Huddersfield Town played out a scoreless draw with Burnley, with neither side doing enough to take all three points. Here are some of the major talking points from the game. Includes THAT dive, gushing praise for Schindler, talk about our lack of goals, Dyche love for Hogg, and a quick look at our run of upcoming fixtures.
van La Parra’s dive
Having seen a replay it looks pretty bad. In real time it looked like he was playing to win a penalty and didn’t get the contact he was aiming for. Is it cheating to try and draw a foul in the box? Probably not. Is it cheating to hurl yourself at the ground under minimal contact? Yes.
If VLP had been more cunning and drawn significant contact from Lowton he’d have received plaudits for “winning” a penalty. As it stands he deserves a bit of stick for going down so easily. It’s never good to see that kind of thing on the football pitch, and it’s even worse when it’s a player for a team you support.
While diving is something that’s a long way from the identity David Wagner has instilled into Huddersfield Town, I think it’s important to move on from the incident. People on Twitter have said he is being fined and disciplined by the club, so there’s no need to dwell on the incident.
van La Parra is already a divisive figure among Town fans, some hailing is unquestionable skill, while others point out his frustrating tendency to make poor decisions in the final third. I hope Town fans continue to back him whenever he’s on the pitch, even if they have their reservations.
The connection between the fans and players is so important to our success. VLP made a mistake against Burnley, he’s been punished for it, so we should all move on from it.
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Schindler is becoming a demigod
Demigod: A mortal elevated to divine rank.
Forget trying to measure Schindler’s ability in millions in the transfer market, you can only really begin to comprehend his contribution to Town when you compare him to minor deities. He’s just so good. He was exceptional in our promotion season, but he’s playing even better this year when up against far superior opposition.
He does a lot of impressive stuff on the pitch, but he’s also great at some of the under the radar defending that breaks up play before it develops into a dangerous situation. There’s no value you can put on the difference he makes to the team. He and Mooy are currently on a different level to the rest of the squad.
People are already talking about the risk of bigger clubs coming in for him in the January window. Given that Premier League survival is probably worth over £100m to Town it would really take silly money for us to part with such a key member of the squad.
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Is there a goal drought at Huddersfield Town?
Town have only scored two goals in the last five league games, so it’s fair to say we could be scoring more. I’d be more concerned about the lack of goals if we weren’t creating chances but we are. Every game but the West Ham game has seen Town show real attacking intent and dominate spells of the game.
I think we’ve been poor at converting good football into clear-cut chances. This isn’t a problem we’ve developed this season, it was an issue last year in the Championship too. We regularly played teams off the park but most of the games we won were by a single goal.
The fact we managed to do so well last season while still not scoring enough when we were on top makes me think it’s not the worst problem to have. It would be nice to be smashing goals in, but it’s worth looking at the league table and see we’re managing to pick up points despite not being prolific in front of goal.
I also think Mounié getting back to full fitness will give us a more potent threat up front.
Sean Dyche REALLY likes Jonathan Hogg
It was nice to see how generous Sean Dyche was in his praise for Town in his post-match press conference. He’s clearly a nice guy and a good manager. He also said “I love Jonathan Hogg”, which I think is a concern for one of two possible reasons.
- He means he’s in romantic love with Jonathan Hogg and intends to kidnap our midfield enforcer and hold him captive in a two-berth caravan on the outskirts of Morecambe. OR…
- The love he refers to is the kind of love a manager has before he asks his chairman to make a huge bid in the January window. Losing Hogg to another team that could be fighting to survive at the end of the year would be almost as bad as the caravan in Morecambe option.
⚽️ Burnley boss Sean Dyche praised Huddersfield Town's start to the season after the two sides met today #HTAFC #twitterclarets #burnleyfc pic.twitter.com/sP109G97BL
— Proper Sport (@ProperSport) September 23, 2017
Our fixtures get really tough now
Town’s next few games start to look tricky after a relatively easy start to life in the Premier League. We may look back at the draws against Southampton, Leicester, and Burnley as missed opportunities.
We could have easily won any of those three games with a bit more luck quality or creativity. Will we regret not taking those chances? Particularly if we fail to pick points up against the big boys.
Tottenham at home, Swansea away, Manchester United at home and Liverpool away are our next four games. Can we get four points from these games? Maybe. I’ve stopped trying to guess what Town are capable of, but it’s going to be hard to keep our momentum going.
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Check out the TerrierSpirit.com player ratings for the Burnley away game.
You can’t take draws when there was a chance of a win or you may as well set up to draw – they are points dropped the draws in recent memory if we go on a barren run.
Am I the only person who has heard lazy star struck pundits tell me that when a ‘star’ goes to ground its because when a star is running fast even minimal contact can have that effect? If he has been fined its because Wagner knows we never get penalties so its best to have a go if you can.
If Dyche is so keen on Hoggy ( and he is) why didn’t he take him to Burnley from Watford when he had the chance?
This season no point in regrets. My motto is ‘everybody is doing their best. If its not good enough its not their fault its where we currently are as a club. Lets improve by encouraging players and signings. Not by slagging off. When we get a man better at beating a man than VLP we can play that man instead. Until then let’s just be grateful we have VLP.