Thomas Frank Discusses Norgaard’s Availability, Team Expectations, and Upcoming Newcastle Match

Thomas Frank, the manager of Brentford, addressed reporters ahead of his team’s Premier League fixture against Newcastle on Saturday, scheduled for a 15:00 GMT kick-off. The following are the main points from his press briefing: Frank expressed optimism regarding Christian Norgaard’s potential availability, indicating a more positive outlook for Norgaard’s participation compared to Kristoffer Ajer, despite Ajer also having trained with the senior squad and potentially being included. Addressing Norgaard’s absence in the match against Aston Villa, Frank stated: “You always want your best players on the pitch and he is one of our best players. He has been one of the most consistent performers over the past five years. Of course we’d have loved him to be on the pitch, but I trust the players who played last night and we’ve won games without Christian before.” Regarding the loss to Villa, he commented: “Looking back at the game, on the way home and this morning, [I’m] more positive. I think we played 20 good, solid minutes, then we lose the game in 40 minutes.” He further elaborated: “In many ways, top actions from them, they created three goals where, yes, there are things we can do better. We’re talking the smallest of details we could have done differently. In the Premier League, most of the time you need to play 90 good minutes but we didn’t.” The Brentford manager indicated that the team holds “big expectations and big beliefs,” which explains why defeats “hurt.” He remarked: “We thought we could do something [on Wednesday], unfortunately we couldn’t. We’ve showed many times we can play against any team in this division and go toe-to-toe. We didn’t do that yesterday.” Frank commended Newcastle’s recent performance, stating: “They were brilliant at home to Arsenal, they were brilliant on Wednesday at home to Liverpool, they were very good away to Chelsea – they were unlucky not to get something out of that game – at home to West Ham, they absolutely dominated them.” He concluded by saying: “I think it’s an Eddie Howe team that is at its best and it will be a big test for us. This will be the biggest test that we have faced at home so far this season.”