Carlos Corberán made five changes to the starting lineup against Cardiff, showing that he’s willing to shake things up and try something different. The gamble largely failed and Town’ turned in a poor performance and were deservedly beaten.
Here’s how I rate each individual player from the night:
Ben Hamer – 6 out of 10
Despite letting in three goals, he didn’t have a particularly poor game. His distribution could be criticised but it’s unfair to blame him for passing the ball short so much when it’s clearly the explicit instruction from the bench for him to do that regardless of the pressure the defenders are under.
Demeaco Duhaney – 4 out of 10
Another unimpressive performance from the right back. I’m struggling to think of the thing that he’s good at. Neither attacking nor defending seem to be areas he excels, he’s not awful at either but he rarely looks great either. It’s possible that the Championship might be too high a level for him and he’d be better suited to League One or Two. Or maybe he just needs a bit more time to settle but in this game he really struggled against Ojo for long spells.
I don’t like being too critical of younger players but Duhaney is now 22, which makes him the same age as Pipa, O’Brien, Eiting and Koroma, so it’s getting to the stage he should be progressing from “one for the future” to a useful member of the squad.
Christopher Schindler – 4 out of 10
It made me feel quite sad to see Schindler struggle so much in this game. The look on his face after the opening goal was a mixture of disgust at himself and dismay that he’d allowed such an easy chance to fall to Keiffer Moore. I don’t know if he was still struggling the effects of last week’s concussion but he was badly out of sorts and a shadow of the colossal player that snuffed out some of the world’s best attackers in our first Premier League season. Subbing Schindler mid-way through the second half would have been unthinkable not too long ago but last night it felt like the kind thing to do, as he clearly looked deeply unhappy out on the pitch.
Naby Sarr – 3 out of 10
I’m a big Naby Sarr fan but it’s hard to defend his performance against Cardiff. The mistake for the second goal effectively killed off the game and felt inevitable, given how much we were messing around at the back. I’m not sure it’s specifically Sarr’s fault or more the fault of mindlessly following a tactic that is gifting opportunities to our opponents in nearly every single match. Mistake aside, Sarr was particularly sloppy with his passing last night and seemed to smash passes up field without even checking if there was a blue and white shirt in the vicinity. I like the ambition Sarr shows with his long-range passing but his execution was terrible in this game and needs to improve.
Harry Toffolo – 5 out of 10
Before the game Leandro Bacuna’s defensive frailties were highlighted as a potential area for us to exploit but Toffolo didn’t seem able to get the better of him. He still worked hard up the left flank but his crosses didn’t find their man often enough and he lacked the cutting edge he usually has.
Jonathan Hogg – 5 out of 10
Hogg played even deeper than usual and because of this he had a bit more time on the ball, which led to him trying a few more ambitious passes which had some limited success. Playing deeper meant we missed his dynamism closing down the opposition in midfield but he did help keep things organised, which was best demonstrated by how we lost our shape when he was subbed off in favour of Frazier Campbell.
Lewis O’Brien – 5 out of 10
Lost too many of his battles in midfield to give a good rating but did provide some drive and purpose to our attacks. Several of his long shots were too speculative and he’d be better off trying to get into more likely scoring positions before taking a shot.
Carel Eiting – 6 out of 10
Had a relatively good start to the game but his influence diminished as the team collectively struggled more and more. Cardiff were quick to shut him down, which meant he couldn’t get into the pockets of space where he’s most effective. He was also playing a bit too deep, due to Hogg’s more defensive role, which meant he wasn’t able to do that job of linking midfield and attack quite so well.
Matty Daly – 4 out of 10
Despite his poor score, I felt sorry for him getting subbed at half time as he didn’t get a chance to turn his game around. His movement wasn’t quite right at times and meant he missed opportunities to get into good positions and he seemed to be getting in other people’s way. He did look quick and his touch seemed decent, so I think we’ll see more of him but he will have hoped his first start would have gone better than this after having to wait so long for this opportunity.
Danny Ward – 4 out of 10
He offers something different to Frazier Campbell but I’m not yet sure if it’s better or not. There were some neat moves and he seems fairly mobile but he still looks rusty and didn’t create many chances to score against his former team.
Josh Koroma – 5 out of 10
Huffed and puffed but struggled to make any real impact upon the game. He looks far less effective on the right wing than the left as he’s on his weaker foot when he cuts inside. It’s strange really, as not that long since fans would be livid about right-footers playing on the left wing but the game has changed a lot since then.
Substitutes
I’m not going to bother rating the subs as none of them made a significant contribution to the game. In fairness, Mbenza showed a bit of spark but the rest of them didn’t make any difference other than to adding fresh legs.
