After a bright start, Huddersfield Town left Wycombe with their tail between their legs on Saturday, following a 3-0 defeat. It was caused by a combination of Alfie May’s daft red card and the remaining players’ inept response to going a man down.
In a game where Lee Grant really needed to see a response from his players, they continued to look second best and too many players lost individual battles, which is bad news with a full complement on the pitch but a disaster when we’re a man down.
Here’s what I made of each individual player who contributed to this disappointing outcome.
Lee Nicholls – 8 out of 10
We saw both sides of Nicholls’ distribution, with some creative and risky short stuff before the red card followed by some pretty desperate and fruitless clearances when we were down to ten men. OK, he had less to aim for, but he gave them the ball back so regularly that it really didn’t help our cause. Despite that grumble, he was comfortably our best player on the day. He made one brilliant point-blank save that he pushed over the crossbar. Another low to his left at full stretch. And a host of other decent stops that helped keep the scoreline down. If Nicholls played at a similar level to his teammates in this game we’d have lost by five or six goals.
Lasse Sorensen – 5 out of 10
Struggled with Bell on Wycombe’s left wing, allowing far too many shots and crosses to come from his side. It feels like he’s not got a good sense of what’s going on around him on the pitch or when there’s danger, meaning he often allows opposition players to get the better of him. A shame that he was poor in this game as he’s been improving lately.
Josh Feeney – 6 out of 10
Looked very classy both on the ball and off it in the opening stages but increasingly looked ragged the more the game went along. Despite generally being strong in the air, he was beaten by Woodrow for the first goal, which is not the first time the player he’s marking has scored a headed goal against him.
Joe Low – 5 out of 10
Played Woodrow onside for their first goal then was the first to appeal to the linesman for offside. His distribution was poor, eventually costing us a goal when his sloppy pass to Wiles was easily intercepted, leaving us completely exposed at the back. It’s probably worth a deeper discussion about whether Joe Low is capable of playing the kind of football Lee Grants wants to play.
Ruben Roosken – 5 out of 10
I’m not sure what he meant to do with his header that led to their opening goal but I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean to flick it straight into the danger zone. He almost cost us another goal with a poor bit of control on the edge of the box and gave away athe ball in a very dangerous area. Looked lightweight and hesitant when put under pressure. Though, after this raft of criticism, I have to say that he looked alright on the few times he ventured forward to support the attack.
Ryan Ledson – 4 out of 10
It’s hard to put such an anonymous performance into a mark out of ten. He wasn’t notable for doing anything all that wrong but that’s because he was completely unnotable all together. Not a captain’s performance by a long stretch. If I was Lee Grant, I’d consider stripping him of the captaincy and letting him concentrate on his own game. Though Alfie May would have been my alternative choice for that role and he’s now suspended.
Lynden Gooch – 6 out of 10
I was a bit surprised to see him line up in central midfield but Kasumu’s injury on top of Kane, Evans and McGuane being out of action meant we had few other options. Given he’s only played central midfield four times before, I thought he looked pretty at home as a central midfielder. He was aggressive, committed as he always is and did a lot of running. Should have done better to close down Onyedimna for their second goal but he wasn’t the only one caught out by a quick turnover of possession.
Ben Wiles – 4 out of 10
He had a very quiet start to the game and didn’t get much more involved as it went along. He lost his man for their first goal, which allowed the cross to be put in. He also didn’t fight hard enough to get on Low’s pass for the second. Going forward he offered little either. It’s not his fault he keeps getting picked but he’s in shocking form and needs a spell on the sidelines.
Marcus Harness – 5 out of 10
Linked up play well and looked better for being directly behind the striker rather than out to the right. Though that was when we had 11 men on the pitch. After May’s red he was shunted out to the wing and there were not the players available in advanced areas for him to do his usual intricate interplay, so he was a lot less effective.
Leo Castledine – 7 out of 10
He had a decent free kick early on but couldn’t keep it down. Then did well to create a one-on-one that ended with a shot straight at the keeper. He was a real threat from the left and our main attacking outlet while he was on the pitch. Received treatments on his shoulder and left with his shirt used as an improvised sling. Looks like bad news. A real shame as he was looking great in the opening stages, now it looks like we’ll have to live without him for a while.
