Brentford won’t miss Ivan Toney after starting new season by fixing bigger issue

Brentford vs Crystal Palace promised to be interesting however it went.

Both sides had different points to prove from this game. Crystal Palace were the gems of the Premier League run-in last season, claiming 19 of a possible 21 points from their final seven games; if the summer break came too early for anyone, it was Oliver Glasner.

READ MORE: Does it matter being the Premier League’s pre-summer form team? Asking for Crystal Palace

Thomas Frank will have welcomed it with a big old kiss, however, after his side hit worrying form last season following a promising enough start. From their final 24 games, they took just 20 points – only three more than relegated Luton and Burnley.

Much of the pre-match talk inevitably revolved around Ivan Toney’s surprise exclusion from the Brentford squad, stoking talk of a potential exit for the England striker that Thomas Frank immediately confirmed, having said just a couple of days prior that he would be involved.

He said: “There are a lot of things going on with Ivan, especially with transfers, there’s a lot of transfer interest. Because of all that, we’ve decided not to include him in the squad. There is interest, it’s not close.”

The dirty secret is that Toney is not, in fact, terribly important to Brentford anymore. The massive price tag they have put on him has always felt more like a political point that none of their players will be undersold, rather than being reflective of what he is actually worth to them.

Brentford were good without him during his gambling ban, and they were bad without him during his gambling ban. They were good with him after his return, and they were bad with him after his return. The man himself got four in five on his comeback, then none for the rest of the season.

Ultimately, Brentford took more points per game without Toney in the starting line-up (1.13) than with him (0.79), and also scored more goals without him (1.64 per game) than with him (1.25).

That shouldn’t be surprising. Brentford’s success in reaching the Premier League and then staying there for an extended spell has never been built around one totemic player, but about signing the right players for the system they want to play. Said Benrahma and Ollie Watkins both departed the highly effective ‘BMW’ attack years ago to leave Bryan Mbeumo as a lonely M; they got even better with their replacements.

Toney’s replacement has already arrived in the shape of Igor Thiago, only to get injured in pre-season and ruled out for the next few months. But there are already goals in this side: they only failed to score eight times last season, and three of those were against Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City.

At times here, they looked irresistible, particularly after taking the lead.

Brentford received a very soft reprieve here, with the referee whistling for a questionable Will Hughes foul as Eberechi Eze’s free-kick from a crossing position was on course to hit the net via the inside of the post.

Their Achilles heel threatened to expose itself once again as they surrendered their lead to an Ethan Pinnock own goal in the second half, having dropped 30 points from winning positions last season – the most of any Premier League side. Frank’s team only fought back from conceding equalisers to win two games last season: the 3-2 over West Ham in November, and the 2-1 victory at Bournemouth in May.

Their issue has not been recruitment, which remains impressive. Their issue has not been a lack of goals, because they score them, and often look good doing it. Their issue has, instead, been injuries and mentality, namely their inability to handle setbacks. They rescued just 11 points from losing positions last year, too.

Last season, that fortunate escape on the Eze goal and the disappointment of that own goal might have seen Brentford fold in on themselves like a dying origami star. So getting the win here is potentially massive for them, even if the winning goal was mildly comical. Dean Henderson was left wrong-footed by just how badly Nathan Collins hit his strike, only managing to turn it straight on the instinctively-reacting Yoane Wissa and thence the net.

If Brentford are going to resume their prior upward mobility, rather than become a side just trying to hang on in there for as long as possible, they will need to show they can keep doing this…Toney or no Toney.

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