Glorious goals, captain Sorba, same old problems, Rhodes spite, special teams subs – Notes on the Stockport friendly

Huddersfield Town traveled to Stockport yesterday for a friendly and came away with a 4-0 victory. While it’s important not to get too carried away with preseason games, particularly when they’re against a team from further down the divisions, there were some positive signs on display alongside the important fitness test for the Terriers. 

The game was played at a fairly good tempo for a friendly game, I don’t think Neil Warnock would allow any team of his to drop their standards for even a meaningless game like this. While it wasn’t anything like a proper league game, there were some full-blooded tackles and there weren’t those horrible lulls you sometimes get in friendlies, where the players almost stand on the ball to get their breath back. Both teams went for it and had a go. And while the Championship will throw up stiffer opposition than Stockport, I actually thought they were pretty decent, and they made sure we didn’t have it all our own way. 

Here are a few of my thoughts from the game.

Town scored some decent goals

Each of the goals had something different to like about them. Danny Ward’s opener was a nice strike but also the consequence of some generous goalkeeping too. But it was good to see Wardy looking sharp and seeing opportunities to get shots away from the edge of the area. His instinct to roll his man and get a shot away was nice to see and reminded me of the young Danny Ward who was signed on loan from Bolton, who would shoot from just about anywhere in the opposition half. 

I liked Josh Koroma’s goal mostly because he’d tried to score his trademark, curler-to-the-right-of-the-keeper shot moments earlier and when he was clear through again he opened his hips up as though he was going to try the same again but it was a trick and he slipped it in at the near post instead. Someone must have told him that there are other ways of scoring goals. Warnock said that he can see him scoring double figures this season, based on preseason so far, it’s hard to argue with him.

Jack Rudoni’s goal wasn’t all that tricky, given that the neat interchange in the build up put him clean through on the keeper but these were the kind of finishes he wasn’t putting away for most of last season. So it’s good to see him tucking a chance away, even if it’s in a low-stakes friendly. 

The fourth and final goal was the pick of the bunch, with it starting off in our own penalty box with Ayina using his strength to hold off some pressure and then weighting an excellent ball out to Diarra in midfield. He then went on a mazy run through midfield where he eluded a variety of hapless Stockport trialists before threading a lovely ball through to Hudlin, who galloped through and buried the ball into the corner of the net with conviction. The Stockport team on the pitch was heavily weakened by this point but it was still a lovely move and showcased the quality some of our youngsters possess.

Sorba looked at home in Neil Warnock’s system and even became captain for a while

This was the first preseason game I’ve seen, so it was the first time I’d properly seen Sorba Thomas at Huddersfield Town since his loan move to Blackburn and it was reassuring to see him looking like his usual self. The way he left in January suggested we might not see him in a Town shirt again but I’m now optimistic that he will be a key part of Neil Warnock’s plans for the season ahead.

In footballing terms, Sorba was one of the best performers on the day in my eyes. He put in an admirable amount of work defensively, frequently tracking back to cover his flank but he also made sure his starting position was high up the pitch to push them back and put us on the front foot. He put in some decent deliveries, both from open play and set pieces. I think his radar will improve when it comes to getting his crosses pin-point perfect, but it was still clear to see we had missed his deliveries while he’s been away.

Neil Warnock is famously a good man manager and Sorba Thomas is a player that needs a lot of man management to get the best from him. He’s got a lot of talent but can go awry if not handled carefully. 

I think there were already signs of Warnock’s subtle skills being deployed in just one game. He kept Sorba on for the full 90 when everyone else was rested, while this was most likely due to the thinness of the squad, it also means he can tell Sorba he’s a bit special because he’s the only one capable of doing 90 minutes. He also gave Thomas the captain’s armband for that final spell of the game, which is another way of making Sorba feel wanted. 

It was nice to see Sorba speaking in his interview with the club’s internal media team after the game. He seemed relaxed and at ease at the club. Before he left for Blackburn, he had a permanent scowl on his face and his mindset was quite obviously impacting his performances on the pitch. Hopefully, the opposite will be true and this happier, relaxed Sorba will produce his best form when the season starts in just under a fortnight.

The same problems are still obviously there

While I think this game produced mostly positives, I did think that the same issues that we saw with this squad last season were apparent in this game. It may sound like a daft thing to say after a 4-0 victory, but I still think this game showed that we need a striker. Wardy took his goal really well in the first half but after that we went back to that issue of really struggling to get any decent service to him. 

