Before Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in February, head coach Thomas Frank labelled Mads Roerslev as “Mr Reliable”.

At the time, this seemed like somewhat of a passing comment, complimenting the right-back for his solid performances, but after looking up the dictionary definition of that word, which states that it is something or someone that is ‘consistently good in quality or performance, and able to be trusted’, it is absolutely the perfect way to describe the 23-year-old defender.

The Bees have played against the Premier League’s ‘big six’ ten times this term, winning four, drawing three and losing three. Roerslev started seven of those games - the only games he didn’t feature in were the 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal and the recent 1-0 loss against Liverpool at Anfield.

That means that Brentford have conceded just six goals in those eight matches Roerslev has played against Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea (twice) and Manchester United (twice).

Roerslev is clearly a player that Frank calls upon for the big occasion.

Before the aforementioned Palace game earlier this year, Frank added: “Mads is extremely good one-v-one defensively, defending the box, and is very strong with balls in behind.”

Those attributes are usually associated with experienced players who have had years plying their trade at the top level, so the maturity Roerslev has shown since Brentford’s promotion to the Premier League has been impressive, to say the least.

And the right-sided defender admits that he has a former Bees team-mate to thank, in part, for his development - even though he unintentionally gave him a slightly unpleasant welcome to the club in 2019.

When asked if there is a reason why his one-v-one defending is one of his standout attributes, Roerslev reveals: “I actually think it came from when I first got here. I was 19 and every day I was against Said Benrahma in training!

“Everyone who was following us back then knows what sort of player he is - he likes to dribble all the time and he is really good at it.

“So, to be against basically one of the best guys in the whole league, that probably got me a long way in terms of my one-v-one defending.”

Questioned if there were any particularly difficult moments against Benrahma in training, he adds: “There will have been, but I can’t remember anything specific right now - I've probably tried to forget them!”

Roerslev tells another story, of before his move to west London from Copenhagen four years ago, where he learnt his defensive principles, which came with a slight humbling from a 35-year-old defender at his former club.

He explains: “I got a lot of inspiration for my one-v-one defending from a guy who played in Copenhagen when I was also there - Tom Hogli.

“He wasn’t very quick, he wasn’t very big, and he was also quite old, but no one could get past him. I thought, ‘This can’t be true!’

“So, after training, I told him we’d do some one-v-ones and I’d go against him, I was thinking, ‘I can go past this guy.’

“But he knew the exact distance he had to have to me; if I took a big touch, he could slightly put his body in front or accelerate.

“He taught me a lot. It’s all about body positions, distances, everything like that. You have to consider where the most dangerous place for your opponent to take the ball is.

“If you're one of the last guys and you have the chance to let him outside or inside, then maybe give him a bit more opportunity to go one side and then take it from there because, sometimes, it's about damage control.”

When asked if those intricate defensive details come from experience, he adds: “Yeah, 100 per cent. It's the repetition, but it's also logical at times: you have to position your body the way you want to run, so you’re able to take your next step the fastest way possible.

“The distance part is the hard part. That takes a lot of repetition.”

Repetition and consistency are often said to be key to success and are common themes when hearing top athletes discuss the major factors in their rise to the top.

Roerslev is no different and, in the build-up to any game, he says that he will prepare in exactly the same way, whether it’s for a Carabao Cup first-round tie against League Two opposition or a clash with Premier League champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

“I’ll always do the same thing,” he says. “Things like getting lots of sleep, eating good, staying hydrated. It doesn't matter who we face, I’ll do that ahead of every game.

“Of course, it's about getting in the mindset as well; preparing yourself mentally for a potentially difficult task.

“I think that's one of the things that this group has been really good at: going out with respect, but still believing that we can win, even when we play against Man City away, for example!”

He adds: “I'm kind of a control freak, so if I know something is good for me, I'll do it. Things that aren’t necessarily proven to be beneficial, like superstitions, I don't really care about.

“If I know that, from a scientific point of view, it’ll help me, I’ll do it. Like sleep is very important to that. So, if I’m lying there on the pillow the night before a game and I can’t sleep, I'm like ‘F***!’”

Fortunately, it’s not been forwards that have been leaving Roerslev with sleepless nights this season.

However, there has been one opponent Roerslev has gone head-to-head with that, when he was an aspiring young footballer at school in Denmark, watching the Premier League on the television, he could have only ever dreamed of coming up against.

When asked if he still gets those pinch-yourself moments when coming up against the division’s top players, Roerslev responds: “I would say ‘no’ about every player, other than [Cristiano] Ronaldo. With other players... it’s not normal, but we’re used to it now.

“But a player like Ronaldo... that was the only time when I looked back a few times and was just like, ‘Holy s***’. It felt like he was an action figure walking around the pitch.

“And, when I was younger, playing with my mates in the schoolyard at lunch, I would be Ronaldo, one guy would be [Wayne] Rooney, so it's so funny that I’m now actually playing against this guy.”

