Kevin Schade scored a hat-trick in Brentford's 4-1 win over Bournemouth two days after Christmas, a finish that left the forward celebrating a personal landmark and his team eyeing a place in Europe.
The goals completed a second Premier League treble for the 22-year-old and made him the only German player ever to have scored two trebles in the English top flight. Schade had also netted three in Brentford's November 2024 victory over Leicester City, and his latest haul moved him ahead of Michael Ballack on Germany's list of top ten most prolific scorers in the English top flight.
After the Bournemouth match Schade was unambiguous about his own form. "I feel I am much stronger now, not only body-wise," he said. "I don’t feel dead after every game anymore!" The goals have arrived at a timely moment: Brentford sit ninth in the table with a game in hand on everyone around them and can move into sixth and into a Europa League spot with a win at Manchester United on Monday.
The context of that opportunity is stark. Brentford were widely tipped to struggle after losing their head coach and two top scorers last summer, and the club have not won at Old Trafford since 1937. A victory at Manchester United would not only push them up the table but would put European football in the club's history for the first time.
That narrative of upheaval is exactly what Schade pushed back against. "Even before that, when Ivan Toney left, everyone said it would be difficult. But then we played even better. Maybe you can only see it from the inside, because I know all the players and what they can do. When anyone talks from the outside, you shouldn’t take it too seriously," he said. He pointed to continuity and additions as the reason Brentford have remained competitive: "Igor Thiago came back, we bought Dango [Ouattara], Damsy [Mikkel Damsgaard] is still here, and we had a structure. Christian Nørgaard left as a captain [to join Arsenal] but inside we knew Nathan Collins and Mathias Jensen could do the same job. And [Jordan] Henderson came. You can learn so much from him. When it’s not going well on the pitch, he’s the one who pushes everyone to stay calm and bring back the quality."
Schade praised Henderson specifically: "It is an incredible job that he is doing." He also noted squad losses: Brentford lost Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Thomas Frank last summer, and Christian Nørgaard later left to join Arsenal. Despite that turnover, Schade repeatedly cited igor thiago's return among the stabilising factors that have kept the team afloat.
The change in the dugout has been part of the story too. Keith Andrews took over as Brentford head coach after Thomas Frank left, and it was reported that Andrews had missed out on the same role at League Two MK Dons two months before getting the Brentford job — a twist that underlines how quickly fortunes can shift in football management.
The tension now is concrete: Brentford can convert a run of form and Schade's red-hot finishing into a place in the Europa League, but they must do it at Old Trafford, where history and long odds remain. If Schade keeps producing moments like the Bournemouth hat-trick, Brentford will not be arriving at Manchester empty-handed — they will be arriving as a team that has replaced headline departures with depth, and a forward whose scoring has become the difference between hope and real European ambition.