So we need to buy a striker that fits the kind of team we are, not the one we want to be. I don’t know which specific striker that is, because I don’t have a good insight into who’s available and what our budget is, but I’d like to see us get a player that can play up front on his own and cause problems without needing loads of support from those around him. Because I’m sick of saying, Ward wasn’t great but it wasn’t his fault because he had no service. Let’s get a striker that can do a job even if the players around him aren’t doing him any favours, then we might be able to get something from those games where we’re up against it a bit.

The other thing we’re still crying out for is someone who can control the game in the middle of the park. We were playing a League Two team yesterday and still struggled to control the flow of the game. We dominated for some spells, but not others, the game ebbed and flowed but we didn’t really assert ourselves upon it like you would expect a team two leagues above the opposition. That was because we didn’t control the midfield battle.

These problems with the squad are long-standing ones. It’s a tradition of every transfer window for Town fans to beg for a striker to be signed. And the dominant midfielder role has been vacant since Aaron Mooy left for Brighton (and since then he’s been to Shanghai, Celtic and is now retired). So, I’m not really all that bothered that the club haven’t yet rushed into the transfer market to make their moves this summer. I’d rather we get the right players, even if it means waiting until late in the window, as these are not easy problems to solve and these problems have been around for a while.

Subs unusual attributes provided a “special teams” approach

I often find myself switching off in friendlies when all the substitutions happen, as games can become a bit meaningless when both teams have become like Trigger’s broom (or The Ship of Theseus if you want a more high-brow reference) – with all the component parts changed and no longer resembling the team that started the game. But this game was probably at its best when we made ten changes around the hour mark and let our youngsters have a run out. 

I thought Brodie Spencer, Loick Ayina and Yuta Nakayama all did well in the back line when they came on. Spencer went in for some crunching tackles, Ayina was strong but also showed some delicacy with his passing and Nakayama got forward really well despite technically being a centre back. But it was the players further up the field that really caught the eye.

As this season will allow nine subs to be named on the bench, it will allow for a wider array of options to be included and players with more unique skill sets can be given a slot just in case they’re needed. This could suit some of Town’s fringe players as we have a few players that could be solutions for a variety of different problems.

Hudlin is the tallest player in English football, so he’s the perfect example of how to exploit this rule change, as we can chuck him on if we’re chasing a game and want to cause chaos. He’s not just tall though, he’s incredibly strong and is probably better at holding the ball up than he is at winning it in the air, as once he sets himself he’s almost impossible to move. 

Similarly, Pat Jones is ridiculously fast. There were a couple of situations yesterday where he won balls that he had no reasonable right to be the first to, where he nipped in front of a Stockport player before they realised what had happened. Adama Diakhaby is a cautionary tale of why speed on its own isn’t a solution to all our problems, but Pat Jones looks to have more in his locker. So he could come off the bench if we want to use pace to get in behind a team with a high line.

Then there’s Brahima Diarra, who is a magician with the ball at his feet and can and will try to dribble past anyone. He was still trying to do a bit too much a lot of the time but he did get an assist when he played it simply to Hudlin for the fourth goal yesterday after driving the ball up field. But having someone with a bit of magic in his boots can help get fans out of their seats and just provide some excitement in games where it’s going flat and you need to get some creative spark. 

Without nine subs, it might have been tempting to have sent some of the youngsters out on loan but with the ability to involve more players in matchday squads and the fact that this crop of youngsters have such exaggerated attributes in certain areas, it’s worth keeping them around and using them when we need them. A bit like the way an American Football team has specialists for different roles, like offense, defence and special teams.

Why was Rhodes there?

One final thought, which didn’t really fit in the other sections, was the decision for Jordan Rhodes to be taken to the game but to be an unused substitute. He’s been linked with a move to Derby this week but that obviously isn’t that close if he’s been made to come along for this game.

It seems that Rhodes isn’t part of Warnock’s plans, as he played Kian Harratt and Kyle Hudlin while leaving Jordan Rhodes on the bench, which you wouldn’t do unless you were making a point. But if that was the plan, I don’t really understand why Warnock didn’t just leave Rhodes at home. Perhaps it was so Rhodes could have the benefit of the warm and warm down, or see the sights of Stockport. Or he might have done it to make a point that he really will become the fourth or fifth choice striker if he doesn’t leave Huddersfield Town this summer. 

I’m guessing, but I suspect that Rhodes is on a decent wage at Huddersfield and any potential move away would involve a reduction in pay. Therefore he may have the choice of sitting out his contract on decent money or playing regular football for less money. So the mind games being played here could be significant (or I may be drawing way too much into it).