Huddersfield Town bounced back from their 5-1 thumping against Fulham by winning two games in a week and completely reversing the narrative. The win against Preston was one of the ugliest I’ve seen while following Town but Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Sheffield United felt less the result of luck and more the reward for sticking to a game plan and frustrating an out of sorts but talented opponent.
While it would be nice to watch Town play beautiful, flowing football, watching them grind out narrow victories has its own appeal and it felt like a role reversal to see the Blades dominate possession but struggle to break down our defensive unit.
Here are a few of my thoughts on the game now there’s been time to let the dust settle.
The atmosphere in the away end
I usually watch Town from the lower tier of the Riverside stand, which gives me an excellent view of the action but the atmosphere can be a bit sedate. Standing in the away end at Bramall Lane was incredible last Saturday. Even before the bedlam that started when we scored, our fans made an incredible racket and it provided a reminder of how different attending football games is to merely watching on a stream.
Both the goals and the final whistle were three moments of pure, unadulterated joy in the stands and it was amazing to be a part of it. I can’t remember being part of a crowd like that for a very long time, most likely the playoffs in 2017.
Trying to articulate the atmosphere in the stands is a lot harder than actually showing you, so I’d recommend watching BradBarbz YouTube video of the moment Colwill scored the winner (skip to 10:48 in the video below). It’s a mess of limbs, screams and delirium but sums up what it was like to be there.
Soaking up pressure
The main difference between the Preston and Sheffield United games was that luck played a much bigger role against PNE. Against Sheffield United we were much better at keeping our shape when we dropped deep and they managed to have plenty of possession but very little real goal threat (that sounds familiar!).
We had the worst defence in the league last year if you measure by goals conceded. So it’s perhaps a sensible plan for Town to concentrate on getting things right at the back before looking to play more expansive football. We didn’t win many games this way last season and we were far too easy to play against. While it’s not pretty, our chances of survival are much improved if we can change the tactics to frustrate good teams and become hard to beat.
Before getting carried away, it’s worth remembering that Sheffield United hadn’t scored a goal yet this season until Billy Sharp equalised on Saturday. Against a more ruthless opponent we may not have held up as well but I have to acknowledge that Carlos for the tactics right on the day.
Inspired substitutions
Corberán also deserves credit for his double substitution on the hour mark, which proved to be a turning point in the game. Toffolo coming on freed Thomas up to form a front three with Campbell and Koroma and we suddenly looked a real threat on the break.
We’d lost the midfield battle by that stage, so taking off a central midfielder and switching to 5-2-3 meant we could counter attack more effectively and it relieved pressure on defence at a point in the game where United were relentlessly attacking us without any reply from Town other than the occasional hoofed clearance that came straight back at us.
The defensive side of our game was pretty good all afternoon but we only really had decent attacks after this change was made. We didn’t have a single shot for the first hour but then had a flurry of good attacks once Campbell, Koroma and Thomas had formed a front trident.
Some concerns remain
Now the euphoria of the last-gasp winner has faded, it’s worth acknowledging that there are still significant problems in the team to iron out. Our striking options remain pretty poor, even more so now Rhodes is ruled out for at least two months.
We’re also weak in midfield even before O’Brien leaves. If he goes then we’ll desperately need reinforcements. Scott High has promise but can’t be relied upon to start 40+ games at this stage of his career. Hogg is effective but in a limited way. Holmes hasn’t hit any consistent form since he returned. Vallejo is a good understudy to Hogg but not much more. Sinani might be good but he might not be, he’s not played enough at this level to know. And I’ve no idea what Reece Brown is like but Carlos doesn’t seem to rate him. We look seriously short of quality and creativity in this area of the pitch and a proper solution is unlikely to come cheap.
Then there’s the style of play to think about. What are we? The idea was to build a squad in Calros’ vision of attacking football but now we’re playing anti-football and picking up results. So has there been a change in direction or is this just a temporary plan to get us through an injury and covid related crisis? Time will tell.
Optimism is starting to return
Despite the grumbles listed above, it is hard not to get carried away after back-to-back wins. We’re in a respectable position in the league and several other teams look like they’ll have a season of struggle ahead of them too. So while we may not be competing at the top end of the league, with a bit of luck and some good business before the transfer window shuts it’s realistic to think we could be midtable this season.
Winning is a habit just like losing is, so now we’ve got a couple of results it might just change the mentality behind the scenes and give some belief to our players. While the way we’ve won lately hasn’t been pretty, it may provide a platform from which we can build a good run of results and even start to see some better football.
