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A tepid defence of Fotheringham, dour Huddersfield, inept tactics, Hungbo’s promise & bad passsing – Notes on Coventry away

Huddersfield Town lost to Coventry yesterday. Defeat is a familiar feeling to Town fans this season but this one was a particularly hard one to take, as it was a poor performance, with inept management from the sidelines and hinted towards worrying signs for the rest of the season. 

While Town are still within touching distance of safety in the league table, their inability to create decent chances against a Coventry team that were low on confidence and there for the taking is deeply concerning. The lack of ideas, both on and off the field meant there was little to feel positive about after the game.

Here are some of my thoughts on the game:

Hamer and Gyokeres the difference between the two teams

I thought this game was fairly evenly matched for long periods. Town had the majority of the ball and Coventy struggled to live with the intensity of Town’s press in the early stages of the game. That faded and it became more give and take but there was a spell where we were on top and with more attacking nous, we could have pressed home our advantage with a goal or two.

Instead, we couldn’t convert decent build up play into clear-cut chances and instead, too many of our attacks broke down in the early stages due to sloppy passing or lumped balls to nobody. 

Once the game had settled into a pattern, it felt like it was fairly well-balanced, with neither team being significantly better than the other. What really made the difference was the fact that Coventry had two match-winning players in their team that can produce a moment of magic in a tight game. Town, on the day, failed to produce anywhere close to the quality Hamer showed when he danced through our defence and curled his shot in at the far post. Or when Gyokeres made Ruffels look silly before crossing for Palmer’s goal. 

The new signings we’ve brought in may have some of these qualities, we don’t know yet, but within our current squad, Sorba Thomas is the only one that has reliably been able to turn games with a moment of brilliance. And we’ve just shipped him out to Blackburn. I appreciate there are likely behind-the-scenes reasons for his departure but even accounting for off-field spats, it seems bonkers to loan out your most creative player when you notoriously struggle to create chances. 

Woeful passing

While I’m complaining, I’d like to point out that our passing was dreadful at times yesterday. Nearly every player was guilty of misplacing basic, short passes in dangerous areas when they were under little pressure. I don’t know why this is happening so much but it seems to be a recurring problem. 

Our overall pass percentage was fine, at 79%, so it’s not that we’re generally bad at passing but there just seems to be that we make unforced mistakes at the worst possible moments. I noticed Scott High was particularly guilty of this but others did it too (and to his credit, he produced the pass of the game when he released Hungbo late on). 

If I was going to guess why we’re making so many mistakes, I would speculate it’s a combination of players that are too frightened of making mistakes and are therefore actually making them more often. If you think about the times you’ve had overbearing bosses watching over your shoulder, they’re always the times you’re more likely to mess things up. And the other factor is possibly that this team are just not as good at football, collectively, than the Town squads we’ve been used to watching in previous seasons. We’ve recruited so much from the lower leagues that we’ve become a bit too League One as a group.

Town so dour

The thing I found hard to swallow about yesterday’s game was just how dour it was to watch. The team selection was structured around containing Coventry, keeping things tight and not committing too many players forward. 

Fotheringham talked in his early days about wanting as many attacking players on the pitch as possible but Rhodes and Rudoni were the only two that I would say were genuinely proper attackers. Holmes played more like a defensive winger, selected more for his ability to protect the weak and vulnerable Ruffels than any genuine attacking threat.

If yesterday’s Town team was a meal it would be boiled potatoes with mince, no gravy, no onions and cooked for twenty minutes longer than it should have been. It was designed to be functional but not pleasant. This would have been acceptable if we’d have been able to bully our way to a 1-0 with ugly football but setting up so negatively and losing doesn’t really have any redeeming qualities. 

Terrible subs and inept tactics

So Plan A didn’t work, as I mentioned above, which means that Fotherinham needed to make a change. Thinking back to previous head coaches, both Corberan and Cowley would change their tactics several times before half time in most games. I think you could count the number of tactical changes Fotheringham has made mid-game on one hand in all the time he had been at Town. He has a “set it and forget it” approach to his team’s shape and tactical system. I’ve no idea what he’s shouting from the sidelines all game because it never seems to make any noticeable difference to the game.

When Town were losing the game yesterday, Fotheringham decided to still stick with three central defenders, despite the fact he had strikers and wingers on the bench he could have swapped them out for. This would have helped unbalance the attacking dynamic in the game and at least helped us pose more of a threat. Instead he made three like-for-like substitutions. 

