EFL Championship 2019/20: Brentford vs Barnsley – tactical analysis

The final matchday of the 2019/20 EFL Championship is here. No side has officially been relegated yet, and second place is still up for grabs following Leeds’ win. Three teams can be automatically promoted to the Premier League on the final day: West Bromwich Albion, Brentford, and Fulham. The Baggies would require a win versus QPR at the Hawthorns to guarantee their success. This permutation is only possible after Brentford’s shock defeat away at Stoke City on Saturday, in which themselves were in prime position following West Brom’s defeat at Huddersfield Town. Three points against Gerhard Struber’s resurgent Barnsley isn’t easy by any means though.

Barnsley retain hope of escaping relegation. Although the chances are slim, they have a chance following Wigan Athletic’s 12-point deduction for entering administration. Nevertheless, they were victorious over fifth-place Nottingham Forest on Sunday and were unlucky to come away empty-handed away at Leeds recently.

This tactical analysis will conduct analysis to identify the tactics of Brentford and Barnsley in this EFL Championship match.

Line-ups

Brentford made one change to the team that suffered a costly loss at Stoke, whilst still keeping their 4-3-3 formation. Emiliano Marcondes was restored to the starting 11 in place of Mathias Jensen. Marcondes has four goals and a goal to his name since the restart. Ollie Watkins with his 25 goals this campaign was in reach of the Golden Boot ahead of kick-off.

Unsurprisingly, Struber opted to keep the same team that performed so excellently against Forest. That consists of a 3-4-1-2 with Conor Chaplin and Jacob Brown as the two forwards, and Luke Thomas immediately behind them as the 10.

Brentford build-up

The respective sides tactical approaches created a distinctive clash of styles, with Barnsley pressing and Brentford playing out from the back. However, it was Barnsley who had much the upper hand in this duel. They stifled Brentford’s build-up, even with adaptions to the structure made by Frank.