Huddersfield Town were defeated 3-1 by Leicester City, in a match that Town were punished for a series of silly mistakes. While we also spurned good opportunities at the other end, I’ll remember this game for how easily we let our opponents score against us.
Here are my thoughts on the individual errors that led to the goals…
Erik Durm has a rush of blood to the head
Leicester first goal was the sort that you don’t see many teams concede. Town had a corner but contrived to turn our advantage to Leicester having three players running clear through on our goal.
There were a few people you could point the finger at for this goal, but the biggest error came from Erik Durm. He was one of the players hanging back to defend against the counter, and left his post to intercept a loose ball. This was fine in itself, but rather than play the ball simply, he chose to try and burst forward and gifted the ball back to Leicester and he was then completely out of position.
Leicester are a famously effective counter-attacking team, so it’s disappointing that Town’s eagerness to attack gifted them such an easy path through to goal. Iheanacho did a good job with his finish, but it was a goal that was entirely preventable.
Diakhaby’s first and second touch gift Leicester a freekick
James Madison’s freekick was superbly struck, but the set piece was awarded because Adama Diakhaby followed up a poor first touch with a lunging tackle which brought down Mendy. The Leicester player did well to put pressure on the ball, but it was surprising how sloppy Diakhaby’s touch was and there were no complaints about the freekick being given to Leicester.
It’s still very early in Diakhaby’s Town career, but he’s yet to impress in the few appearances he’s made. There’s no doubting that his pace could be a huge asset to Town, but his all-round game needs to improve. There were a few occasions on Saturday where his touch let him down and gave Leicester the ball back.
Rajiv van La Parra’s sloppy pass
Leicester final goal was well-taken by Jamie Vardy, but the whole attack started when Rajiv van La Parra stroked a ball straight to a Leicester player. Town has possession in Leicester’s half and were pushing for an equaliser but a careless pass by VLP was followed by a decent through ball to Jamie Vardy and the game was over as a contest seconds later.
This goal had a very familiar feeling to it. So often Town will start to try to push up to chase a game in the closing stages when we’re behind and leave the backdoor open. Obviously it’s important to try to attack the opposition when you’re behind, but our inability to come back from losing positions is at least partly down to our habit of being far too open when we start attacking more.
It’s not all doom and gloom…
The things that gives me hope about this result is that we could have won the game if we hadn’t made a series of basic errors. We were competitive and had spells were we played the better football. Everyone makes mistakes, I hope that the players I’ve mentioned above learn from this game and will be less likely to make the same blunders again.
While it wasn’t a classic Town performance, we weren’t outplayed. We’re still waiting for our first victory (and our season to officially start!), but we’ve been not been outplayed in our last three games and could have come away with more than the two points we currently have.
This is likely to be a tough season for Town but it’s far too early to get despondent about our position. We might stay up, we might go down, but I don’t believe we’ll go down without a fight and that’s all any fan can really ask for from Town.
I also think that from the free kick by Maddison, if the ball goes in when it’s 3 foot from the post and three foot under the bar – the keeper should be saving it. Not convinced by Lossel at all!
Neither do i rate Hamer either, shocking in last game he played.
Also , who do you expect will score our goals ? We never score , 3 goals this season.
I go to all the games, home and away, and I like the blog. It gives a balanced view and the analysis is good. Two specific points (1) Diakhaby was also at fault for Everton’s equaliser (weak challenge before the cross): I don’t think he’s up to the physical challenge of the Premier League at the moment, (2) we spilled clear chances again at Leicester: Depoitre’s when clean-through for example. One general point: individual mistakes are costing us, very, very dear, I don’t think there’s much David Wagner can do about that: the players have to step-up and concentrate.
A lot of people are saying Pritchard not starting is a factor, but I disagree. We haven’t scored a goal from open play yet, so why bother with a play-maker. Summer signings with the exception of Kongolo (who we already knew about) have been a waste of money. Wagner appears clueless at present.
If you point the finger – fairly – at VLP’s poor pass it might only be fair to give him th credit for the perfect pass to set De Poitre on his way. Maguire did well to get back but I’d expect De Poitre to finish chances like that. He did last year.
Such fine margins though. We have lost 5 points from winning positions – 3 against Leicester and 2 against Everton plus we could and should have had more against Cardiff and Palace. Look where we would be in the table then!
We can’t be that far off.