Marinus Dijkhuizen admits his appointment as Brentford head coach is a “brave decision”, but believes he is the perfect match for the ambitious Championship club.

The 43-year-old, who guided minnows Excelsior to safety in the Dutch top flight last season, was announced as former manager Mark Warburton’s replacement on Monday.

He said he sees himself as a good fit for the Bees, who finished fifth in last season’s Championship, and hopes to take the west London outfit one step further.

Dijkhuizen said: “I was with my friend last winter and he said to me ‘what do you want in the future?’.

“I think about it and I say that I want to coach in England.

“I like a story – it is a good moment to come in, they want to go further and I want to go further.

“I think it is a brave decision, but I fit as a person and as a trainer with the club.”

The tall Dutchman, a former striker, said one of his first priorities was to ensure last season’s top scorer Andre Gray, who has been linked with Championship rivals QPR, remained at Griffin Park.

He said: “Yes, I hope we can [keep Gray].

“He had a good season and it is important to have good strikers.

“I’m just looking now at my own players, I have a lot of quality players like [James] Tarkowski, Gray, Jota and a good goalkeeper in [David] Button.

“A new coach means a chance for everybody and with me everybody gets a chance, it doesn’t matter if you are 18 or 30, the best players will play.”

But Dijkhuizen admits he has a lot to learn about the Championship after a previous trip to watch Brentford beat Coventry City in League One stirred his interest in managing the Bees.

He said: “I have been to Brentford once before, with my father and brother, to see a game in March 2014.

“We stood on the terrace behind the goal and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of football.

“There was some very good play.

“We also loved the ambience in and around the stadium.

“That is football at its best.”

He added: “I have followed them as they have gone up and I have to get used to Championship level.

“We want to get, as a club, better and, as a team, better.

“I don’t know the strength of my own team, but also other teams – I hope we are one of the best sides and I think we can push forward with good positional play.”

He added he favours the 4-3-3 formation, which Brentford played last season under Warburton.

His appointment forms part of Bees owner Matthew Benham’s new management structure, with Dijkhuizen working under co-directors of football Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen.

Former manager Warburton, who held talks with Scottish club Rangers this week, departed the club after Benham made clear plans to introduce a more statistical approach to running the club.

Ankersen, who is also chairman at Benham’s Danish club FC Midtjylland, said the new head coach embraced Brentford’s methods and would bring ideas of his own.

Among the “radical ideas” to be replicated in west London is texting statistical analysis of matches through to the head coach at half-time.

“We wanted an open minded coach, show he could create results by thinking differently,” Ankersen said.

“We are not going to win by spending more money than the competition, so we have got to out think them.

“He embraces the club’s methods and has brought his own ideas to the table so we can learn a lot from Marinus as well – the job he did at Excelsior was magnificent.”

Dijkhuizen will not have to wait long to discover who his first Championship opponents will be as the Football League fixtures are announced on June 17 at 10am.