Alfie May – 2 out of 10
Rightly sent off for a reckless challenge. The foul took place out in left midfield, so there’s no real explanation for why he was even there, nevermind why he threw himself into that challenge when there was no great threat. The contact was minimal but he had so little control and his studs were up to such an extent that a red was always likely. As one of our most senior players and an obvious leader among the team, he let everyone down and gave the rest of the team a mountain to climb.
Substitutes
Joe Taylor – 5 out of 10 – Had a very difficult assignment, with barely a teammate near him as he tried to latch on to our hopeful/hopeless punts downfield to him. He was waiting all afternoon for the right ball to set him free in behind the Wycombe defence but nobody was able to produce it.
Sean Roughan – 5 out of 10 – Fine.
Mickel Miller – 5 out of 10 – I’m not sure if he was brought on to try and turn the game or if he was just given a run out to build his fitness because the game was gone. Hopefully he’ll be fully fit soon.
Daniel Vost – 4 out of 10 – Unlucky to turn the ball into his own net but perhaps didn’t help himself with his body position and snatching for the ball.
How about a mark for Grant TS ?
After a bright start the more he has coached the players the worse they have seemingly got.
He’s eloquent but repeats everything like every single thing he said last time post match. He has a personability but is it an appropriate match for a football manager ? Maybe HR would be his thing.
Do you think he has lost the dressing room ?
Grant has the personality of a crash test dummy but is not as useful. He is boring to the fans and will come across just the same to the players. He spouts the same nonsense after every loss without actually saying anything and worse repeats all the same mistakes continuously in the next matches. Ok we’ve had a few injuries but even prior to this he has signed a totally unbalanced squad, unsuitable for this league. No target man, no wingers, no creative midfielders. So just a group ( his favourite word) of individuals who are playing a system which doesn’t work, with square pegs in round holes and players with no motivation either from him as the manager or the pretty useless “captain “ on the pitch. The time to go has already past. It’s just Nagle and Edwards pride (and the cost) saving him from the sack.
We all will know the phrase ‘I’d rather be lucky than good’; well applying it to Lee Grant, the jury may still be out whether or not he’s any good, but for sure he’s unlucky.
From the opening 15 minutes,, it sounded from the audio commentary that Town were comfortable; but by halftime, your striker gets a straight red, your most creative player goes off injured and you gift a goal to the opposition. The first two events, from Grant’s perspective, were pure bad luck. Or were they?
I’d maybe place a slight question mark over whether the red card event has no relationship with the manager. You’re a striker who has scored many goals for other teams, you probably blame the manager for the lack of chances, another barren first 20 minutes having contributed nothing of note, you don’t fear incurring the wrath of the manager who you don’t fully respect, you don’t really care if it means a spell on the sidelines, and suddenly committing a blatant red card offence appears logical. Imagine doing that under Warnock! He’d have been apoplectic!
I’m certainly struggling to see the good in Grant, and he’s certainly unlucky. Footballers are a superstitious bunch; if they believe they’re being overseen by bad luck, then you might as well perform an exorcism and remove Grant.
If May was a low mark, let’s turn our attention to Wiles and Ledson, what do they actually do apart from letting the opposition dictate the game. The strikers need the ball in the box, wingers need bringing back (oh we haven’t got any), and try playing football the easy way if at all possible?
I agree with you, Rob. These players are not Premier League standard and most of them don’t appear to be even Championship standard. So why ask them to do things they simply can’t do?
We really ought to be playing 2 up front. And that doesn’t mean May & Taylor. The only shorter statured pairing I can recall seeing work was Lineker & Beardsley many moons ago. You have to have a big lad. He doesn’t need to win every ball but he has to cause sufficient nuisance for the shorter guy to feed off. That means Radulovic starts with Taylor alongside (I would have said May but not now for obvious reasons).
4-4-2 is the easiest system for ‘bears of little brain’ to master. Wingers cross the ball; central midfield controls things; defenders defend (and on good days support the attack). And most importantly, the front two knock in the majority of goals. Of course there can be some fluidity within this; that would come with confidence.
Grant needs to be SACKED. He’s seems to have lost the dressing room. For me the sending off , could have been bookable for some referees. Ledson and Wiles are just not giving 50% let alone 100%.
Defence is all over the place . No discipline. Marking opposition players seems beyond their capabilities. Opposition players strolling in behind, the defence. Have they all acquired tunnel vision, the players don’t seem to be communicating to each other?
Vosts own goal was text book , I don’t give a F…k .
I would have made the whole team of players who graced there presence on the pitch on Saturday. Walk 🚶 home.
Enough is enough.
UTT- ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️