Brentford head coach Thomas Frank has hinted he will make fewer changes for Saturday’s FA Cup last-32 tie at home to Leicester compared to the previous round.
A 1-0 win over Stoke on January 4 set up a meeting with Brendan Rodgers’ side and the average age of the Bees XI that day was 20.1.
Frank made 10 changes for the third-round clash following a gruelling Christmas schedule, but with a whole week to prepare for the visit of the Foxes, Brentford should be closer to full strength at Griffin Park.
“There will be a few more senior players for this game, 100 per cent, but last time the young boys we put out there proved they are at a good level and why they are in the first-team squad and at the club so I would trust a lot of them to play again,” Frank said.
“It is a three-game week and when we have that, we do maybe a few rotations throughout the week and we just need to find out when we are doing it.
“We are doing it game by game, but I know we will do some changes. How many? I haven’t decided yet because we like to do well in the league and we like to progress in the next round of the FA Cup.”
Frank has made no secret of the fact the Sky Bet Championship campaign takes precedence over the FA Cup and Brentford will be in league action on Tuesday, at home to Nottingham Forest.
However, the Danish coach talked up the history of the competition after the Bees made it to the fifth round last season.
“Of course we like to do well in the league, that is the most important thing if you ask me to choose between the two, but we would also like to do as good as possible in the FA Cup,” the 46-year-old added.
“For me if you don’t know about the FA Cup and you come to England as a coach then you haven’t followed football for the last I don’t know how many years.
“The FA Cup is the biggest and most important cup tournament in the world and it has been proven year after year. We are really looking forward to this game and would like to do as well as possible.”
It will not be the first meeting between Frank and Rodgers, with the pair going head-to-head in a pre-season friendly in the summer of 2014 when the pair were in charge of Brondby and Liverpool respectively.
A lot has changed for the young coaches since and the Bees boss has been hugely impressed with the work of Saturday’s opposing manager.
“We had a chat after the game and also before I think. He has always been one of the interesting managers in Europe,” Frank said.
“When I analyse Leicester I see there is a very intelligent manager behind the team and a good coaching staff because they do some very interesting bits in the way they press.”
