Virgil Van Dijk has been peerless again this season, except when it comes to Nathan Collins matching him as the only other outfield ever-present player in the Premier League — and that hasn’t happened by accident. Barring an accident, for a short time this afternoon, nobody will have played more minutes in the Premier League this season than Collins, when he lines up against Manchester United, with Van Dijk, taking a bow later in the afternoon, a short distance away in west London as champions Liverpool take on Chelsea.
Collins turned 24 on Wednesday, with more than 100 Premier League appearances under his belt, whereas by comparison Van Dijk had yet to play in the Premier League at the same age, having just joined Southampton from Celtic. Collins probably won’t scale the same heights as his fellow centre half, but he continues to improve and nobody should put a limit on how far he actually can go.
“The ability to reflect and learn from your own performances is key for all of us if you want to get better,” said Brentford head coach Thomas Frank on Friday. “Nathan is a very good learner and he wants to improve and to push.”
The previous night, at the City Ground where Brentford beat Nottingham Forest 2-0, Collins had produced a high-quality 50-yard pass for Kevin Schade to score the opener, his third assist of the season. Defensively, Collins kept Chris Wood quiet and Forest were blunted as a result.
Other bald statistics about Collins’ season provided by Stats Perform are highly impressive: After 34 games, Collins has had more blocks than any other Premier League player this season; is sixth in the division for Duels Won, 10th for Possession Won and second for Aerial Duels won.
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Frank — and Brentford — attach considerable significance to these stats and the ones they collect for their own private use. “I use them to get an indicator of whether or not the player is going in the right direction and also to create a narrative to either praise the players or try to develop the next step.”
As usual, the Brentford head coach is very generous in providing as much information as he can to help us get an understanding of how his team and the individuals are working.
“The team is performing more consistently this season and that helps every player, not only Nathan,” says Frank, who is still hoping to better the 9th place finish of two seasons ago.
“Nathan has the most blocks because he is in very good positions, he knows how to be calm and defend. His ability to defend the box has taken a step up in his positioning and awareness and body contact. The duels in the air for example against Wood last night, the way he was reading the flight of the ball and knowing when to bump the opponent and knowing not to fight too much, all those things are taking small steps forward. On the ball, he has always been good and composed and his decision making is even better now, understanding the principles and then adding that extra layer of a great assist for Kevin.”
After arriving in England from west Dublin schoolboy side Cherry Orchard, Collins has a good injury-free record stretching from his time breaking into first-team football at Stoke City and then at Burnley and Wolves. If he missed games it was often because of indiscipline, but this season he has kept the card count down to seven yellows so far, working hard at that side of the game.
“He has worked very, very hard in the gym and on his recovery and done his best to optimise those areas. Every player needs to be a full professional from when they are 17, but he has learned from quite a young age.”
Having also captained Ireland in the absence of Seamus Coleman, it could hardly have gone better for Collins since his £20m move from Wolverhampton in the summer of 2023 when he signed for six years. As Frank puts it regarding the lengthy contract, “well done to Phil [Giles, director of football] and Matthew [Benham, club owner] for that.”
Today Collins will hope to ensure Brentford finish higher than Manchester United in the league for the first time since the Second World War, with a point against Ruben Amorim’s side needed to ensure that tiny piece of history with three games of the season still to play. Where he goes from here will be interesting, even should he see out his Brentford contract. Frank believes he can react better in the really tough moments: “When the heat is on he is good, but naturally a little bit up and down, we can all be that, including myself. Again, with a lot of things, it’s consistency.”
There is also the leadership aspect: A recent profile in the club programme was headlined “Natural Leader”, pointing out that he had captained Stoke when he was 18 and Frank is not going to disabuse us of that notion. “He wants to take responsibility and he is communicating more and more. I see a natural leader in him and he can progress it,” says Frank, who wants to make him part of the club’s leadership group. “He is not in it now, but he is going into it. The leadership group is one thing, but we have seven or eight players who are leadership characters. That means a lot.”
While Collins has had a great season, he still made a point of telling the Brentford supporters that he values playing for Ireland more than anything else and that being made captain in Heimir Hallgrimsson’s first game against England back in September had his family in tears. All of which is good news for Hallgrimsson, who has had to field tough questions about Collins in recent games after the centre half made a couple of high-profile errors. That’s understandable given the jumbled up state of Irish football in recent years, and the stability at Brentford has clearly brought out the best in the Co Kildare man.
Hallgrimsson played Collins as a defensive midfielder in the goalless first half of the 5-0 defeat to England at Wembley in November. That was a good plan which fell apart when Liam Scales was sent off shortly after the resumption and Collins moved back to centre half and Ireland shipped five goals in the last 40 minutes of that game. For Frank, however, Collins will be staying in a back four.
“He is a very intelligent player and he has the technical gift to play in there, but I probably see him more as a centre back if I am honest.”
After such a successful season, that is hardly a surprise.
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