Both teams too timid, flight regrets, spark missing, lack of depth – notes on Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Swansea

Huddersfield Town fell to a 1-0 defeat to Swansea yesterday, in a game where they saw little of the ball but managed to mostly frustrate our opponents and the game’s only goal was only conceded thanks to an unkind deflection that took it away from Vaclik. 

It sounds like sour grapes to whinge about losing a game where your team only had 25% possession but this was Town’s first defeat in six games and they’ve had similar stats in most of those games too. I don’t think Town’s game plan was to blame for their defeat in this game, it was the execution of it that fell short, as they struggled to cause Swansea enough problems despite having opportunities. 

Thankfully, results elsewhere were kind to Town and we’re still above the relegation zone but our position is precarious. With four games to go, we still need a couple of wins to be confident we’ll be playing Championship football next season. 

Two overly cautious approaches cancelled each other out

I think the two games between Swansea and Huddersfield Town have been the worst games to watch in terms of entertainment. Town have played far worse in other games, but in both the home and away fixtures against Swansea I’ve been bored to tears by the football served up. 

Swansea are more to blame than Town, as their walking-football style of play, where they just hold the ball and do almost nothing with it has been the thing that’s killed off both of these games. We’re just not good enough to stop them from doing it. In this most recent game, we were too negative, sat too deep and paid them too much respect. 

Sitting deep has paid dividends for Town in recent weeks, with Millwall, Watford and Middlesbrough losing to this approach and Blackburn only able to draw. All four of those teams were more positive than Swansea though, and their frustration with Town’s resolute defence meant that we had more gaps to exploit when we broke forward. Swansea’s patient build up was both tedious but, in the end, effective for them.  

Town probably deserved a defeat but could easily have had a draw

I think Swansea fans might be outraged by this opinion but I think a draw might have been a fair result from this game. I don’t think either team did enough to win it really. While Swansea had all the possession and had a lot of shots from range, they never really threatened us apart from their chance that hit the post in the first half. 

Town were no better though, Headley’s chance in the first half that he blazed over was probably our only really presentable chance and that was hardly more than a half-chance really. 

I think a draw would have been right because both teams mostly cancelled each other out in this game. It was a drab affair that most people will want to forget now it’s over. 

Now that I think about it, Town probably deserve to come away from this game with nothing because at least Swansea were the ones trying to create something and were pushing for a goal (in a ridiculously patient, tippy tappy way). All we did was soak up pressure and try (and fail) to launch counter attacks. So I suppose if there’s little to pick between two teams, the one that shows the most positivity should get something from the game. Though Swansea’s way of being positive is probably the most negative brand of possession football I’ve seen since Mark Robins’ experiment with this type of play at Huddersfield Town – which largely consisted of Anthony Gerrard standing with his foot on the ball shouting at players in front of him to move about more. 

Young guns not quite ready

One of the key issues for Town in this game was a lack of quality in the squad. There were several changes made to the starting eleven yesterday, and I feel like that hampered our chances in this game. Not that I don’t have high hopes for Headley and Diarra but neither excelled in this individual game despite them earning praise from Warnock in the post-match interview. I think he praised them because their effort and application was great but they’re just not quite ready yet, though may not be far off.

I thought Diarra’s neat footwork and tenacity did well to get three Swansea players booked but I can’t think of a great deal else that he added to the game. There’s no question that he’s got a great deal of talent but the majority of games he’s started this season have been a bit underwhelming and the obvious potential he has hasn’t yet translated into a top-level Championship performance. This was another of those games – where he showed flashes of ability but it didn’t add up to an end product like such as an assist or a goal. 

Headley had Town’s best chance of the match but I think he had too long to think about it and blasted it over. This lack of composure occurred on a couple of other occasions, where potential breakaways stalled because of him failing to pick out passes to release a teammate. Having said this, I still think I prefer him to Ruffels, as he has a bit more about him going forward and plays like a proper wingback rather than a left back that is pushing up a bit, as Ruffels typically plays that role.

Town lacked the spark of their recent games

I’ve been a bit harsh on Headley and Diarra above, as I think Warnock’s instinct to bring in fresh legs for this game was correct as the players that have played most of our recent games looked leggy in this game. Rudoni had his worst game for a long time in this match, which isn’t too much to worry about as he’s been consistently good until this game. Others struggled too, with the likes of Ward and Hogg also seeming to be lacking zip too.

I think the last few weeks will have been physically and mentally draining on the players, as every game has been like a cup final, where they’ve put everything they’ve had to give into each game and then had to recover for the next game and do the same again. Add the long coach journey time on to that and it makes sense of why Town seemed a bit lethargic… 

Warnock regrets not flying

Neil Warnock admitted in his post-match interview that he slipped up not asking the sponsors to pay for a flight down to Wales for this match to avoid the lengthy coach journey there and back. While this may anger climate activists and penny pinchers, there is a logic to trying to limit the amount of time the players spend in coaches, traveling to games. Even more so when we’ve got another away game on Tuesday night.

Liverpool recently received a load of stick for flying back from their away game at Newcastle instead of making the three hour coach journey back to Merseyside but I think there are logistical arguments that can be made for a short-haul flight to cut out a six and a half hour coach trip, particularly when we’ve got two away trips in four days. 

Tuesday night’s game against Sunderland is another chance to pull away

The other results fell kindly for us, with no other team in the bottom end of the table winning, we’re still in an OK position heading into the last four games. That can change quickly though, so a win against Sunderland on Tuesday night would be ideal to calm my nerves and to stop my habit of repeatedly looking at the league table, hoping that it will reveal some sort of secret to me if I just stare at it harder.

Sunderland are chasing promotion and will be a tough opponent but we’ve already proven in the last few weeks that we don’t need to fear teams at the top end of the league. I just hope that we can show a bit more aggression that we did against Swansea and be a bit more positive – we’ll still most likely sit deep and soak up pressure but we need to make sure the attackers make it count when they manage to get into Sunderland’s half.