Fotheringham has said in his media interviews that he was one of the most talked about young coaches in German football but I’ve seen nothing to suggest this from his in-game management so far at Town. He gets more wrong than he gets right with his substitutions and, as I mentioned above, he never seems to make any significant adjustments to his team’s shape in the games. I’m no fan of endless tinkering but he’s far too far at the other extreme.

Hungbo lives up to “The Entertainer” title

One substitute that I think helped Town yesterday was the introduction of Joseph “The Entertainer” Hungbo, he came on for Duane Holmes and gave us much more threat and spark at the top end of the pitch.

Seeing him on the pitch made me realise how slow our team had been until that point but adding some pace to the top end meant we had someone that could stretch Coventry when we played balls down field and he looked very lively when he was played in behind. 

It’s early days yet and other than a shot that went straight at the keeper, he didn’t produce much in terms of end product, but he does seem to have a bit about him and I’m excited to see more from him. 

We’ve so short of creative players at the moment, it’s a relief to see anyone in a Town shirt that looks like they want to take a player on and make something happen in the final third. Based on his brief cameo in this game, I hope he is given a start against QPR next weekend.

A reluctant and tepid defence of Fotheringham

I had a quick look at the Town hashtag on Twitter last night and wasn’t surprised to see there were a lot of demands for Fotheringham to be sacked. This happens after every game Town lose but it feels like the volume and insistence is growing now. 

Personally, I don’t think it’s time to get rid of Fotheringham yet. I don’t think he’s doing an amazing job. I won’t even say that I particularly like him either, I find his personal style too abrasive and the way he talks himself up a bit too cringey but his results aren’t as bad as some fans make out given the situation he’s inherited.

He has currently managed 18 league games, won five, drawn four and lost nine. This gives him 19 points from those 18 games which is ever so slightly above the one-point-a-game threshold that is generally seen as enough to ensure survival. 

Given the squad he has inherited, the morale when he took over and the bad luck with injuries, I think the record so far is fine. Not good but fine. The way he talks in press conferences suggests he’s a hero but I think it’s somewhere between a 6 and a 7 out of 10 job he’s doing at best. 

But in football there’s no room for people to say someone is doing an average job, they can only be the best or the worst thing ever. If we win our next three games then I’ll upgrade my assessment and say he’s doing great. Lose those three games and he probably should get the boot. That’s unfortunately how fickle the world of football management is.

The main reason I wouldn’t be inclined to sack Fotheringham now is that we wouldn’t be able to replace him with anyone worth having in the current structure anyway. If the rumours are true that Leigh Bromby has oversight over much of the day-to-day operation of the football club then no experienced manager is going to watch touch the Huddersfield Town managerial job with a barge pole. That might also explain why we keep ending up having to gamble on nobodys.

Providing he can keep picking up the odd result, I think we have to stick it out with Fotheringham. If he fails to keep us up then I don’t think just getting rid of him is the answer. I think the whole management structure needs a careful look at, though that’s most likely a job that needs to wait until the new owner is in place too. 

13 Comments

  • Keith

    I have learnt over watching Town on and off for nearly 60 years that it’s a mistake to be optimistic ! Especially with this lot, they’re just treading water. They must be the slowest team in perhaps the whole of the EFL, and have been for a number of years. No spark, no bite, just a depressing watch. Apart from the 3 central defenders, no one is up to standard. Since Toffolo left there’s been a gaping hole on that side, which should have been plugged in the summer.
    Perhaps things will change if the club get sold, but by that time we may be sinking into the div 2.

    • Scrooge

      Well the club allegedly is worth £1 now. If we continue as we are we’ll be paying someone to take it away soon.

    • Gavin

      Can’t agree about the three central defenders I’m afraid. Pearson has the turning circle of the Meltham bus and he is much slower than that. The best you can say about him is that he’s better than Boyle.

  • Glenn Rogers

    If MF was supposedly the most talked about young coach in German Football, perhaps the question should be “But what were they actually talking about?” Albert Einstein defined madness as keeping doing the same thing, whilst expecting different results.

  • Bob

    World Cup break, out of both cups, had two weeks off and Mark says the side needs freshening up. I judge everyone in training to whether they are picked, must have seen High for two at the most before being selected. There is something seriously wrong at our club from the top to the bottom.

