Despite taking an early lead, Huddersfield Town were defeated by Reading yesterday in a game that saw Town play OK but far from their best. Reading looked like the livelier attacking force and on the day were able to produce two moments of quality that won them the game.
Overall, I’m not too disappointed by this result and as Town have already amassed a decent number of points we can chalk this game down as fair enough and move on. Next week’s game against Plymouth should see the novelty of some of the squad players getting a run out and many of today’s first eleven getting a long-overdue rest after being worked very hard over the last few months.
Here are my ratings for each player:
Ryan Schofield – 7 out of 10
Made an amazing, point-blank save just before half time that preserved Town’s lead. I don’t think he could really be blamed for either of Joao’s goals as they were both excellent strikes. Other than that, his kicking was decent and he looked OK. It was nice to see him give Bacuna a bit of stick for ignoring his shout when he called for the ball, he needs to be a bit more assertive with his teammates.
Pipa – 5 out of 10
More conservative than usual and frequently struggled to contain Ejaria, who played very well for Reading. I love Pipa’s confidence in his abilities and tendency to go on runs infield but he rarely got the better of the players he took on today. After his match-winning assist against Blackburn he can be forgiven a below-par shift yesterday afternoon.
Rarmani Edmonds-Green – 4 out of 10
I don’t like giving poor scores to our youngsters, as they’ve less experience and deserve a bit of slack. But Edmonds-Green is now playing at the level of a first teamer and should be judged on those standards and doesn’t deserve any more than a four. Despite looking assured and making some decent tackles, he didn’t do well enough in key moments in the game. He was too easily batted away for the opener and allowed Joao too much space for the second goal. He’ll have learned a lot from this experience and the challenge now is for him to bounce back from a disappointing game.
Naby Sarr – 6 out of 10
Brought the ball out of defence well and played some nice passes forward. When defending he had a tendency to drift out of position and follow the ball too much, which meant the whole defence lost its shape. He looked to be blowing from around an hour, so I suspect the consecutive games he’s played will be taking their toll. Crichlow will most likely take his place next weekend and give him the afternoon off.
Harry Toffolo – 5 out of 10
Looked to be frustrated for most of the afternoon and he took his frustration out on a Reading player which led to a booking that he didn’t need to get. Aluko was a tricky customer all afternoon and while Toffolo won as many battles as he lost, he struggled to get forward as much as usual and when he did there wasn’t the usual intelligence to his crossing.
Jonathan Hogg – 7 out of 10
Maybe not as good as he’s been in recent games but still very solid and protected the back? line well. He now seems to have reached the point where he’s delivering a consistent level of performance week-in-week-out after being a bit shaky earlier in the season. His passing wasn’t quite as good in this game but he made up for it with his relentless running and snapping into tackles.
Carel Eiting – 4 out of 10
If you look at the stats, it’s not true to say he did nothing in this game, he had 53 touches of the ball. The problem is that each time he received the ball he did virtually nothing with it and would just play a nice safe pass along the line to someone in no better position than him. I feel sorry for him, because most players playing as poorly as he has lately would have been dropped four games ago but he’s being put into the team every week anyway because we’ve nobody better. Another player that should be rested next week and given a bit of time to regain their form.
Juninho Bacuna – 5 out of 10
Annoying to watch again, messing around with the ball and slowing the pace of our attacks down by standing on the ball and trying to pull off the improbable. I’ve always said that he’s undoubtedly talented but he doesn’t always use the talent well. I’m now doubting whether he’s even all that talented given how often he disappoints. He had a few nice moments in the closing stages when we started to build a bit of pressure but nothing like good enough to justify his continued selection. If we can find a taker for him in this transfer window I think it might be a good time to cut our losses with him.
Lewis O’Brien – 6 out of 10
Lost the ball too many times to give any better score but he ran tirelessly and broke through the lines on several occasions to get into decent positions. His link up play with Toffolo wasn’t as good as usual and I think our opponents are now wise to the fact that they like to play it short to each other when approaching the box from the left wing as many of these passes failed. I don’t think he’ll be happy playing in this sort of left wing role but he’s doing a relatively good job of filling the gap on that side until a natural left winger can be brought in.
Fraizer Campbell – 6 out of 10
I was delighted to see him being in the perfect position to capitalise on Mbenza’s lovely cross for the opening goal. Too often he’s nowhere near decent deliveries but on this occasion he was able to apply a smart finish and put us ahead. For the rest of the game he was limited in the service he received and had to drop deep or out wide to get on the ball.
