Brentfords player of the season: Mathias Jensen

Towards the end of last season, all of Thomas Frank’s press conferences were dominated by one topic. Brentford were fighting to finish in the top half of the table, but people were obsessed with Christian Eriksen’s future.

Eriksen joined Brentford in January 2022, six months after suffering a cardiac arrest playing for Denmark against Finland at the European Championship. The midfielder signed a short-term contract until the end of the season and it was impossible to predict if he would rediscover the form he showed at Ajax, Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan.

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Eriksen was directly involved in five goals in 11 appearances for Brentford and he helped them earn 22 points out of a possible 33. Any doubts about his ability had been crushed.

However, when the Dane rejected Brentford’s offer to make him the highest-paid player in their history and decided to join Manchester United instead, they were left with a creative vacuum. Brentford did not sign a direct replacement for Eriksen and it was difficult to tell who would become their main playmaker.

Ivan Toney and Ben Mee are the obvious candidates for Brentford’s player of the season. Since he joined the club on a free transfer last summer, after his contract with Burnley expired, Mee’s leadership and experience have been crucial.

Pontus Jansson, Brentford’s captain, has struggled with a hamstring injury throughout the campaign and Mee stepped up to plug the gap in defence. Mee has started every single game, apart from the 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa in October, and formed an impressive partnership with Ethan Pinnock which was the bedrock of Brentford’s 12-match unbeaten run between November and March.

Toney is the team’s talisman and he has been exceptional up front. Only Erling Haaland (36) and Harry Kane (28) have scored more goals than him (20) in the top flight this season. Who can forget Toney’s brilliant hat-trick against Leeds United in September and the way he tormented Manchester City’s defence in an incredible 2-1 victory at the Etihad? The 27-year-old’s eight-month ban from the Football Association for breaching betting rules has overshadowed these achievements.

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Brentford’s player of the season, though, is Mathias Jensen — the man who made replacing Eriksen look so effortless that nobody talks about him any more.

Jensen’s impact on the team this year came as a huge surprise after he endured a difficult debut season in the Premier League. The central midfielder cut his foot in Denmark’s 2-1 defeat to England in the semi-finals of the European Championship in July 2021 and failed to recover in time for Brentford’s famous opening-day victory over Arsenal.

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Jensen broke into the starting line-up in October and, the following month, got called up by Denmark for fixtures against the Faroe Islands and Scotland but contracted COVID-19 which forced him to miss both games and Brentford’s 3-3 draw with Newcastle United.

The rest of the 2021-22 season followed a similar pattern. Every time it looked like Jensen was starting to find his rhythm, something went wrong. When Eriksen joined Brentford in the January transfer window, he became the team’s focal point and Jensen’s playing time dropped dramatically. Jensen’s main role is to create chances for his team-mates and he was struggling to do that — he recorded only one assist in 31 appearances and failed to score.

“When he was out of the team last year, some (players) drop their heads a little bit, (but) he just trained like an animal,” Frank told The Athletic in October. “In the off-season, (the players) have this running programme, but he definitely did more. So he came back in incredible shape. Plus, he has that little bit of extra trust from me: ‘Christian is not here now; you get a chance to be the main man: take it’.”

Jensen has flourished having the responsibility of pulling the strings and his output has improved dramatically this season. The Denmark international has chipped in with five goals and six assists as well as creating the joint-highest number of chances (48), with Bryan Mbeumo.

You have to rewind back to August for the 27-year-old’s best performance of the campaign. He was given the task of pressing Eriksen and disrupting Manchester United’s attempts to play out from the back. Jensen dispossessed his former team-mate to set up the first, scored the second goal, and played a fantastic pass in the build-up to Mbeumo slotting the ball past David de Gea for the fourth. Jensen was directly involved in more goals in the opening 30 minutes of Brentford’s 4-0 victory over Manchester United than he had been in the entire previous season.

BRENTFORD HAVE A SECOND! ⚡⚡

It’s gone from bad to worse for Man Utd, another error at the back, another goal conceded. Jensen gets this one… 🐝 pic.twitter.com/ENgmAsnO0G

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 13, 2022

It used to feel like Jensen was trying too hard to make things happen on the pitch. Now he dictates games for Brentford with ease. He loves dropping deep to receive the ball and whipping it over the top for Rico Henry, Yoane Wissa or Mbeumo to run onto. He constantly entertains the crowd with an array of flicks and tricks and leads the top flight for the most nutmegs this season.

Mathias Jensen has been 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 good this season 😉 pic.twitter.com/bwltKe08as

— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) January 18, 2023

Jensen entered the final six months of his contract in January and he was rewarded for his performances with a new deal that runs until June 2026. He has popped up with more goals too, including the winner in Brentford’s 3-2 victory over their west London rivals Fulham in March.

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Ahead of their final game against Manchester City, Brentford have already secured a top-half finish and there is a small chance they could sneak into the Europa Conference League. Losing Eriksen could have been a huge blow, yet they have improved without him. Toney has been world-class over the past 10 months, Mee has barely made a mistake and David Raya has proven he is one of the best goalkeepers in the division.

Jensen, however, is responsible for knitting everything together at Brentford. Which is why he is the player of the season.

(Top image: Photos: Getty Images; Design: Sam Richardson)

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