Brentford boss: QPR winger Osayi-Samuel one of top players in the Championship

BY NICK KITUNO

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has hailed Bright Osayi-Samuel as one of the “top players” in the Championship – and said his battle with Rico Henry was “fantastic” to watch.

The two were constantly up against each other all Friday evening, with Osayi-Samuel getting the better of Henry when he burst forward to tee up Lyndon Dykes on the counter-attack.

QPR lost the derby 2-1, courtesy of Ivan Toney’s second-half winner, but Frank was impressed with what he saw in both players.

He said: “For me, Rico is the best left-back in this division. We know that we need to work a little bit, and he knows that that himself, on bits of his offensive play, but defensively I haven’t seen a player go past him. Only Samuel.

“I think that was a fantastic battle between maybe the quickest left-back and the quickest winger in this division. I think that both are top players.

“I think [Osayi-Samuel] is a very good player. We, of course, knew that he was a threat. That’s why it disappointed me, the goal they scored, because it was exactly the situation we knew they would come in.”

Vitaly Janelt edged Brentford in front after just 14 minutes when he drilled a strike into the bottom-right corner of the net from range.

QPR struck back soon after when Osayi-Samuel took the ball forward from a cleared corner before whipping it in early to Dykes for an outstretched finish 12 minutes later.

The two sides entered the break level before Toney headed home Emiliano Marcondes’ free-kick on 64 minutes.

Frank added: “It was a part of our plan to play one-on-one in the back on set-pieces. I’m not afraid of that because it needs to be a top situation, or they need to be lucky if they get out of that because we will have players coming back, but I think it was a fantastic battle to watch.”