Sky Sports exclusive: Brentford's Sergi Canos discusses playing as a wing-back throughout the club's maiden Premier League campaign, coping with the challenging transition and why the Bees are not assured of safety just yet.
Saturday 2 April 2022 10:38, UK
Just 22 minutes into the opening night of the Premier League back in August, Sergi Canos's season was already made.
As Arsenal visited the Brentford Community Stadium for Brentford's Premier League bow, the Spaniard set the Bees on their way to a historic, shock 2-0 win when he collected Ethan Pinnock's header on the edge of the box, took three touches to set himself and fired past Bernd Leno without a second thought.
The way his posture changes and his face lights up upon the mere mention of that famous occasion - Brentford's first top-flight outing in almost three-quarters of a century - says it all.
He has, without doubt, relived and recounted the moment countless times in interviews over the last seven months, yet he talks about it with such pride that it feels like the first time every time. This is a memory that will not be fading into the abyss anytime soon.
"I just lost my head," he recalls in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports.
"It was like a dream come true, scoring in the Premier League. Though it wasn't, it felt like my first game in the Premier League. I had watched Arsenal for so many years when I was a kid and to start against Arsenal and then score, I just lost it.
"I'm so grateful to be able to say that I scored Brentford's first goal in the Premier League. It means a lot to me and to my family."
As cliched as it sounds, this really was a moment written in the stars. The 25-year-old - who arrived initially on loan from Liverpool in August 2015 and then permanently from Norwich 11 months later - is part of the furniture in west London.
In an interview with Sky Sports last March, he spoke about his pride at the fact he was approaching 200 appearances for the club. "Everyone knows how I feel about this club," he beamed.
More than a year on, he is approaching the elite 250 club - a milestone that less than 50 players have reached.
As he has developed over the last six-and-a-half years, he has shown himself to be versatile and - no doubt due to his undying enthusiasm - willing to play wherever he is required to do so.
Last season, for example, the majority of his appearances came when he was deployed on the left wing in a 4-3-3 formation, effectively as the replacement for Said Benrahma after the Algerian's departure to West Ham.
Switching from his favoured right flank was a task he could get to grips with relatively easily and he ended the campaign with nine goals and 10 assists in 55 appearances in all competitions.
This term, though, he has, primarily, been played at right wing-back in a 3-5-2 setup, filling the void left by experienced Danish international Henrik Dalsgaard, who left for sister club FC Midtjylland in the summer.
"In pre-season, I had a meeting with Thomas [Frank] and Brian [Riemer, Frank's assistant]. They explained what they wanted to do and I was quite happy," the Spaniard says, sat in a painfully squeaky office chair in a side room at the club's Jersey Road training ground.
"I feel like I can play anywhere and, at that time, they thought I was going to be a good wing-back, so I said yes."
In fairness, it was not completely uncharted territory for Canos; he had moonlighted in the position when Frank had tinkered with the formation during the Championship years.
Playing there on a more regular basis has brought trials and tribulations, yet also accelerated a different type of development for the 25-year-old who, arguably, has not yet reached his physical peak.
"It has been difficult because my main strength is to attack. But there have been situations in games where I have had to defend low, be compact and communicate with the centre-backs, which is new to me. I have been really trying to improve that because I knew it was going to be crucial.
"At the beginning of the season, I think I did quite well and we were really solid defensively, but then I look back and there were other times where you could see I was a winger defending at the back post. When we have defended low, I think that is when I have suffered the most because I couldn't show my strengths.
"I have had to put in a lot of work in training. I have tried to focus on the defensive side instead of attacking and I don't regret it - I am much better at defending now than I was at the start of the season. I have been staying outside at the end of training, which I have done because the team needs it.
"For my whole career, I have been a player whose confidence is based on goals, assists, creating chances, crosses. This year, stepping up to the Premier League and not having as many of those situations to feel confident, it has been hard.
"I had to put a lot of focus on having confidence in my defending, recovering balls and not letting players get past me for me to feel confident and that is not how I feel confident. But I think it has been good. I have no regrets."
And the trickiest opponent he has come up against? Allan Saint-Maximin. "I was all over the place away at Newcastle! I felt how it felt to be on the other side, because he was so quick and so powerful."
A recent return to a 4-3-3 has given Canos what has become a rare chance to move forward again, with Kristoffer Ajer coming across from centre-back to slot in at right-back.
Since the shift, Thomas Frank's side have taken six points from the nine on offer after beating Norwich 3-1 on March 5, winning 2-0 at home to Burnley a week later and then falling to a 2-1 defeat away to Leicester on March 20.
Reverting to an attacking role did not come as naturally as Canos might have hoped, though.
"My first game was against Norwich away and I felt great, though I did also feel all over the place because I hadn't played as a winger for more than a year.
"As a wing-back, I was focusing on being lower, behind the centre-backs and then attacking whenever I could, but sometimes against Norwich, I felt like I was next to Rico [Henry] and I wasn't high enough. It was just my mind adjusting.
"I know we have no time to adjust in the Premier League, but I needed a couple of games to settle down. The way we press is different in every position, so there were times when Rico was telling me to push higher. It wasn't my best game but I think, against Burnley, I felt like myself again."
The timing of those results could probably not have been better. Brentford sit 15th in the table, with 30 points from 30 games. They are eight points above the bottom three with eight to play, but five of the six teams below them still have games in hand.
Canos knows that, in spite of the encouraging recent signs, it would take a brave man to suggest they are safe.
"I think we have done incredibly - and whoever says the opposite is lying," he adds. "If every team that came up to the Premier League had the chance to have 30 points right now, they would sign the paper on the first day of the season.
"We are not safe, for sure. It is going to take until the end of the season, but we will work hard to get the wins before. We are quite confident and we will deal with it quite well.
"The way we earned those points at the beginning of the season, we knew that was our time and that bad times were going to come. Bad times come to every team, even if they play in the Champions League or are in the relegation battle. It happens to Manchester City, to Liverpool - why not to Brentford? They were very crucial points.
"You can see the confidence is back here. In the last three games we have played really well and we deserve to have the points we have.
"With the way we have played and the way we have shown people how we play, I don't think we deserve to be in the conversation, but we will just keep trying to win and make sure nobody talks about relegation."
This season has provided an invaluable - albeit challenging - learning curve for Canos.
And if Brentford's form continues on an upward trajectory throughout the run-in, with any luck, he will be able to continue in the Premier League as an even more well-rounded player next term.
