How Fabio Carvalho is ready to silence doubters and spearhead new Brentford era

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Evening Standard

·14 Agustus 2025

How Fabio Carvalho is ready to silence doubters and spearhead new Brentford era

Last season’s big-money signing struggled to make an impact in his debut campaign

In a season of seismic change in west London, Brentford’s Fabio Carvalho is primed to take advantage.

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Praised by head coach Keith Andrews in the build-up to the Bees’ Premier League opener away to Nottingham Forest this weekend, the 22-year-old has begun to find his rhythm as a new regime rolls into town.

Carvalho has enjoyed a productive pre-season, scoring in Brentford’s 2-2 draw with Borussia Monchengladbach, and his application on the training ground has caught the eye of Andrews.

The midfielder’s return from a dislocated shoulder, which saw him miss the final three months of last season, has coincided with a summer of change at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Long-standing head coach Thomas Frank has left, as have captain Christian Norgaard and last season’s top scorer Bryan Mbeumo.

This period of uncertainty has presented opportunities for the likes of Carvalho, and he looks to have seized his chance, impressing Andrews with how receptive he has been to new ideas.

“I think he's taken things on board really, really well,” Andrews told Standard Sport.

“He looks really good at the moment. Really good, full of confidence, full of verve, and playing with real personality, which I want from all the players.”

Carvalho struggled for minutes last season, starting just three league games following his £27.5million arrival from Liverpool.

There were glimpses of quality, with Carvalho grabbing a goal and two assists in a 3-1 win over Leyton Orient in the League Cup, and Frank routinely leapt to his defence as scrutiny increased, and rumours of his departure escalated in January.

Andrews, who worked closely with players on the fringes of Brentford’s squad in his role as set-piece coach last season, says he understood Carvalho’s frustrations last year and was there to reassure him that success isn’t linear.

“I think it is easy for head coaches just to speak to the players that are playing,” Andrews added.

“For me, a lot of the focus should go into the ones that are not playing at times. I think it's important for coaching staff now that, as they have become bigger over the years, which they have, that you provide that support network for players. I think I did that last year with Fabio. I understood his situation. Careers aren't easy.

“Sometimes you need to fight through those times when you're not getting the opportunities you would like. He kept persevering. He kept working hard on his game. I worked a lot on his set-piece delivery last year and trying to add that to his armoury.”

Carvalho, an introverted character who perhaps does not wear his heart on his sleeve with quite the same vigour as some of his team-mates, spent much of last season trying to dispel the myth that he looked disinterested when things weren’t going his way.

This was something that really wrangled with Frank, who said it was easy to misjudge Carvalho’s reserved nature.

“Fabio, he is also a little bit [of an] introvert. So, if you do not know him well, you can misjudge him a bit,” Frank said in February.

Andrews, who has formed a close relationship with Carvalho, says he has nothing but praise for the Portuguese youth international’s work rate and ability to adapt to the needs of the team.

“I think it has just been his appetite to be a really good team player,” Andrews, speaking ahead of his first competitive game as Brentford boss, continued.

“If you look at his work rate without the ball, traditionally Fabio is more of a central player, I suppose, second-striker. Whereas he has obviously been asked to play slightly to the right or possibly to the left at times. Again, he has been just very, very receptive to that.”

In order to get minutes, Carvalho has had to play on the flanks to accommodate Mikkel Damsgaard.

It was Damsgaard’s electric form as the creator in the hole for Brentford last season that kept Carvalho out of the side, but Andrews says there is no reason why the pair cannot play together.

“I do not see any reason why they can't. They have proved it in pre-season. I think the understanding, the relationships between the two of them, that if one comes short to get us playing, the other cannot be doing the same. They need to be penetrating and looking beyond to stretch the team. Because it is a big feature of how this team has been successful over recent seasons. We have to have that threat of running in behind. Again, for the two of them, I think they have taken that on board really well in pre-season.”

Neither Damsgaard nor Carvalho are naturally inclined to look for the ball in behind, and that has caused issues in pre-season. However, Andrews is adamant that the pair are quickly learning their roles within the system, understanding that sometimes they will have to sacrifice time on the ball in order to get Brentford moving forward.

“Going back to the conversations around, could you be versatile? Could you play in different positions? We have certainly looked at that, focused on that, studied that. [We have] worked on his timing of his runs when he drops deep, when he runs in beyond. I think he has taken things on board really, really well.”

A fresh start has provided fresh impetus for Carvalho, who, in a season of uncertainty, looks well-positioned to change the narrative around his career and help spearhead a new era at Brentford.