Brentford v Leicester: Entertainment expected from much-changed outfits

BRENTFORD host Leicester on Saturday afternoon in an FA Cup 4th Round. We asked Tom Love (@TomLove_18) to source the best bets.

Brentford v Leicester | Saturday 25th January 2020, 12:45 | BBC1

On paper this looked like one of the more watchable FA Cup ties, with both teams used to playing attractive football. That may well be the case, but even at this stage of the most prestigious English cup competition, teams of this level feel at liberty to rest their star players.

It’s generally just been the Premier League sides that opt to shuffle the pack when the cup comes around but this seems to have dripped down to the Championship as the second tier grows more lucrative and squads are larger.

Brentford squeezed past Stoke in the last round despite making nine changes to the XI that thrashed Bristol City 4-0 the week prior. Having said that they can count themselves a touch fortunate as it was a game the Potters dominated, but fair play to the Bees, they rode that storm.

To be fair, there is some method behind Brentford making wholesale changes for that, they’re one of the few sides that has a genuine ‘B team’ that plays regular fixtures. Therefore, their changed side know how to play as more of a cohesive unit, something that Leicester didn’t really showcase in their lacklustre win over Wigan in the 3rd Round.

Foxes gaffer Brendan Rodgers was less than impressed with his side against one of the worst away sides in England, saying. “We didn't play particularly well and we need to be better, defensively we were good but offensively we were too static.”

Those were the words of the former Swansea manager post-match and whenever the second string have had to come in to cover injuries they’ve not really given anything for Rodgers to think about.

Having said that I expect Leicester to go with a similar side again on Saturday, especially with the crunch second leg of the League Cup semi-final on the horizon midweek at Villa Park. After the first leg ended in a 1-1 draw it is finely poised, they’d be no qualms from the Foxes’ faithful if their first XI is rested for Tuesday.

So overall it could be two shadow sides going at it in front of the cameras and that makes finding a bet increasingly difficult. Brentford have genuine promotion aspirations whilst Leicester having a great chance of making another cup final and finishing in the top four, so on the face of it both teams wouldn’t be that downbeat if they were knocked out.

However, the players coming in will be hungry to make and impact and try give their respective managers food for thought for the season ahead.

I’ll hope that both sets of players give it their all, especially with this being televised and the bet that could look a generous price is the 3/1 (SkyBet) on Both Teams To Score, Each Team 1+ Corner In Each Half + Each Team 10+ Booking Point via the RequestABet market.

I would recommend smaller stakes in the cup just because it’s so difficult to gauge mentality, motivation and team lineu-ps but I am expecting it to be pretty entertaining and at 3/1 it provides some interest.