How Wissa and Mbeumo forged Premier League's most lethal partnership

Adrian Clarke looks at key tactical points and players who can be decisive in Matchweek 10.

Player analysis - Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)

No Premier League club can boast twin forwards as lethal as Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo this season.  

The Brentford duo have been on fire, scoring 12 goals between them already, despite Wissa missing three matches through injury.  

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Upcoming opponents Fulham will be acutely aware of the threat the pair carry on Monday evening - especially as they scored all the goals in a 3-0 loss on home turf in last season’s home meeting with the Bees.  

Ruthless finishing

Remarkably, Thomas Frank has the two most clinical finishers in the division at his disposal.  

Both averaging over 38 per cent shot conversion rates, only Chris Wood, among players to have scored at least three times, can boast a figure as impressive as the Brentford pair.  

Best conversion rates 24/25*

*Min. three goals

What makes this top five even more interesting is that all the players have spent part of their careers in the second tier.  

Mbeumo, Wood, Jamie Vardy and Liam Delap have all cut their teeth in the Championship, while Wissa also learned his trade in Ligue 2 in France.

With finishing as sharp as this, it is no surprise Wissa and Mbeumo also feature inside the top five for minutes per goal this season among players to have scored at least three times. 

Best mins per goal 24/25*

*Min. three goals

Wissa, 28, who also finished last season in stellar goalscoring form, is as hot as it gets right now.  

The DR Congo international has been involved in 10 goals in his last eight Premier League appearances for Brentford, with seven goals and three assists. And across these appearances, Wissa has scored or assisted every 52 minutes. 

He is a danger man that Marco Silva’s men must shackle.  

A natural poacher 

As shown below in the build-up to one of his two goals against Ipswich Town last weekend, Wissa - seen centrally here on the last last of the defence - likes to stay right down the middle.  

With Mbeumo and Keane Lewis-Potter holding their width, the Bees are good at creating space for midfield runners to burst into, and both Vitaly Janelt and Christian Norgaard are good at making those runs.

Wissa’s heat map from that epic 4-3 victory last Saturday provides a clear picture of the positions he likes to take up.  

Staying central, between the width of the boxes, he does not waste energy trying to link play down the wider channels.  

Wissa's heat map v Ipswich 

He scores with every 31.6 touches of the ball, a record that puts him behind only Erling Haaland (18.0) and Wood (28.7) in terms of efficiency (data correct at the start of Matchweek 10).  

Very much a six-yard box poacher, Wissa showed, when scoring from close range against Manchester City, Crystal Palace and Southampton, that he has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. 

A special left foot 

Cameroon international Mbeumo, who is still only 25, possesses one of the strongest left foots in English football.

His cleanly struck volley inside a minute away to Tottenham Hotspur typified the prowess he boasts with that weapon.  

Mbeumo's goal v Spurs

It is one of eight left-footed goals he has scored already in 2024/25.  

Most left-footed goals 24/25

A different type of goal getter 

The prospect of making an impact in yet another London derby will also appeal to Mbeumo, who has become somewhat of a specialist in this type of fixture. He has scored 11 goals in his last 13 derbies. 

Mbeumo is not a striker, but a wide forward specialist who is very much at his best cutting in from the right.  

Creating 17 chances already this season, he offers Frank’s side more than just goals, with his dribbling skills a vital part of their armoury.  

Frank has developed a side that attacks quickly and directly on the break, and having delivered eight shots, including three goals and seven key passes from his own ball carries, he is terrific in this aspect of their play.  

Most of Mbeumo’s goals have been calm one-touch finishes inside the danger zone, but as seen on his shot map below, the winger is also happy to fire off efforts from distance. His battle with Fulham’s excellent left-back Antonee Robinson at Craven Cottage promises to be a high-class duel.  

Work in progress as a pair 

Often playing a fair distance apart, looking to stretch the game, Wissa and Mbeumo do not pass to each other a great deal. 

Over the course of their last two appearances, the pair have shared just six passes, so that link-up play is an area to work on.  

We did catch a glimpse of how effective they can be on the opening day of the season though, when Wissa dropped deep to knit a direct attack together, releasing Mbeumo at speed to surge in behind Palace's defence, as shown below.

He scored from that break, so if the duo can develop this type of chemistry over the coming months, they will be an even tougher prospect to handle.  

Mbeumo's goal v Palace

This west London derby features two sides who continue to perform above expectations.  

It feels as if they are beginning to earn wider respect this season, and that certainly applies to Wissa and Mbeumo. 

This Brentford double act have enjoyed a fantastic start to 2024/25.