Huddersfield Town tasted defeat for the first time this season after losing 3-2 to Blackpool despite playing against ten men for the best part of an hour. A calamitous period in the middle of the first half saw Town go from 1-0 up to 3-1 down and the red card that ended Blackpool’s period of dominance led to an unpleasant finish for Town as they huffed and puffed but couldn’t break down Blackpool’s impressive defence.
This defeat may be useful to bring down the skyrocketing expectations that our first three wins brought (including my own) but will hopefully only be a blip rather than anything more concerning.
Here’s what I made of each performance…
Owen Goodman – 5 out of 10
Looked like he should have done better with the first goal, even accounting for the deflection. The second was on his near post but the quality of the strike beat him. The third he came off his line and made himself big but left too much of his goal for Ennis to score into. None of the three goals were his fault exactly but I’d have expected him to stop one or two of them.
Lynden Gooch – 5 out of 10
Great run to latch onto the loose ball in the box and hit it so hard it didn’t matter it was close to their (admittedly dodgy) keeper. Did a lot of running down the wing but didn’t deliver the quality balls we needed to crack open Blackpool.
Jack Whatmough – 3 out of 10
Superb commitment to go in for a tackle he knew would hurt him and drew the red card but got a lot wrong otherwise. He was loose with his passing, misjudged the bounce of the ball and ran under it for the opening goa,l and looked rattled whenever Blackpool players came near him.
Joe Low – 5 out of 10
A few iffy moments and not the assured and mature presence he has been up to now. Too many of his passes came up short and he was part of the defence that fell to pieces for the period when we conceded three goals.
Sean Roughan – 5 out of 10
Nice balls down the line for Roosken to latch on to and tried to force openings during the second half even if it didn’t really work for him. Struggled with their left winger, who did have a decent game.
Ryan Ledson – 5 out of 10
Played a poor, badly-hit spinning ball that left Whatmough looking silly when it bounced over his head. Made a few wrong decisions in terms of whether to hang back or push forward. Was rightly hooked for a more creative player when it was clear Blackpool weren’t going to offer much of a threat going forward.
Herbie Kane – 5 out of 10
In the period after the red card, we kept giving Kane the ball in the hope he could unlock the defence but none of his passes did a great deal. Like many other Town players, he has a high pass competition percentage (89%) that actually hints at a lack of risk taking rather than executing his passes with more precision than usual. Too many safe options rather than trying to make something happen. As a player that has scored plenty from the edge of the box before joining Town, I’d have liked to see him have a go rather than continually going sideways and backwards with his passing.
Marcus Harness – 6 out of 10
Looked very good when Blackpool had eleven men and his movement and touches gave us more fluency in attack. Like everyone else, he struggled when up against an organised and resolute defensive display from Blackpool when they were down to ten men.
Ben Wiles – 5 out of 10
Not the cleanest strike for the goal but his low-power strike snuck past Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who looked just as bad as everyone says he is in (not that Town did nearly enough to test him). Toiled but didn’t have the bit of magic we needed to make a breakthrough.
Ruben Roosken – 7 out of 10
Good run to set up the first goal for Wiles. Made another penetrating run and squared across the box for Gooch to ultimately score our second. Found it much harder once space was contracted and looked short on ideas when he didn’t have gaps to run into. Maybe he should be lower than a seven but he provided the creative spark for both our goals, so I’m sticking with my score.
Alfie May – 5 out of 10
Didn’t have a lot of service but grafted away. Could have scored from Roosken’s cut back but his scuffed shot earned him an undeserved assist when Gooch fired the loose ball home. Looked better when he dropped deeper and Taylor was left to chase shadows.
Substitutes
Leo Castledine – 6 out of 10 – Added a bit of spark with his movement off the ball and had a good strike go wide late on.
Joe Taylor – 5 out of 10 – Registered four touches in half an hour on the pitch. Probably more down to lack of service than anything he did wrong but impossible to justify a higher score.
Marcus McGuane – 6 out for 10 – Had 42 touches despite coming on at the same time as Taylor, so got himself involved in the game. Probably not the ideal scenario for him to come in off the back of an undercooked preseason and he looked rusty. Among the sloppy and misguided passes there were a few glimmers of quality that hint we’ll see much better from him once he’s fully firing.
Cameron Ashia – 5 out of 10 – Twice got completely in Roughan’s way due to some odd and panicky movement. One was when he ran back from offside to pinch a pass meant for Roughan. Looked to dribble his way through their defence but didn’t manage to cause any problems.
Lasse Sorensen – 5 out of 10 – Did very little of note.
I can’t even bring myself to read about it! I listened to the commentary from here in Suffolk. It feels like my balloon of optimism for the next 9 months has been pricked.
When Bruce swapped off his other striker so early, I thought that was a bad managerial move. But not a bit of it. Town were clueless. Of course it’s down to the players on the pitch but I think Grant needs to shoulder some of the blame; he just seemed to throw on subs with no clear strategy.
It also exposed 2 great weaknesses of this squad – (1) it’s crying out for at least one winger who can go past a man and cross the ball; and (2) there are times when you need some height & physicality up front.
I now fear that the likes of Doncaster on Tuesday will simply go into lockdown and just look to hit Town on the break. You won’t be seeing many teams play like Orient did.
Exactly We need a big man up front and a fast tricky winger.
I think exactly the same. We’re done a lot of squad building this summer and I think we’ve recruited well. But there are just a couple of pieces of the puzzle missing at the moment.
If I was a Blackpool fan, I’d have been worried about how defensive they were playing with ten men but it proved to be the perfect approach because they had the lead and were very good at sitting in and soaking up what little we threw at them.
Someone creative in wide areas and a brute up front are the two obvious things we need. Healey has gone out on loan, Radulovic and Ladapo may do the same, which would make space in the squad for a couple of players that address these obvious gaps.
