Brentford boss Thomas Frank defends use of tactics board during drinks break

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has lifted the lid on his approach to football’s new mid-game drinks breaks, after he was criticised for bringing a tactics board onto the pitch during Tuesday night’s crucial win over Charlton.

Frank’s instructions during the second-half break helped inspire a late comeback from a goal down that gave Brentford their sixth straight win in the Championship and kept their hopes of automatic promotion alive.

Critics say the breaks – introduced as a temporary measure to aid player welfare during the hectic summer schedule – are having too much of an impact on games and are being abused by managers, but Frank says he is happy to take full advantage.

“It’s nice in football to have that timeout for 15 or 20 seconds to talk to the players,” Frank said. “Just like they’ve had in handball, basketball, volleyball, whatever, for many years. I think that’s useful.

“For the Charlton game, obviously we were 1-0 down so we prepared something, just changing some positions a bit and talking about where we could hurt Charlton. I don’t know if it worked but we scored two goals and it’s a good story now.

“It’s interesting that we got the tactical boards out now. I thought about it before, because why not? It’s more visual. Maybe it’s just to reinforce your normal gameplan or maybe to tweak it a bit. It’s something I try to prepare before the games, to say maybe this will be the main bit in the first one, and this in the second one.”

The Bees will look to continue their winning run against Derby at Pride Park on Saturday, and Frank has paid tribute to Rams’ skipper Wayne Rooney, suggesting his young side would do well to follow his example.

“What I really like and what I’ve always admired him for is his work ethic,” Frank said. “No matter if he was 16 years old breaking through for Everton or being the main man at Manchester United, one of the best teams in the world at that time.

“He’s just an example to follow and there are a lot of young players who should look at him and see: ‘Okay, that’s the ingredients to be a top player’.”

As well as being led by England’s all-time leading goalscorer on the field, the Rams have Barcelona and PSV great Phillip Cocu in the dugout, and Frank says the pair’s presence is a reminder of the quality of the division his side are pushing to get out of.

“This league is almost the new Premier League or the Premier League ten years ago,” he added. “The level of players and coaches and teams, the investment teams are doing, is massive.

“Of course, Ajax would play in the Premier League but if you compare the Championship overall with the Dutch league overall, the average level in the Championship is much higher. It’s a massive, massive league.”

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