Huddersfield Town beat Rotherham United 2-1 in the Caraboa Cup on Wednesday night. It wasn’t a good Town performance and we were lucky to beat a spirited Rotherham United. There have been plenty of grumbles about the game online, so I thought I’d write about the positives we can take from the game.
Jordan Williams looks like a good right-back
Williams overlapped regularly and put in some decent balls to the box. He also tracked back well and looks like he can defend.
Now Town have signed Florent Hadergjonaj it looks unlikely Williams will get many more chances to play for us this season. Based on this performance I think a League One or Championship team would want to take him on loan. That would suit the player, Town and whichever club picks him up.
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The fringe players got time on the pitch
While I think David Wagner will use all of his squad over the course of the season, some players may have to be patient. The league cup is a good chance to give competitive game time to players that have only played friendlies so far.
There were signs of rustiness from nearly all the players in the first half. Dean Whitehead and Michael Hefele both looked like they lacked match sharpness. Better they make errors and misplace passes in a less important game than a Premier League fixture.
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It was another game to watch
There are 8 fewer games in the Premier League than in the Championship, so the gaps between games seem huge. Particularly when you factor in international breaks. Having another game to watch, even a fairly poor one, is a bonus.
Getting through to the next round means we get to play Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park again. I’m sure they’ll be about as delighted as we are at the prospect. At least we know we can beat them, even if the forthcoming fixture doesn’t have quite the same appeal as the opening day of this year’s Premier League.
Philip Billing was superb
Chris Schindler was only ever going to play one half of the game, so Philip Billing replaced him at halftime and Dean Whitehead dropped into the centre back role. Billing played superbly, retaining possession well and showing off his full range of passing.
Most impressively, he improved all the players around him too. He managed to get our attacking players on the ball in the positions where they can hurt the opposition. He looked better for having Danny Williams doing more of the defensive duties in midfield, as he was able to roam forwards.
I've been critical of Phil Billing in the past but he's turned the game for us tonight. #HTAFC
— TerrierSpirit.com (@SpiritTerrier) August 23, 2017
Depoitre doesn’t have a weight problem
There had been talk that Laurent Depoitre was carrying too much weight and that was why he didn’t make the bench against Newcastle. I can confirm that rumour is rubbish. He looks to be in good shape. He’s massive but there doesn’t seem to be any extra flesh on him.
“The brickie”, as he’s been affectionately called by some fans, covered an awful lot of ground and is surprisingly quick for his size. He gave Rotherham’s back line a difficult night with his physicality and relentless running. I suspect the shirt pull that won us the penalty was the result of being sick of trying to mark such a colossal human.
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We found a way to win
Paul Warne, Rotherham’s manager, said they deserved to win. It’s hard to argue with him. They fought harder than Town for much of the game and caused us problems. I quite like the idea of Town being able to play badly and win.
Obviously, it’s better to play beautiful football and win, but we showed resilience and found just enough quality to get ourselves ahead and stay there. There was some luck involved and a couple of great Joel Coleman saves, but we got there in the end.
All your positives add up. I have one negative – not from the game but for the draw: we went to all that effort to be drawn against Palace. The draw time was daft enough, but to draw them when it’s been just a fortnight since we last played them is just silly.
I will not be at the Palace for the rematch with them as there’s bigger fish to fry with away games in the Premier League, and my preference was a game closer to home.