Huddersfield Town hosted the current Premier League champions on a cold and rainy night in Yorkshire. Town were outclassed by Chelsea’s expensively assembled team and struggled to get a foothold in the game.
It’s never nice to see your team lose, but we were playing a team that’s far above the level Town are operating on. There were a few positives from the night, particularly Depoitre’s goal, but it was one of our more disappointing Premier League performances. They can’t all be swashbuckling performances and cup-final atmospheres. Sometimes we’re going to get beaten by a better team.
This article will chew over some of the talking points from the game and rate the players.
Tactics against the top-six clubs: what can Town do?
David Wagner employed the tactics I predicted in my Chelsea preview article, bringing in Danny Williams to make a three-man defensive midfield to sit in front of four defenders, with deep-lying wingers offering protection to the fullbacks, and a lone striker left chasing clearances.
Some fans have criticised this system, saying it’s too negative and we should have a go at the top opposition that Town come up against. We played a more aggressive and attacking system against Brighton last weekend and showed we can play nice football if we want. I can completely understand why fans would want to see us try to outplay the top teams, particularly at home.
The 4-0 defeat to Spurs is the only game where Wagner has tried to match a top-six team and play attacking, open football. We looked really good in the first ten minutes of that game and went fairly close to scoring. The problem was that committing players forward meant Spurs could pick us off on the break, which they did mercilessly until they were 3-0 up and coasting within about half an hour.
So it’s a tricky balancing act for David Wagner when approaching these games. Too attacking and we look naïve, too defensive and we look defeatist. I think he probably played the right system but the players didn’t play to their potential.
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The deep block didn’t work against Chelsea
The deep-lying defensive system Town used to good effect against both Manchester teams earlier in the season failed to stifle Chelsea’s attacking players. The game lacked tempo and Town didn’t press with the relentlessness they do when at their best. Possibly the proximity of games made it too much to play that style.
Crucially, we made some errors at the back which led to goals. When playing against world-class players it’s vital to not gift them soft goals. All three of Chelsea’s goals felt avoidable from a Town perspective. Perhaps that’s harsh given the quality of the players on the other team, but we coughed up the ball too easily in our own half.
Playing so deep invited pressure onto the Town defence, and it made it easy for Chelsea to ping diagonal balls in, which our defence struggled to cope with. While Chelsea weren’t sensational in the same way Spurs were when going forward, they had a gameplan to open us up that worked for them.
With the pace and trickery Chelsea’s frontline had, it made sense to condense the space they had to work in by playing a deep defensive line and sitting defensive midfielders just in front of the penalty area. Unfortunately, it meant Town couldn’t get enough players forward when they won back possession and our attacks were mostly toothless.
Damage limitation
In other games this season we’ve switched our tactics after going behind, to try and chase the game and be more attacking. This wasn’t in evidence against Chelsea and we kept the same shape and didn’t show much more attacking ambition after going behind.
By the time we were two goals down it seemed to me that the team had resigned themselves to defeat and were turning up opportunities to break forward in favour of keeping possession by tapping it around at the back. This may have been due to tiredness or poor decision making, however, it could be we were trying to keep the scoreline respectable by not throwing too many players forward.
Given that our current goal difference is shocking, and last season we were promoted with a negative goal difference, it would surprise me if we were following a damage limitation strategy in the second half. But there were times when we passed it back rather than forwards, which gave the impression we weren’t pushing too hard to score.
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Ince continues to struggle in front of goal
Another game, another string of scoring opportunities spurned by Ince. He had a couple of shots that failed to hit the target and other situations where he could have shot and chose to do something else.
It’s almost painful to watch him at times, he’s clearly a quality player but his confidence looks to be gone and he badly needs a goal. Now van La Parra’s suspension is over and Palmer (hopefully) is returning to fitness, it may put Ince’s position in the starting eleven in doubt.
Don’t leave early!
At Anfield, The London Stadium, Goodison, and Selhurst Park this season I’ve seen home fans shuffling out of their ground from eighty minutes onwards, with the stadium half-empty by the time the fourth official holds up his board to display the injury time allocation. Yesterday was the first time I’d seen it happen in significant numbers at the John Smith’s Stadium for a long time.
So there will be plenty of Town fans that didn’t know we’d scored until they got home. Substitutes Hardgjonaj and Depoitre combined well, with the former delivering a perfect cross for the latter to guide the right side of the far post.
Obviously, the game was over as a contest early in the second half, but I was glad to be there to see Depoitre get his third goal of the season. It was the one moment of quality Town produced all night and meant I could go home with a good memory from the night.
Player ratings
Lössl – 6 out of 10
Looked a bit shaky at times and could have done better with at least one of the goals.
Löwe – 4 out of 10
Failed to clear the first goal off the line and misjudged the flight of the ball to allow Willian in for the second.
Schindler – 6 out of 10
Misplaced a few passes and looked a bit uncertain at times.
Zanka – 5 out of 10
Could have done better for a couple of the goals.
Smith – 6 out of 10
Chelsea exploited the space between Zanka and Smith at times, despite Smith not offering a lot going forward.
Hogg – 6 out of 10
Had to come off at half time due to a migraine interfering with his vision, which explains his subdued performance.
Mooy – 7 out of 10
Wasn’t able to properly influence the game but still managed to retain possession well and start off a few attacks.
Williams – 6 out of 10
Lots of hustle and bustle but not a lot of end product.
Kachunga – 5 out of 10
Didn’t track Marcos Alonso well enough at times, giving the Chelsea wingback the freedom to cross at will.
Ince – 5 out of 10
As mentioned above, looks low on confidence even if you can see he’s still a quality player.
Mounié – 5 out of 10
Looked very isolated and didn’t have any kind of service. He doesn’t look suited to playing as the lone striker when we play this more defensive approach.
Substitutes
Whitehead – 6 out of 10
Reliable without being exceptional.
Hadergjonaj – 7 out of 10
Looked quick and skilful despite playing on the wrong side of the pitch. Delivered a great ball in for our goal.
Depoitre – 8 out of 10
Took his goal very well, guiding it into the net. His cameo gives David Wagner a welcome selection headache for the Watford game.
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Another good assessment. I think the tactics were correct but the players didn’t perform. Didn’t close down enough and seemed to lack our normal effort and passion.