There’s nothing magic – Thomas Frank downplays importance of experience

Frank may have good cause to downplay longevity as he prepares to come up Rafael Benitez, who celebrated his 1,0000 game as a manager just one week after the Dane took charge of Brentford in December 2016.

Frank is a huge admirer of Benitez, whom he rates as “one of the best in the world” despite his recent travails on Merseyside, but believes that on the pitch the gulf in Premier League minutes will count for nothing.

Frank, whose side snapped a four-game losing streak in last week’s 3-3 draw at Newcastle, said: “Experience is good in certain spells, and understanding can come into a spell when we don’t get points for four games in a row.

“Every game is a huge experience and a huge occasion, but after that it is just another match that I badly want to win.

“There’s nothing magic – I think sometimes you can give it too much importance.”

Brentford go into the game looking for their first home win since the opening day of the season, while pressure is continuing to mount on Benitez whose side have now failed to win in six.

“Rafa is a great manager – to manage more than 1,000 games is a great achievement, especially when he has done it in several countries with top clubs across the world.

“The way he sets up his team tactically, and changes them, he is a brilliant manager and one of the best in the world.”

Frank is adamant that despite the recent dip in form he will not deviate from his high-pressing style, and will instead focus on achieving a consistency of performance.

“It’s all about consistency and doing what we’ve done well so far – we are scoring goals, we are creating chances, and to consistently still press high and be aggressive,” added Frank.

“In general you gain confidence from three things – training well, performing well, and the result. In general this has been good so we just need to keep it up.

“In general we just do what we do, train and prepare and check out the next opponents, because I think we want to be pretty level – not too up, not too down.

“Just keep it the same and go out and perform. The important thing is to be positive and to be brave.”