  • Beck Lane

    The first twenty minutes or so were encouraging from a Town perspective we looked strong and likely to influence the outcome in a positive way; then gradually the opposition exposed our footballing limitations.
    The lack of pace of Rhodes, Lees, Pearson and Hogg leaves us vulnerable especially when aligned with clever movement. None of our defenders are particularly quick which invites scrutiny by speedier opponents. The only players with pace, ambition and ability were Rudoni and Hungbo.
    This was a desperately poor performance, Hogg in his true captain’s style again berated at least two of our younger players whilst remaining silent on refusing to tackle the first goal scorer and then almost setting up Coventry’s third goal with an even worse pass to an opponent.
    Sitting deep and poor passing means you simply cannot concede a goal and we did twice; those in Sky blue were simply superior footballers with good passing and movement our defenders had no passing options in midfield so ended up hoofing the long ball aimlessly gifting possession Coventry rarely resorted to this tactic.
    The fans are suffering from the mismanagement following last season’s play-off final failure culminating in the recent shopping at footballs equivalent of “Poundland” during the January sales.
    I don’t see how MF can be held responsible for this mess, if he manages to keep us in this division Peter Jackson’s “Great Escape” will pale into insignificance

  • Scrooge

    Most of the time the blog is pretty reasonable (apart from team predictions). This time the comments about Fotheringham, the players he took over and keeping him for a few more matches is just plain wrong. There isn’t time to wait for him to turn into a miracle tactician. 3 more losses and we can just about wave the Championship goodbye. To say he puts so much emphasis on training, the players look slow, jaded, lethargic and unfit. They have absolutely no idea what to do when they are in possession. There is no movement, nobody to pass to, no creativity so they are easily pressed into passing to the opposition. Fotheringham wears me down every time he answers question (or actually doesn’t answer them!) could it be he has that effect on the players too? He’s like the drone on a set of bagpipes. Bromby said we have to get it right this time (with this coach) but patently they haven’t so he has to go. Even if the severance costs are going to be high. Personally I don’t think he will last another week and Narcís ‘Chicho’ Pèlach will be in charge for at least the next match – at least I seriously hope so.

    • Beck Lane

      I forgot to mention re-Bromby, why have all the recent signings been of right sided players when all season the biggest issues have been on the left. Can someone eg Bromby please explain this?

      • Gavin

        And while you’re at it – ask Bromby why he brings in tier three defenders and midfielders while we are now in our fourth year without a quality Championship striker.
        And we all know Hudlin and Waghorn can’t fill that gap. Any more than Rhodes or Ward could.

  • kevin haskell

    The players don’t look as if they have a clue about what the plan is from the kick-off. They look like they are playing under pressure from a Manager that has obviously lost the dressing room. We have some decent players in the squad, yet game after game we look devoid of any ideas. Having no decent forwards with any pace up front means we will always be on the defensive. Sorba Thomas’s comments when arriving at Blackburn says it all to me they don’t trust the management team. Yes, he has been poor very poor since Wales call up but his demeanour since this muppett of a manager arrived has changed. we have no decent playmaker in the team or striker Rhodes is our only hope which speaks volumes as he is past his best now even though he plays his heart out. Until the Management team including Bromby go we are only going one way and that is downwards

  • Menotti

    I’m typically the last one to call for a manager’s head (and I was foolishly optimistic about MF when he was appointed), but in this case, I vote for sacking MF. He’s shown very little in the way of tactical skill or player management (e.g. fall-outs with Sorba and others, inappropriate public comments; hasn’t helped any of his players become leaders) or likeability. I can’t see anything to warrant staying the execution. The argument that we’re so bad a change probably won’t help much is weak, and it’s time just to acknowledge that hiring him was a risk that turned out not be worth taking. I agree that Narcis Pelach, who has three points from his one game in charge and actually seems liked, would be great choice to at least assume caretaker responsibilities until end of year. With him, I’d give us at least a chance of staying up. We’re going down for certain if MF stays.

    • Simon

      I agree with you, to have any chance of staying up, MF has to go. Any manager that feels he needs to talk himself up probably means he’s lost the fans and the dressing room.
      I saw somewhere that with the predicted results to the end of the season, there’s a 56% chance of Town being relegated. OK it’s not a certainty but that translates to odds on. That requires drastic measures. Another 3 weeks of this and that 56% will become over 75% and we get to a point of being unsavable.
      We need wins. Draws from here won’t do it. Somebody needs to get hold of the squad and deliver a speech of Churchillian proportions, galvanise everyone, and then find some tactical inspiration from somewhere. Cometh the hour, cometh the man…..and that man isn’t MF.

  • Derek Haigh

    MF has to go if we lose are next few games were doomed players dont look interested im afraid MF and LB ego’s are bigger than the club scrap playing with 3 central defenders and go for it only way and for God’s sake Hoyle sell the club fast if we go down nobody will invest in a Crumbling Stadium and a Team with no value and dont forget Terriers Fotherington is a legend in his own mind

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