What's happened to Igor Thiago? — SkimNews
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- Igor Thiago scored 22 Premier League goals in 2025/26 — the most by a Brazilian in a single PL season and the most by a Brentford player in a top-flight season in 88 years — but has scored just once in seven league games in 2026/27, compared to four at the same stage a year ago.
- Thiago started Brazil's opening 2026 World Cup game against Morocco under coach Carlo Ancelotti but was hooked at the 62-minute mark without further tournament involvement, having missed a close-range header and seen a fierce shot beaten away.
- Thiago is taking roughly three more touches in the opposition box per game and registering higher xG (2.41 after four league games) than last season, but fewer of those shots are finding the target.
- Thiago missed a penalty on the opening weekend against Tottenham — hitting the base of the left-hand post despite the keeper diving the wrong way — extending a drought that began late in 2025/26 and lasted seven games until he netted against Chelsea on September 18.
- Keith Andrews dismissed concern about Thiago's confidence after the Liverpool defeat, saying: "He's a marked man" and "his overall performances have been really good so I'm not really worried."
- Brentford sit sixth in 2026/27 with 13 goals from nine different scorers — only Brighton (23), Manchester City (19) and Chelsea (17) have scored more in the league — meaning Thiago's dry spell has not derailed the team.
Why it matters: Thiago remains Brentford's focal point even while misfiring — he leads the squad in high-pressure applications and ranks third for distance covered — and Andrews' public backing signals the club will not rotate him out. With his underlying shot-quality metrics trending up rather than down, Brentford's bet is that the finishing will correct itself; the risk is that a marked-man striker stuck on one goal in seven becomes a longer-term confidence issue rather than a blip.
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