I was worried that spending my hard earned euros on this match might be a waste, and I was unfortunately proved right. I’ve seen plenty of teams with lots of possession who do nothing with it, and Town are one of those. It just adds to our frustration. Quick breaks win matches, to be able to do that we need fast clever forwards(too expensive) or a center forward who can hold the ball up and enable the others around him to be a threat ( possible). I support Malaga , who have had similar problems to Town. They were relegated to the second division, have terrible financial problems, but have managed to do ok with counter attacking play. It’s not chess, it’s footy. Simple!
Hi Keith, I think the possession-based approach will be here to stay for at least as long as Corberán is in charge but more likely even longer than that, given the youth teams are all being trained to play the same way. It looks great when it works but when it doesn’t we either look a bit tepid or completely disorganised. As long as we keep picking up wins here and there I’ll not be too concerned but if I’d not like to see us play this way if we are in a relegation scrap.
Maths lesson for Carlos, five changes to a winning team = a 3-0 drubbing in south wales, might as well have saved the bus fares, meals, and all the other expenses and rung Cardiff and given them the three points, it was one of those Town games, no heart, no spirit, your marks per player were just about right, but thought you were generous in a couple of cases, terrible and abysmal are in mind, cant say anything good. UTT.
It was a poor performance. I think the players have the desire but they just didn’t have the ability to break down a well-organised Cardiff side.
A good assessment. Teams are now reading us and close us down quickly at the back. CC likes players to keep possession and pass out from the back which will create errors. Schindler in particular, and I am his biggest fan, is obviously not comfortable with this system. Up front we do not have a Keiffer Moore, Britt Assombalonga or a natural goal scorer who can win headers.
I agree about Schindler and wouldn’t be surprised if Edmonds-Green comes in at the weekend. The goal-scorer issue is tougher to fix as they are expensive to bring in. It would be great if either Phillips or Harratt could come in and do well but that’s expecting a lot from a couple of kids.
Phillips is 20 going on 21, but due to time out with injuries, his development is equal to that of an 18 year old. However, judging by his record he needs to be given a chance.
I agree, we need to give these talented youngsters a chance to shine. I was a bit disappointed to see Phillips didn’t keep his place on the bench yesterday as he could be a good player to chuck on when we’re trying to create an opening. His scoring record in the reserves is great.
Your assessment is not up for dispute. It’s clear what Corberan wants, the team seem to have bought into it, but last night’s performance was yet another example of them being incapable of delivering it. That doesn’t mean it should be abandoned, but persevered with to discover who is capable of implementing it, hoping that we pick up enough points to survive until further recruitments are made. My consistent criticism is the quality of passing in all areas of the pitch, in particular recently, what on earth is Hogg doing as a sort of deep-lying playmaker when he is the most inconsistent distributer of the ball. I’ve also noticed that his many errors including loss of possession and poor marking often lead directly or indirectly to the concession of a goal.
Some great points in your comment Beck. I love Hoggy but he’s becoming quite unpredictable lately, some games he does well and others he’s a bit of a liability. Hopefully more coaching from Carlos and the players adjusting to this system will decrease the errors and improve the general passing.
Your assessment seems fair to me.
What Town don’t seem to learn is that 65% possession (or thereabouts) will not necessarily translate into 3 points. This is at least the 3rd time this season (Stoke & Birmingham are the 2 other occasions that come to mind) where Town have been undone by teams quite happy to let us p¡$$ about with the ball, lots of passes but actually posing no threat at all. Indeed, the stuff going on right at the back is more of a threat to Town than it is to our opponents! How many goals are we going to concede before Carlos says “that’s enough; you’re not skillful enough nor seemingly bright enough to play out from the back 100% of the time.”
There really was nothing at all in this performance to cheer me up at the end of lockdown.
100% agree. Abandon the tippy tappy shite at the back and play to our stengths not our weaknesses.
I think we’ll carry on playing our from the back because it draws out the opposition and when we beat the press it creates opportunities up field. But we’ve got the beat the press, which is proving to be our undoing.
The bottom line is the second goal was the killer just when we were having our best spell sarr was unli=ucky he trod on the ball but a situation thatwas team made. we move on its history
Fair point David. At the point the second goal went in we looked to be getting back into the game but conceding at that point effectively killed the game. We got a bit of luck scoring against the run of play in the Middlesbrough game, so it levels out I suppose.
100% agree with your comments. It all went wrong when Carlos decided which rousers to wear. The starting line up was a mess and the one that finished the game was even worse. Ryan Schofield let in one goal from open play in 2 games so should have retained his shirt – a good keeper organises his defence as well as making good saves. A great keeper organises his defence so that he doesn’t have to make saves. Ramani Edmonds-Green did more than enough to retain his shirt. And you don’r realsie how good Fraizer Campbell is until you compare him to Danny Ward. Unfortunately Isaac Mbenza reverted to type as well.
