Thomas Frank believes Ivan Toney did enough to give England manager Gareth South Gate Various “headaches” after scoring Brentford’s 2-0 opener Premier League win at Southampton.
Toney was right on the far post after a first-half flick from Christian Norgaard and the provider of the stoppage timer Yoane Wissa.
It was the striker’s 16th goal of the season, but after Toney was accused of violating FA gambling rules 262 times, he is still awaiting the FA’s decision and a long suspension is likely.
However, Frank believes his player has done enough for the England selection with Southgate as his player will determine his roster for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers on Thursday.
“I have no expectations from football” bees said the manager.
“It’s up to Gareth to pick the right squad. Ivan has done more than enough to give Gareth a positive headache.
“If you look at the pure scorers for England, he (Harry) is the second top scorer after Kane. If you look at number nine clearly, he must have been thinking a lot about calling him.
Frank added: “I don’t think I have anything more to say, I’m just repeating myself. Great player for us, character, great goal. He could have taken more than a set ball chance before.
“And preparing Wissa on target is very good, important to us.”
The game itself was a cunning affair, with little clear chance for either side, and the nerves were tense with 33 fouls during the game in the second half.
The Bees had a 12-game undefeated streak supporting their European aspirations, broken by a 1-0 defeat at Everton, but Frank praised their ability to dodge the defeat.
“I like the comeback mentality of the players, the difference between good and great players and teams is the ability to overcome setbacks and bounce back,” he said.
“I think these players and this team are great in so many ways and I love the way they’re coming back.”
Ruben Selles had to grieve for missed opportunities after his team didn’t get anything out of the game.
The Saints boss said: “I think we came here today with the belief that we can perform well and get the three points.
We didn’t manage the key moments of the game and unfortunately we didn’t get what we wanted.”
I think we have a clear plan on how we’re going to do that (win the game). I think in the second half we showed how to do things and gradually we lost those principles.
We had the crosses, but we weren’t in the box to make the most of it.”