Confident Flekken: Brentford Keeper Mark Flekken One on One
Brentford and Dutch International goalkeeper Mark Flekken moved to the Premier League last summer, filling the void left by David Raya’s loan move to Arsenal. After learning his trade in Germany with Alemannia Aachen, Greuther Fürth, Duisburg and Freiburg. Looks like he’s ready to make his mark in the EPL.
Mathew Rice goes one on one with Dutch Shot stopper.
You’ve said you found it hard to adjust to English football. After making 12 saves against Manchester City in the recent 3-1 defeat, do you feel you have “arrived” now? The moment I got here I was like, “I’m just going to continue doing what I was doing the last few years and it should be good” but during pre-season I noticed I had to step up my game a lot to get along and get used to the Premier League, the new team and the playing style at this club. I underestimated that change and wouldn’t have thought I would need that amount of time to get used to everything around me on and off the pitch, a big change with the family. I was in Germany for so many years that there were a lot of things you were used to. Changing countries is not that easy. I’m happy to say I feel I’ve found my place right now.
Goalkeeping has changed hugely in recent years. Was playing out from the back always in your blood? The demands for a keeper are no longer staying on your line and kicking the ball out, there are so many more things to do. I grew up with it in the academy at Roda JC and as keepers there we had to participate in the technical training, doing stepovers and things like that.
Have you always had the confidence to put your foot on the ball and look attackers in the eye? It’s grown over the years, a mixture of having the balls to play out from the back, knowing what you can do without overestimating over your own abilities. But it’s not only about that – I don’t need to just play the ball, it has to be efficient. The player I’m passing to has to have at least two options himself. You have to find the right solutions. It’s nice to play smooth but it’s all about finding the right balance.
But do you detect a nervousness among fans when you are attempting to play out in tight Situations? Yeah, of course, sometimes you hear from behind: “Kick it out!”. They have to know we train stuff like that, the manager demands things like that from us, playing out from the back with a certain amount of risk and for me it’s about balancing the risk and reward.
What was behind the move to the Bees and how have you found the difference to the Bundesliga? It all fitted well together, the conversations before I moved to Brentford. They have shown me a lot of footage where I could see myself playing with them. There is a difference between the leagues and the biggest one is if you try to build out from the back and there is one mistake, you get punished by 15/16 teams here. In Germany, if you do that, you get punished by five, six or seven teams.
Do you get less time on the ball in England? Not necessarily. It depends who you’re playing against. Some teams wait for the pass to put pressure on the receiver. You can choose to go long and when you have a guy like Ivan Toney it is a little bit easier.
Did you watch videos of your predecessor Raya’s style of play? They showed me some footage because it contained the way they wanted to play but the difference between David and me is in his passing he is a little bit more smooth than me. They were big shoes to fill the moment he left and the moment they wanted me to come in. It hasn’t been easy but that’s the challenge I signed up for and it’s up to me to get through that challenge.
How much of a relief has it been to have your main striker Ivan Toney back from his betting ban? I have to be honest – Neal Maupay is not doing too badly! We have two goalscoring strikers up front right now, with Neal having a real good run, but Ivan gives a dimension to our whole build-up play. He’s the kind of striker who can flick a ball into space if you kick it long. It mixes up your own game and you have a few more options. One long ball can be enough to score a goal.
Will you stay up this season? Yeah, definitely. We have the quality in the team to do that. We just have to put the hard work in and minimize the errors we’re making at the moment.
Five things to know about Mark Flekken:
Flekken grew up in Bocholtz, Limburg in the Netherlands on the German border. His parents René and Annie used to play football themselves and his younger brother Roy also became a goalkeeper but it was Mark who began his youth football with RKVV WDZ before joining Roda JC Kerkrade. He made his international debut for his country on March 26, 2022 in a friendly against Denmark and currently has six Dutch caps.
The goalkeeper admits he learnt to play so impressively with his feet during his time in the academy at Roda in his native Holland, a skill he would later come to be renowned for and which attracted English top-flight Brentford to him in the summer of 2023.
In 2009, Flekken crossed the border from Holland into Germany, where he spent 14 years playing for Alemannia Aachen, Greuther Fürth, Duisburg and Freiburg before making his move to England. He was a DFB-Pokal runner-up with Freiburg in 2022. It was the 2021-2 season which established him as Freiburg’s No.1, during a run of ten matches unbeaten.
The 30-year-old kept four clean sheets in his first 22 appearances for Thomas Frank’s side after signing in the summer for £11million (£16.8m) and has quickly made the gloves his own at the Gtech Community Stadium. Against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in February, Flekken made 12 saves in the 3-1 defeat.
Flekken’s 70 stops in his first campaign with the Bees saw him endear himself to the Brentford faithful, having filled the big shoes vacated by predecessor David Raya – who joined Arsenal on an initial loan deal last August. Flekken’s ability to play out from the back has seen him become popular with supporters.