Come on everyone take those Rose tinted specs off and open your eyes, this team is not good enough to play this sort of football, it has to be done at a pace 4 times quicker than we do. I don’t like to say it but Leeds are doing OK with this sort of football but have spent 120 million getting the players to be just OK. We’ve got 3 mill a year coming in for Grant and that goes straight into Deano’s pocket. We have the worst non scoring centre forward we have had since I started watching Town in 1970 we have always had a divisional top scorer even when we were really rubbish. Wait until January someone says for what because one thing for certain we ain’t gonna spend any money. Everyone is raving about Eiting, Why? He does everything at a snails pace he’s got 2/3 assists all season if he’s that good he would be creating 3 chances a game, mind you Campbell would only miss them. Rant over.
Thanks for your comment. I’ve not followed Town as long as you but I’ve still sat through plenty of poor strikers. Phil Jevons and Kiegan Parker were far worse than Ward and Campbell.
I’ve found this season very hard to work out. When we win I start looking up the table and wondering what happens if we put together a run. When we lose I look down and think a few more defeats and we’re in trouble. At the moment, mid-table mediocrity feels like a good outcome.
Yes, but the difference was the 2 you have mentioned were bit part players in a squad which included Boothy, Beckett, Dickinson and also Roberts (Gary) and Michael Collins who both got double figures not our main strikers like Ward and Campbell are. Ward needs more time for an honest opinion but he is not a Centre Forward, just calling him one doesn’t make him one.
Were we watching the same game?
– Naby Sarr was magnificent throughout, apart from his unfortunate mistake.
Two messages to Town’s coaching team:-
You only play the ball out from the back when those involved have time and space to manoeuvre; trust in Hamer’s long ball distribution skills to defeat the high press from the opposition (they will soon drop off when they are 3 short in midfield areas), and
It’s not about the amount of possession but where you have it and what you do with it ie there should be more focus on gaining the ball in dangerous areas rather than just retaining the ball
Thanks for your comment Richard. Mistake aside, I thought that Sarr’s distribution was a problem and a major part of why so many of our attacks broke down in the early stages (though he did make a few excellent cross-field passes). He won quite a bit in the air too but I still thought he had one of his worst games yet for Town. I’m not dismayed though, as he’s been excellent in other games.
sarr did have a decentgame but some fans don’t see the whole game just the bad things. on the point of the changes like all teams three games a week you have to rotate but I’m afraid some don’t seem to understand that or don’t want too.the one thing I hope is the chairman holds is nerve because another change in coaches would be totally irresponsible we need stability and some need to understand this
Enjoying all the comments, most of which I agree with.
Sarr – his distribution was woeful in the first half. Combined with a howler that effectively conceded the match, he deserved his 3 rating from you. You get what you pay for, they say. How much did we pay for him? Hmm. Zero.
Ward – very very disappointing so far. I agree with the comment that he’s not a centre forward. You get what you pay for, they say. How much did we pay for him? Hmm. Zero.
Campbell – it’s unbelievable to me that he has an England cap! Players age differently. We saw the Middlesbrough striker aged 38 last week, and wow he looked more like 48, but he did at least look dangerous. Campbell at 33 looks continuously off the pace. You get what you pay for, they say. What did we pay for him? Hmm. Zero.
Eiting – I agree with the person who doesn’t put such a high rating on Eiting. I’ve said it before on this blog, he’s had 1 great game. The rest he’s largely innocuous. I agree that a player like him should be judged by the number of killer balls (I won’t say assists as the strikers are likely to miss anyway) he plays. He does try to thread clever balls through but they just don’t come off. The only one that comes to mind is the pass to Mbenza for his most recent goal. Still, you get what you pay for etc etc.
I think those were the main individuals who seem to have warranted a mention. But as you rightly say, just occasionally for some bizarre reason, this poor team on paper does seem to get its act together and perform as a team – i.e. better than its individual parts – which after all is what football should be about. Because we know this team has performed from time-to-time, that’s what’s so frustrating when we see such a load of codswallop as we did on Tuesday. As they say, it’s the hoping that kills you.
Having had time to reflect on the match I think the problem started with setting up with Hogg in the middle of a back 3. If we were going to play a back three it should have been REG, Schindler and Sarr. This would have allowed Hogg to play his normal holding/ breaking up role in front of them, which is his strength, and REG would have have given cover to DD.
I agree, Terry. I favour 3 at the back to let the full backs go forward. But the 3rd shouldn’t be Hogg.