Isaac Mbenza – 6 out of 10
As already mentioned above, delivered an absolute beauty of a cross for the goal. Otherwise it was a subdued performance and he looked very tired at the point he was subbed off. He came close with a couple of shots in the second half but wasn’t quite able to beat the keeper. Perhaps too much creative responsibility is placed upon his shoulders and he’s run himself ragged. Once more, a rest over the next fortnight will do him good.
Substitutes – N/A
I’m not going to give any of them a score because none made any kind of impact. Phillips didn’t have long enough, Pritchard just didn’t seem to know how to get himself into the game despite it being a situation where we desperately needed some creativity.
I’m 100% in agreement with you which is a first. I said to my son (who couldn’t watch the match) that there were only 2 players who might possibly warrant a score of 7 and they are the same 2 players that you’ve picked out. And similarly I said there were 2 players who were scoring only 4 in my view and you’ve picked out the same 2 players for that ‘accolade’. The rest I don’t mind whether one says 5 or 6, it’s still below where it would be if you’d had a good game.
And like you, I’m a bit disappointed but not overwhelmingly so. There’s now a fortnight for this team to rest up, talk through a few things and hopefully come back stronger.
Footnote – if I had to find something where I can depart from you, you’ve been generous to Pritchard. I have been stoically defending him in these pages and still hope that he might ‘do a job’ in the starting XI (not as an impact sub) but even so, he did have over 20 minutes on the pitch yesterday in which he was almost as anonymous as the man he replaced (Eiting) so that’s normally long enough to earn a score – 5.
I’ve only followed your blog for the last few months – it’s really good, well done – so I’ve just had a look back to see what you were saying just before this season opened. It’s interesting to note 2 things at this half-way stage:-
1. You wrote an article about the player you thought would be brought on to new heights by Carlos Corberan. The player you singled out was Bacuna. Now you’re thinking it might well be time to give up on him. I don’t disagree.
2. It’s surprising to me just how the starting XI is so different from your pre season ‘strongest XI’. To remind you of your XI – Schofield: Duhaney, Schindler, Kongolo, Toffolo; Hogg, O’Brien, Bacuna; Grant, Mounie, Pritchard. Only 5 out of that 11 are in fact now regular starters either because we’ve shed them or injured (Schindler). What does it tell me? 2 things. On paper, you’d have to say that the XI you chose as your strongest XI pre-season is ON PAPER significantly stronger than the current starting XI. But secondly, it does pose the question whether that pre-season XI would have performed any better and got more than 31 points at this stage in the season. We’ll never know but I think not. Which in turn does heap more praise on Carlos to produce a team that can at least compete in the Championship when I feared we would struggle to get out of the bottom three all season.
I agree with all your predictions apart from sarr I had him on 5 as I think his passing was off in the first half plus I think he should be commanding & organising the defence more than what he does, he is by far the most experienced so should be shouting, ordering & leading by example, Prichard & Eiting as I said in your previous article are both players who rely on runners, for the last few games now & with our wonky system we have lost all that movement so without that they look poor, plus Eiting has had bacuna playing in the same position & I totally agree with your comments about him, bring in a left winger & get O’Brien back in the middle
Agree with all your scores and comments other than, strangely… Bacuna… after scoring (in my view) a consistent 2-4 most games, I get the impression he’s starting to care and is now putting a shift in for the team… threaded an outstanding ball through to Mbenza which should have been put away and ran more than I ve ever seen him run for the team… he is talented so hopefully he will be an asset going forward not a liability.. Mbenza should have got us a point but it highlights the fact that we simply haven’t got any striker to despatch a guilt edge chance like that… got to give the new signing a starting place along with Phillips because we need someone to finish off the great chances we re creating…Campbell can’t finish and doesn’t attack the six yard box (with the exception of Saturday)… he is a useful asset to upset defences but not to rely on to score.
I agree that Bacuna seems to have been scored a bit low here. He also left his marker bamboozled when he found space to set Mbenza free in the lead up to our goal.
I don’t disagree with much of what you say, but I think you belittle Bacuna, along with the majority of Town fans, he was a contributory factor in the first goal, similarly with the cross when Campbell set up Mbenza for one of his three failed goal attempts. I am a big fan of his, as presumably is Corberan who regularly picks him, along with 10 others! He has skills way beyond the rest of the mid-fielders including O’Brien who I also adore and is a certain pick, how does he seem to run more quickly with the ball than without it?
I totally agree with Rich, he posted his comment before I completed mine,
I love this forum, you make so many valid points, and more accurate than the Examiner. Our opinions sometimes differ, and I agree we all see things differently. But crikey, you have been kind to Pritchard. He had 25 minutes and earned probably or 1 or 2 out of ten but you have been more tha generous with a score of N/A.