Harlee Dean has been looking to exploit any one per cent gain he can find in order to be on his best form at Brentford.
The Bees changed set piece coach this summer and some cunning plans have already been seen in pre-season.
Against Millwall last Saturday, three Brentford players stood in front of Jordan Archer to distract him as he tried to set up the wall and, while Dean wouldn't give anything away, he revealed there were new tricks coming.
He said: “We've got a new set piece coach and he's got some really good ideas that we've been working on.
“The (one from Millwall is) one of his many tricks. Although it looked like it worked that free kick was probably going in. At the same time, it's a marginal gain. It can give us an edge so why not try it.”
The Bees defender has not scored since his equaliser against Fulham in November 2014 and he has turned to psychologist Tom Bates in a bid to end his drought.
He added: “Batesy the psychologist has some books. I'm reading a book about positive mindsets. I was going into games thinking I'd miss, now I think I'll score. It's marginal gains and I've been working on it in training.
“Football is 20 per cent mindset in my opinion. Batesy is here so why not use him. I needed something to help me try and score goals – it can only improve my chances.”
Brentford may try and do things differently but fans can't help casting an envious eye at big spending Newcastle, Aston Villa and Norwich, the latter of whom signed former Bees Alex Pritchard and Sergi Canos this summer.
For the Bees defender, he sees past it and believes every club is in this division for a reason, although raised laughs when he pointed out one thing Brentford have that the others don't.
He joked: “We've got a captain at the Olympic Games – they haven't got that!”
Dean added: “They're big clubs who've spent a lot of money. They're in the same league as us for a reason.
“Our record against the top eight wasn't good but we've got to be better this season. We're trying to out-think teams now.”
One area Brentford need to improve on is the defeats column as, last season, they were an all or nothing side, drawing just eight times.
Dean said: “We've always thought that you might as well try and win and lose than go for a draw. If we're drawing 1-1 we'd rather try and win 2-1 and lose 2-1 if it comes to it.
“That's how it's been here. Maybe it's different this season and we have to go to some places where we'll take a draw and walk away.
“We didn't have many draws but had a lot of wins and too many losses. We won as many as Sheffield Wednesday did last season so maybe that's a mindset thing we've got to change.”
