Andreas Bjelland said the focus is very much on what Brentford want to do as the team prepares for this evening’s trip to Aston Villa. Dean Smith’s side go into the game at Villa Park off the back of Saturday’s impressive 2-0 win at Brighton and Hove Albion and Andreas said that, despite Villa’s impressive attacking weaponry, the focus in training has been about what The Bees can do.
“These are the games that you want to be involved in as a football player with big grounds and big crowds,” said Andreas, speaking to Bees Player on Tuesday. “We need to show that we can continue on from the win on Saturday and it should be a good game. We looked at their team a bit yesterday and Monday but it is about ourselves. It is about how we want to do stuff and how we want to play football. We have to go and play our own game first. Of course you have to take their strikers into consideration but if we get the ball then they can’t score and that has to be our main target.”
Andreas played the second-half of Saturday's win at left-back after Callum Elder went off injured at the interval. The Danish international admitted that left-back isn’t his favoured position but said he was happy with how he did during his time on the pitch.
“I felt I did ok,” said Andreas. “It is always difficult to get into a game if you don’t start it, especially if you are a defender. I got a good start in the second-half and showed a little bit of what I can do even though I played out of position. When I was a Youth Player I played at left-back and I played there a bit at the start of my senior years so I know it but it isn’t something that I have done a lot. There is always space to play in and I want to play football. As a full back you can get on the ball more and drive forward so it was a good game for me to come back in and show some of my qualities on the ball.”
The 28-year-old defender arrived at Griffin Park in July 2015 from FC Twente but suffered a serious knee injury on his debut which kept him out for the whole of last season. Andreas returned to first-team action as a late substitute in the home draw with Sheffield Wednesday before playing 45 minutes on Saturday. The defender said the focus now is on getting more game time and pressing his case for a starting spot at the heart of The Bees’ backline.
“You can learn some things by watching but for me I learn by doing so I need the games,” said Andreas. “It was great for me to get the 45 minutes at Brighton. I feel I am getting better but I know I am not going to play my best games right now. I need some games to build everything up in my game after a year out so hopefully I can get more and more minutes. We have four really good centre backs and only two can play. Right now Callum Elder is out so it looks like I might play there. The competition is good and we need that in training to push each other. Hopefully it will be my time to play at centre-back.”