Enjoying this interview? Read other instalments in our Long Read series, including in-depth conversations with Ivan Toney, Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen

Again, talking about Roerslev, Bees boss Frank said that “no matter what you throw at him or who he faces, he performs”. And when you look at the players he has come up against this season, including Ronaldo, it’s hard to disagree with.

Phil Foden, Heung-min Son, Marcus Rashford and Gabriel Martinelli are just a few of the world-class forwards Roerslev has managed to keep quiet - or as quiet as possible - down the right side.

There is plenty of evidence that highlights how good he has been at the back this term, including the 1.27 tackles he has made in the defensive third per 90 (60th percentile), the 0.37 shots he has blocked per 90 (70th percentile), and the 2.84 clearances he’s made per 90 (88th percentile).

But sometimes it’s hard to measure defensive solidity with numbers; game intelligence and positional awareness are potentially unquantifiable.

Looking to delve deeper into the intricate details of defending, we talk through some of Brentford’s and Roerslev’s key games and battles this season, starting with the 4-0 home win against Manchester United. The clean sheet against Chelsea is next on the agenda.

The talking point from that particular match was the Blues’ sheer strength in depth on the bench, which saw them bring on Mateo Kovacic, Christian Pulisic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling.

Sterling came straight out on the left wing to face Roerslev, who had already played over an hour at the Gtech Community Stadium that Wednesday night.

So, just how difficult is it when a team like Chelsea can bring those fresh legs on late in a game, and how do you combat it, especially if you feel some fatigue starting to set in?

“It's actually quite rare that they’ll be coming straight at you with speed, unless it's a counter attack, someone is out of position, or someone has lost the ball,” Roerslev continues.

"We analyse the players, and you’ll already know some of them as well - their strengths and their weaknesses.

“With someone like Sterling, he’s a really tricky one-v-one player, really fast, so maybe you need to adjust like half a step to cut the line.

“With some of the other ones who like to go inside more, maybe you can take that little step the other way. So, it's just about knowing your players.

“If you’re positioned how you're supposed to be, with our principles, we should be able to put pressure on before we get to that point where it's a one-v-one or someone is the last man.”

Sterling is someone that crops up again when I ask Roerslev about his toughest opponents and, while the Chelsea man couldn’t make an impact that night at the Gtech, the Bees defender admits that the England international is an extremely tricky customer.

"A player like Sterling does what other players do, just with so much quality,” Roerslev says.

“It’s his explosiveness and speed, and then he's quite smart because he's just waiting for those small fouls and knowing where to put his body between the defender and the ball, trying to get that contact for a penalty or a free-kick

“He's definitely one of them where, after the game, I've been like, ‘Wow’.”

I bring the conversation back to something Roerslev mentioned earlier, which ties in nicely to the next game I want to focus on: the fantastic 2-1 win at Man City in November.

He referenced some players who ‘like to go inside more’, in contrast to a traditional winger, like Sterling, perhaps, who is more likely to dribble and drive at you down the flanks.

An example of one of those no.10-type wide players is Foden, who started and scored in Brentford’s victory against Pep Guardiola’s side earlier this season.

When asked how he has to adjust when playing against that sort of player, Roerslev states: "It's a very different challenge.

“With wingers that drift inside a bit more, you're not going to get exposed in as many direct one-v-one actions, because they usually go in and stay between the lines, and then we might get the centre-back to step onto them.

“Again, it’s all about the positioning, and communication as well. You can't really do anything on your own so, to stay in the game, you have to communicate to the people around you all the time.

“Against these players, the crazy thing is that you can't switch off at all, because it only takes a second and they’re then suddenly in your blind angle with an explosive run.”

He adds: “With the world-class teams, sides like Manchester City for example, the difficult part is when they've been attacking for large portions of the game and we've been defending, shuffling from side to side, pressing, organising, up, down, up, down.

“On the other hand, they've been calmly moving the ball around, breaking through, having a shot get blocked, then they get the ball back.

“So, when you’ve been defending for like six, seven, eight minutes straight or something, suddenly you get the ball and everyone is tired - that's the hard part about playing against these teams.

“It tires you mentally as well, especially when you have players running at you and around you all the time that you have to be aware of.”

Roerslev, who signed a new three-year contract with the club in February, has now clocked up 37 Premier League appearances and, having performed brilliantly against some of the top footballers on the planet, which has been shown in households across the globe, I wonder whether that has changed things for him.

Being so down to earth, unsurprisingly, he isn’t fazed by seeing himself on Match of the Day or FIFA - it’s the little things that amuse him.

“There are some fun things,” he admits. “I remember that, for a while, every time I would go to the local Sainsbury's, next to the cashier, there was like a little box with football cards in.

“Every time I was in there, I took a pack just to see if I could get myself - I took one every time until I did!

“I packed a lot of the other guys, but it took me a while to get myself!”

That day, as Roerslev walked out of the supermarket with his groceries, he slipped the football cards into his trousers.

And that wasn’t the first time - and certainly won’t be the last - that he had some of the Premier League’s best players in his back pocket.