I don’t like to get too carried away but there are some decent players in this Town squad that could have very good seasons. Sorba Thomas has burst onto the scene, Josh Koroma looks to be getting back to his best and Levi Colwill is clearly too good for this level, which we can make the most of for this season. It’s not a complete squad and just a few injuries can seriously unravel any progress we’ve made but it doesn’t feel mad to think we could improve on last season after this relatively positive start.
Should Carlos stick or twist with his tactics?
Town played the vast majority of preseason in a 4-3-3 shape but that system was abandoned in favour of a back three when covid struck down both our senior leftbacks. Carlos has a tricky decision now Toffolo is back in contention to start games. Should he revert to 4-3-3 or stick with some variation of five at the back.
While it would be nice to see Town show a bit more ambition in their attacking play, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the improved defensive performances we’ve seen lately. Having three central defenders means we’ve got better cover at the back if someone makes a mistake and we’ve conceded far fewer daft goals lately.
The next two games, at home to Everton and Reading, are effectively free swings as nobody expects us to beat Everton and we’ve accumulated enough points for the Reading game to be nice to win rather than essential. Maybe these two can be a chance to experiment with formation to try and find the right balance between attack and defence.
The 5-2-3 formation we switched to in the 60th minute against Sheffield United may be worth a go, as it means we have two wingers either side of a central striker but also the security of three central defenders. The problem is that we only then have two central midfielders so might be better suited to games where we don’t expect to have much possession.
I agree with all of your analysis. I have always thought that we have quality in the squad, although we all know it needs strengthening in midfield and striker positions. Hopefully that can be resolved in the transfer window. Whatever criticisms have been aimed at the recruitment team, they have been able to get new players in early, which suggests that they have identified target signings well in advance. Hopefully they have started the process to plug the gaps and prepare for O’Briens potential departure.
Going forward, I think Corberan has to make some hard decisions. I think that we are at our most dangerous playing 3 across the front but that probably means playing 4 at the back. That in turns probably means dropping Sarr or Colwill, both of whom deserve their places in the team.
I agree that Everton gives a chance to experiment and introduce some of the younger squad players. I would also like to think that the Reading game is easily winnable and I hope Corberan plans accordingly. I would have taken 7 points from first 5 games when I saw the fixture list. 10 points would be a huge bonus.
Finally, I have seen suggestions that Sarr should be tried as a striker. That would be interesting to experiment with.
I think the team ethic is good at the moment and adding a bit of quality in midfield and finding another striker might just give us long suffering fans a massive boost. UTT
Forgetting the need for a midfielder and striker for the moment as it has been done to death. I think one of the reasons beat Sheffield was down to fitness. On YouTube there is a video of Sheffield Utd training and you would have thought it was a kick about on the beach. Players were wandering around, laughing and talking and nobody seemed particularly interested when they were doing routines. Contrast that with Town who seem to be working at high intensity throughout all the training session. After 75 minutes Sheffield were tired, didn’t defend properly and made lots of mistakes. Town were still running and with the addition particularly of Toffolo they looked a much better side who were much more likely to be the winners. To be honest, Town have been pretty poor in all the matches so far except for a few flashes of brilliance and a good (if slightly lucky) defence. Against better opposition they could suffer. It’s obviously good that the defence is working well but that’s only half the battle. With no-one up field the ball comes straight back and eventually a better side will break through. So we have come full circle in that we need a midfielder and a striker if only to give the defence a breather.
Just one further comment. We are now back to last season with just Campbell at No.9. Rhodes is out for the foreseeable future and Ward shouldn’t be even considered as he is so poor and ineffective (perhaps we could get his mother to send in another sick note!). What are the alternatives? Maybe Mbenza because I don’t think he”ll be sold or if Colwill stays in the team, Sarr at centre-forward would be interesting. There may be a Lukaku lurking in there!
“Lukaku lurking” – brilliant, John!
I think that goal vs Blackburn was better than anything Lukaku can do though 😉
Fair and insightful as ever.
Really professional job by Town – although I was screaming in the first half and feared the worst.
My only question is, is he startig Ward because Campbell is building up strength and cannot run for 90 minutes, or does CC believe that Ward is our best striker?
See you on the lower tier tomorrow night.
UTT
Lots of interesting thought provoking stuff here.
My feeling would be to persist with three centre halves at the back, it’s nice to feel relatively comfortable at free kicks and corners and what a threat it is in the opponents penalty area, also this also seems to get the best out of Sarr. Keep to the formation – practice makes perfect. Admittedly, we don’t have right-sided wing-back to match Toffolo on the left, or at least until Pipa recovers, I’m sure Rowe’s style of play would also suit that position.
As has been said getting the defence functioning properly has to be the top priority, then perhaps other issues will be easier to solve.