Brentford resume their Championship campaign at home to Millwall this weekend, as the Bees look to pull themselves further from the drop zone.

Thomas Frank’s Brentford are 17th in the Championship after 11 games, after what’s been a poor start to his first full season in charge.

His side are the joint-second lowest scorers in the league with only nine so far - Ollie Watkins has scored seven of them.

Brentford entered the international break on the back of a narrow 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest, a 1-1 draw with Bristol City and a 3-1 win over Barnsley.

They’ve certainly upped their game since the earlier parts of the season, but are still finding wins hard to come by with only three in the Championship all season.

It’s looking like Brentford’s season will be a bit of a slog and there’ll be plenty of players diving in and out of Frank’s first-team.

Here we take a look at three players who need to impress between now and January to ensure their place in the team:

Said Benrahma

The Wizard of West London, Said Benrahma is a cult figure at Brentford.

He joined the Bees from Ligue 2 side Chateauroux in 2018, making 38 appearances in the league last season and netting ten goals for Brentford.

This season though, Benrahma has not been as prolific. The Algerian missed the start of the season and didn’t make his first appearance until the end of August.

Since then he’s made a few starts and substitute appearances, but has failed to live up to the levels he showed last year.

He’ll be one that Frank will be keeping a close eye on over the coming months, and could well leave him out the matchday squads if his performances don't better.

Josh Dasilva

Battling with Benrahma for a place in Brentford’s midfield is 20-year-old Josh Dasilva.

A product of the Arsenal youth academy, Dasilva joined Brentford in 2018 and made 17 appearances for the first-team last season.

He’s made eight so far this season, and scored a fine goal in his side’s 1-1 draw with Bristol at the start of the month.

With the injury to Sergi Canos, Dasilva could make a hatful of starts between now and 2020.

But with Benrahma fighting it out for the same spot, he’ll have to be at his best to nail a starting spot at Griffin Park.

Nikolaos Karelis

In the shadow of Ollie Watkins lies Brentford’s Greek striker Nikolaos Karelis. He’s watched from afar this season with Watkins in such fine form, but with reports linking Watkins to Sheffield United in January, Karelis could be coming into the fray.

He’s made only three appearances this season since joining from PAOK in the summer, all of them from the bench.

Karelis has been a proven striker with the likes of Panathinaikos and Genk but hasn’t been favoured at all by Frank.

With the possibility of Watkins moving on, Frank may turn to Karelis instead of buying in a replacement.

Karelis will have to prove his worth in training between now and the New Year, and hope that Frank puts the trust in him come January.

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