Dean Smith believes playing two strikers will leave his Brentford side more defensively exposed after being questioned over his formation after the Bees' 2-0 loss to Barnsley.

Despite being a goal down, the first two changes saw Josh Clarke replace Sam Saunders on the right wing before Josh McEachran replaced Sullay Kaikai in the middle.

It was only when Brentford went 2-0 down that Smith brought on striker Philipp Hofmann to try and drag the west Londoners back into the match.

Smith explained: “We could have done and we looked at that but then you concede possession and it's easy for teams to counter attack.

“I always felt we were in the game as we were controlling the game. Maxime hit the bar at 1-0 and if any of those went in it's a different game.

“They scored with their first chance in the first half. They could kill time and counter us.”

Hofmann made his first appearance since being outclassed by 15-year-old Ethan Ampadu at Exeter in the EFL Cup in August and Smith wants to see the German improve to adapt to the rigours of the Championship.

The Bees boss added: “He's been training well and he's played a couple of friendlies and scored but he knows he needs to up his level to deal with the Championship.

“He needs to be more athletic and be stronger physically. He will get better as he's still a young lad. He works hard in training every day.”