading the ball towards Facundo Buonanotte for a simple tap-in, the Argentinian shushing the home support in celebration.
The jubilation did not last long as the hosts turned it around in just under nine minutes thanks to Yoane Wissa’s first-time finish for the equaliser. Leicester seemingly switched off after that and Mbeumo immediately found himself in space for the second, his ball to an unmarked Schade fired in at the back post.
The gaps became even clearer for the third after Wilfred Ndidi was caught out of position, allowing Mikkel Damsgaard to slip a pass to Schade, with Wout Faes being the only blue shirt to not hold the line. The German’s neat finish bobbled in off the far post. It was a marquee performance from a player who had scored only two goals in his previous 41 Premier League appearances.
“The shining star today was Schade. I celebrated very much when he scored his first goal because I know how hard its been for him to not be scoring,” said the Brentford manager, Thomas Frank.
It is credit to Frank, who has been forced to adjust after the departure of Ivan Toney, that Brentford are three points off a top-four spot with six wins from seven at home, more than they managed in the whole of last season. Schade, Mbeumo and Wissa worked hard to stretch Leicester’s backline to find the gaps, with Damsgaard’s eye for a pass the key behind the hosts’ attacking play.
“Damsgaard was unbelievable. His two passes for the first and third are the highest at this level. He is a big reason why we are creating so many chances,” said Frank, but he was hesitant to label him one of the best players in the league just yet. “I want to see more. Let him have one full season. A consistent season. He deserves praise and I hope he can keep going. I like to put pressure on him, in a positive way. The best players are doing this week in, week out over decades.”
The second half brought more of the same, with the visitors struggling to maintain any semblance of a defensive shape.
So much so that Nathan Collins felt comfortable enough to step out from Brentford’s backline to find Schade, whose run between Faes and James Justin felt like deja vu as he netted his team’s fourth and Leicester’s 27th goal conceded in the league, the second most behind Wolves.
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It is difficult to predict how Van Nistelrooy will fare at Leicester. There is clear excitement for his tenure, shown from the large Dutch flag in the away end that was quickly stashed away after Schade’s first goal.
But the chants against the director of football, Jon Rudkin, and the players, most who went straight down the tunnel at full time, are an indication that he has his work cut out for him.
