6 revealing stats from Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Norwich

There is a wealth of data that comes out of every football game played these days. Trying to make sense of all the stats can be tricky, so I’ve cherry picked six statistics from Town’s defeat to Norwich to try and make sense of the game and the problems Town currently face.

Only 1 out of 12 crosses found a Town player

Whipping balls into the box from wide positions seems to a major part of our new attacking strategy. Despite Town having relatively few chances to attack in this game we still managed to get twelve crosses off. The problem is that only one of them found a man.

There were always plenty of Town players getting forward when we attacked but we consistently failed to find them in good positions. This suggests the quality of the balls in weren’t good enough or the players in the box weren’t getting into the right positions.

Danny Ward’s absence and Koroma playing out of position will have hampered us here a bit. We’ve also just sold the best header of the ball we’ve had since Andy Booth, so are less of a threat in the air.

Regardless of the players in the box, 1 in 12 is a poor ratio and we need to improve our crossing or look at other ways of opening up the opposition.

0.28 xG was the lowest expected goals in the Championship this weekend

Some people are venomously against xG as a metric but I find it an interesting look at the quality of chances teams have. While we had seven shots in the game, the map shows they were all relatively harmless and we didn’t create nearly enough in the final third.

We threatened the goal the least out if all 24 Championship teams last weekend. This shows where we need to strengthen our attacking options (if we didn’t already know!).

If our new attacking philosophy pays dividends we should see the xG numbers increases over the weeks as we create more opportunities to score in better positions on the pitch. Then we need the players who can finish those chances.

https://twitter.com/secondtierpod/status/1305175531139346433

Stats show Toffolo becoming a dominant presence in the team

Harry Toffolo is becoming one of Town’s most influential players in the team. On Saturday he had more possession (6.2%), more passes (45) and more touches (17) than any other Town player, all while man-marking Cantwell, one of Norwich’s most dangerous players.

Despite only arriving at the club in January and being in his mid-twenties, Toffolo is showing real leadership on the pitch. If ever we were looking for a new captain, he would not be a bad candidate.

Given that Carlos clearly wants left footed centre backs on the left of central defence and expects them to be comfortable on the ball, I wouldn’t be surprised if Toffolo was shifted to central defence for Brentford next weekend while we wait for Sarr to finish his quarantine period.

Bacuna heatmap shows his wandering tendency

Plenty of Town fans have grumbled about Bacuna’s performance on Saturday and his heat map suggests at least some of the problem.

He was meant to be playing as a right winger but the yellow blobs on the graph show that he was mostly wandering around wherever he liked.

I don’t know if he was given a free role or specific instructions to drift out of position but it seems unlikely. His body language and general level of effort suggested he wasn’t listening to any instructions at all.

While our squad is so thin it seems unlikely we would drop a player with such obvious natural ability but I can’t see him continuing to get picked if he doesn’t show willingness to adapt to the new system.

We got caught in possession too often

Town were dispossessed 15 times compared to Norwich’s seven, which suggests we got the ball stuck under our feet too often. When you look at the players most guilty of being dispossessed this stat makes even more sense, with Pritchard, Bacuna and Karoma all being dispossessed 3 times in the game.

Allowances can be made for Koroma, as he was often isolated up front and was trying to break through the last defensive line. Pritchard and Bacuna were both guilty of being too slow in possession and this stat shows they got caught out because of it.

We’ve been told that the ambition is for this team to dominate possession but that won’t happen when the players given creative responsibility tend to run down blind alleys and give away the ball. We need to get better with the ball at our feet.

Jackson had a tentative Championship debut (but can now build on this)

Ben Jackson made his Championship debut against Norwich at the tender age of 19. He deserved it too, after impressing during preseason. However, he struggled to make an impact upon this game and was subbed off in the second half.

Jackson made just seven passes and only found a teammate with two of them. This shows just how hard it is to step up from academy football to the Championship, especially in midfield where time on the ball is so limited.

I had to think carefully before including this stat about Jackson’s passing because I want to protect our youngsters from criticism. But I decided to include it because it makes a useful point about how we need to be careful about the number of youth players we introduce.

I gave Jackson a six out of ten in my player ratings because I thought he did OK considering it was his first game at this level. While he didn’t contribute loads he also didn’t let himself down and worked hard on the defensive side of the game.

The next step in his progression will be to look to force his way into games and show for the ball more. The great thing for him is that he’s got the passing ability to really shine if he does get more chances to show it.

So, to be absolutely clear, I’m not criticising Ben Jackson and I think he’s got a very bright future at Town. He just needs to build upon this initial experience and use it as a platform to get even better.