Every club scouts their upcoming opponents games, so I’m sure Doncaster (and any other team we’ve got coming up) will know exactly how much we struggled on Saturday. So we’ll have to try to come up with a different plan next time a team sits deep against us.
Agree with your comments and ratings entirely. Why on earth, in the second half, did we not try and run into the penalty area with the ball, and draw a challenge which might have given us a penalty, instead of wasting so much time with tippy tappy passing and hopeless high crosses into the box which we hadn’t an earthly chance of getting on the end of. I think Castledine’s shot near the end was the only decent effort. Hopefully, lessons will be learned.
Playing against ten men that are packed behind the ball can be a tricky challenge but it was surprising how poor we were at breaking them down. I wonder if they’ve ever trained on that scenario because it certainly looked like we had no idea what to do. Though even if that was the case, the coaches on the sidelines could have passed out instructions to either be more direct or take long shots or basically anything that wasn’t to repeat the same failing strategy. Hopefully it was just a bad afternoon and we’ll be back to winning ways tonight.
ASHIA Is our inform scorer at present why was he not used much earlier and give him time to get the equaliser at least
Our other main threat Rooskin was withdrawn those two players together
Post a bigger goal scoring threat than all the strikers put together so why not use them ?
I really like the look of Ashia but I can understand why he’s not starting every game. Whether he’s 18 or 20 (there’s some uncertainty about his exact age) he’s inexperienced and making his first steps in competitive men’s football. So far he looks the part but over exposing him could be damaging in the longer term. It’s only a few months ago that he went to Torquay United and couldn’t get a game for them, so making our bench is still incredible progress.
Yes but there is a big difference between starting and over exposing a young player
But giving him 20 mins in the second half could of got us a point at least in a muddling game where we were out managed and sadly outplayed .
TS your ratings are OK reflecting the disappointing performance, as you indicate Rooskens was the likeliest to salvage something from the mess – he is a threat. Like Simon I view Tuesday against Doncaster with some trepidation – what odds on a Pearson hattrick?
Perversely I enjoyed the first half much more than the second during which we exhibited last season’s failings in abundance: poor decision making; poor passing; countless fouls conceded in desperation; lack of quality and so on and so on.
The sending off changed the game when Bruce and his players managed the game expertly and our response was dismal. The forwards yet again impotent but the supply lines were virtually non-existent. I am of an age when I politely decline invitations to play walking footbsll. I do not expect to watch it as, occurred during yesterday’s second half.
It feels destined that Pearson will score and shush the Cowshed in his celebration. I always liked him but I think he got a bit fed up with all the constant chaos and change at Town by the time he left.
The game was fascinating until the red card and at the point Gooch pulled one back, it felt like anything could have happened. Sadly the red card spoiled it as a spectacle and we instead watched around an hour of tepid, toothless possession football. I thought “Northern football” was the antidote to that approach but I suppose we’re still working it out.
We did not have a proper shot in the 2nd half against 10 men all the posesion and no proper finnish ?
Could Ashia have come on earlier to try and grab an equaliser ?
TAYLOR is not the forward we have needed for the last 3 seasons find a big
Striker target man finnisher DONT put smallest man I the squad Alfie as lone striker ?
We looked very pedestrian once the red card was awarded. It feels almost impossible to have so much possession and trouble the keeper so little. Especially when their keeper is obviously not very good.
Hopefully it was a one off and we’ll be back to winning ways on Tuesday.
Let’s cut to the chase.
3-2 down at Blackpool. For at least 60 plus minutes . Specially after Blackpool went to 10 men . Town attack had little to No bit.
Huddersfield recruitment team , were patting each other on the back . After a successful previous 3 game wins.
How delusional these people are. In League 1 , you require a Centre forward/ man mountain. So the likes of May/Taylor can feed off . 18 to 20 plus goals each. Plus a winger/ creative 10 .
Without these 2 positions filled . Town will be Very lucky 🍀 to reach the playoffs.
Bruce’s managerial experience came to the fore, on Saturday. Made Grant look 👀 like a schoolboy in the head lights.
Bruce , adapted to the ever changing situation on the football ⚽️ field on Saturday. Fair play to him and the defensive play of Blackpool. Grant better start to adapt really quickly. Or forget about this season automatic promotion, or any promotion.
UTT- ⚽️
I think the recruitment team have done well with the additions we’ve made. The problem is that we had such a big clear out that it’s maybe going to take more than transfer window to get the squad right. It’s even more impressive when we’ve brought all these decent players in without a Director of Football. It now looks like the last person in that job was holding everyone back more than providing the big strategy for the club.
I agree that we didn’t do enough to change the game on Saturday. Even without a big striker or a skillful winger, I think there were other ways we could have approached that scenario to get more from the game. Or at least to have made life uncomfortable for Blackpool, as they seemed perfectly happy to defend against our tippy tappy approach.
Hopefully tonight will be a chance to rectify Saturday’s game and get us back on a positive footing.
The bubble of hope is well and truly pricked.
From your earlier pieces, I had the impression that Grant had managed to instil a sense of organisation, and the two clean sheets seemed to reinforce that impression.
Both the three goal calamity in the first half and the lack of a single shot against 10 in the second half seems to tell the opposite story. Not organised, and not flexible enough to change tactics to pierce a massed defence.
Not having seen them m but from yours and others comments it seems that despite the numerous signings, they have not got the right potent mixture of strength, height, and speed.
And the fact that nearly all of them played badly at 5 or under isn’t a good sign. Are there no leaders on the pitch to get their heads up again?
I’m not sure it’s clear yet exactly what team we have this season. We’ve been impressive in three games and come up well short in the other. The response to this defeat will be a good gauge of how good our group is.