Carlos’ lucky chinos, imaginative strategies, yapping dogs, a niggly ref & maximum effort – notes on the Swansea win

Huddersfield Town beat Swansea 2-1 in a hard fought encounter in South Wales yesterday. It wasn’t the purest form of Carlosball we’ve seen so far but it was the most impressive win under Corberán in my view. Swansea are a good team that have started the season well but we came with a gameplan which, with a bit of luck, paid off.

Here are a few of my unassociated ramblings about the game…

Getting the tactics right

We didn’t start this game particularly well and seemed to invite a lot of pressure onto ourselves which led to several good chances for Swansea in the opening exchanges. Thankfully Jamal Lowe spurned the best of these and injured himself in the process, which diminished his influence for the rest of the game.

Town didn’t sparkle in the first half but there was a steady improvement and it felt like the collective belief in the plan grew after Toffolo guided in the opening goal even if an equaliser followed shortly after. Town’s three at the back seemed to get more and more solid as the game went on and the midfield did a better job of closing down the space in front of them later in the game and forced Swansea into playing long in the closing stages.

I was really disappointed with the tactics Town used against Brentford as it felt like we set up to lose because we thought we could try to out play a team that was better than us at their own game. The tinkering with the formation and style for this game showed that Carlos isn’t dogmatic about 4-3-3 and can think up imaginative strategies to overcome the opposition.

While the principles of Corberán’s approach were maintained, the three central defenders gave a more solid base and the two wide players moving in to cover the gap at centre forward gave us more of a foothold in the game. Against weaker opposition I’d like to see a more attacking formation but Carlos judged this occasion perfectly and showed we can get results against teams with better players than us.

Fitness improving

I thought our fitness really showed in the final stages of this match, with Swansea struggling to match our intensity and resorting to lumping balls into the box because we left them with no other options. We chased them all over the pitch like yapping dogs and didn’t let them settle on the ball.

The players deserve credit because they’ve been asked to do more than most will have done in the careers before in terms of training. Carlos talked post-match about how it’s important to see some rewards for their hard work on the training pitch. I’m sure he meant this because he needs the squad to buy into the project he’s started and winning football matches is the easiest way to build that support.

Jan SIewert’s legacy at Town last season was to leave behind a squad of players that were barely fit enough to complete 90 minutes without keeling over, nevermind to run continuously for the full match. While I’m not convinced Town’s identity has ever been free-flowing attacking football, I do think we’ve consistently been a hard-working team and I love to see that work ethic returning. It feels like a proper Huddersfield Town style of playing when we’re harassing the opposition and not letting them get any time on the ball. We had it under David Wagner but lost it. Now it seems to be coming back.

Niggly ref

I find moaning about referees to be a tedious pastime, so I’ll make this brief. The referee was poor for this game. I feel more comfortable saying it after a victory because that eliminates the chances of it being sour grapes. He blew for what seemed like every tiny infraction by a Town player and let similar fouls slide for the home team.

I know most fans think the penalty decision was shocking but I can see why it was given. Hamer didn’t get the ball and made contact with the player. Many referees wouldn’t have given it but I don’t think it was an outrage or an awful decision. To put it another way, I’d have been calling for it at the other end but possibly have been a bit surprised to see it given.

I just thought the ref had an agenda to stop the game from flowing and wanted to put himself into the middle of the action. The best referees go through the game virtually unnoticed and only intervene when necessary but this guy couldn’t stop blowing his whistle.

Injured players returning improve options

For the Norwich game at the start of the season we didn’t have enough first team players to fill the starting XI and had to play Ben Jackson in midfield (who was fine but probably not ready for that level of responsibility at this stage in his development). Now the injuries have healed and we’ve not accumulated too many new ones there are more options for Carlos to consider.

It was nice to see some options on the bench against Swansea that could change the game. O’Brien and Campbell both added energy and bite to the team at vital stages in the game and helped us to hang on to the lead. If we were behind we had Pritchard and Diakhaby as more attacking options. Having a fit and fresh squad means Carlos can use substitutes to make tactical changes that aren’t possible when we only had a threadbare squad.

Speaking of options, I would like to see Kian Harratt given a place on the bench soon as Ward’s lengthy injury and Campbell’s advanced years mean we’re short of options in the striker position. I don’t think Harratt is ready to start games but it would be wise, in my opinion, to give him some minutes as a substitute now so we know if he’ll be ready if he’s needed later in the season.

Lucky chinos

Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds has his big bucket as the thing that differentiates him from other managers. I’m starting to think that Carlos Corberán’s cream skinny chinos are his managerial calling card as he continues to wear them on the touchline. This is a football blog not a fashion blog, so it’s not for me to say whether this is a good style choice but I will say that Huddersfield Town’s fortunes seem to have been transformed under the stewardship of Corberán and those trousers.

I’m open to the possibility that these chinos may be lucky and are the source of the improvements we’ve been seeing on the pitch. When I mentioned this theory on Twitter there was someone in my replies that tagged the club shop account and suggested they start stocking Town branded skinny chinos. Don’t be surprised if this suggestion gets taken up. Stranger things have been sold in the megastore, such as the Efe Sodje’s bandanas or Steve Bruce’s novels.

I feel like Carlos' skinny chinos are his equivalent of Bielsa's bucket.

I hope he doesn't change them because he and his magic chinos working wonders for #HTAFC at the moment. pic.twitter.com/1uLuD875NW

— TerrierSpirit.com (@SpiritTerrier) October 18, 2020

Can we recover in time for Tuesday?

Onto less silly ideas, I’m curious to see how Town manage in terms of fitness on Tuesday night against Derby. If you watch the players at full time this season you can see they’ve given absolutely everything and look to be in absolute pieces. It’s similar to how players look in World Cup games after extra time and penalties or a heavyweight after going 12 rounds. I love that they leave it all out on the pitch but can you put in that level of effort seven times in three weeks without it taking its toll?

So far Carlos has gone for a fairly settled lineup, using a core of about 15 players in the league games so far. It could be that he rotates heavily now we’re getting into the hectic part of the fixture list and we see some of the fringe players coming in to allow others to rest. If not then the players that looked worn out last on Saturday evening will have to get their recovery work spot on to be able to repeat the process again on Tuesday against Derby.

The obvious solution to the issue of having to put in momentous effort every game would be to blow the opposition away and win easily. If we can go in at half time three nil up then we’ll knock the wind out of the other team’s sails and be able to pass it around without breaking a sweat. Maybe that’s a bit much to expect against Derby on Tuesday but I do get the feeling that everything will click for Town in a game soon and we’ll score a hatful for goals. Maybe that’s a tad optimistic but these recent performances by Town have got me believing anything could happen now.