Huddersfield Town were comprehensively beaten by Liverpool at Anfield, by three goals to nil. Town managed to contain and frustrate in the first half, but Liverpool found another gear in the second, which allowed them to run out well-deserved winners.
Town played an unusually negative game, parking the proverbial bus until the first goal went in. Once they trailed they had to try to get back into the game, which only gave Liverpool more space to attack and allowed them to extend their lead. It wasn’t a terrible performance by Town but there was a distinct lack of creativity and drive.
Lössl – 7 out of 10
Couldn’t do much about the goals, and made a couple of good saves, including a great penalty save. He also didn’t make any silly mistakes, so it looks like he’s cut that out of his game now.
He regularly tried to recreate last week’s assist with long range punts down field but Liverpool dealt with them easily.
Löwe – 6 out of 10
Up against one of the best wingers in the league and he did ok. Salah made him look silly once or twice but there’s no shame in that.
Schindler – 7 out of 10
Soaked up a lot of pressure until Liverpool scored. Made good tackles and didn’t jump in if he didn’t have to.
He also did a good job of getting under Sturridge’s skin on the first half.
Zanka – 7 out of 10
I might get stick for saying this, but I thought this was the first time Zanka played better than Schindler.
He headed a lot away, made some great blocks and looked very solid.
Smith – 4 out of 10
His poorly placed header led to the opening goal, and before that he conceded a penalty by a (very slight) shirt pull on Firmino. Another referee might not have spotted the shirt pulling, but when I watched the replay I think the ref probably got it right.
He played pretty well aside from these two mistakes, but conceding the first goal completely changed the game and at 1-0 down our game plan fell to pieces.
Mooy – 6 out of 10
Didn’t get close enough to Firmino during the corner which led to the second goal. He was busy but didn’t dominate midfield enough and wasn’t at his best. He tried to drive Town forward after we went behind, but didn’t create any significant chances.
Hogg – 6 out of 10
Did well in the first half and was a big reason that Town were able to keep things tight at the back. Some of his passing was a bit dodgy and he played more like a third centre-back.
Williams – 5 out of 10
After a great display against Manchester United last week he looked a bit overawed by the occasion at Anfield. He buzzed around but didn’t manage to make the counter-attacking runs that we needed to drive us up the pitch.
van La Parra – 6 out of 10
He made a few good runs down the wings in the early stages and looked like he could be a useful outlet again. Sadly didn’t get the chance to build on a positive start due to injury.
Ince – 6 out of 10
Our single shot of the game came when Mooy passed our free-kick short and Ince hit it over the bar. He also made some positive runs up the pitch and did a good job of doubling up on Salah to ease the pressure on Löwe.
Depoitre – 6 out of 10
There was very little service to Depoitre, just hopeful balls for him to chase down. He worked hard and had nobody else near him for long periods, but couldn’t get any change out of the Liverpool defence.
I don’t think Depoitre is a striker that will create goals out of nothing, he either needs quality balls through to him (like Sabiri’s in the Leicester game) or the defence to make errors (like last week against United). Neither of these things happened, so he looked a bit short of ideas.
Substitutes
Kachunga – 5 out of 10
Had most of the game to impress but didn’t ever look like he was going to get past his man or create anything. His runs forward with the ball were a bit too predictable and Moreno had him in his pocket all game.
This wasn’t a great Kachunga performance, but I’m not writing him off yet. It’s a tough league and he’s still finding his feet, but I’m certain that he’s got a lot to offer Town this season. It may be that he needs a bit of confidence and more support from Smith behind him when we go forward.
Mounié – 6 out of 10
Last week there seemed to be something wrong with Mounié when he came on as a late sub. It looked to me like he wasn’t sure he could trust his body and was worried aggravating his injury.
He seemed more mobile when he came on against Liverpool and tried to compete more for the ball (though he rarely won anything). I’d say that he’s still looking rusty after missing a couple of months, so it may be a few games before he’s ready to start matches again.
Hadergjonaj – 6 out of 10
Tried to get down the wings and offer an outlet but wasn’t able to cause Liverpool any problems. He looks very quick when he’s at full stretch, so I’m hopeful that he could be a good option if we want a bit more going forward from the right-back position.
Not bad, yeah TerrierSpirit, seeing as though it wasn’t until the second half they broke the deadlock and the score line is flattering for Liverpool. However, it’s the form on the road that I cannot defend. It’s the first day of the season we had our solitary win and solitary goals. We cannot win away at the present time. When Bournemouth in three weeks’ time comes round, we have to fix it because we’re following in Burnley’s footsteps for the poor away record they had last season. Playing at home 🏠 is mentally easier with your home support behind your every inch of the way, but away from our home ground it has to change. We didn’t give attacking a try at Anfield and Liverpool were there to be tested as their defence is fragile.
I’d give the away record a 4 or 5 if that was to be given a mark 😉. Does the loss make Klopp better than Wagner TerrierSpirit? If it wasn’t for the astonishingly poor record away from the JSS and we just had more of a go, we could have won and he would have been better than Klopp OFFICIALLY.
HE’S THAN WAGNER, HE’S THAN BETTER THAN WAGNER, JURGEN KLOPP, HE’S BETTER THAN WAGNER – just doesn’t sound as good TerrierSprit.
HE’S BETTER THAN WAGNER, HE’S BETTER THAN WAGNER*
(Correction)
You need to factor in money spent before you conclude who is the better manager. Town supporters far happier with Wagner than Liverpool fans are with Klopp.
We are the happier 😃 bunch of the two sets of fans. In truthfulness, he is better than Klopp in some areas – for instance, he betters Klopp in the press conferences. His answers are more genuine to the questions being asked to him. Klopp comes across as a sarcastic smart arse on occasions.
Money does 💰 talk in football ⚽️, but we cannot compete on the level of Liverpool’s financial spending power.
Who’s better in your person opinion TerrierSpirit? 💭
Fingers crossed 🤞 you say Wagner – HE’S BETTER THAN KLOPP, HE’S BETTER THAN KLOOP, DAVID WAGNER, HE’S BETTER THAN KLOPP! 📢🔊
I know we’re better at home, so no difficulty in answering that.
WE’RE BETTER AT HOME, WE’RE BETTER AT HOME, WE’RE HUDDERSFIELD TOWN, WE’RE BETTER AT HOME! 🔊📢
How do you feel about 🤔 the away day blues ? The form is wretched, we dread playing away from the surroundings of the JSS. It’s a luxury, a comfort zone, to the players as they have 20,000+ clappers making a racket, not forgetting the fans of course.
This is being asked to you TerrierSpririt. Opinion would be appreciated 🤔. I think many fans could be sick 🤮🤢 when the next away day is with us in Bournemouth as it’s a curse to us to travel the length and breadth of the country for zero reward. We cough up money to NEVER EVER see them win away, except Palace away but of course but that is well in the past. NOT good. Being in the PL NO excuse. A balance of good home and away form very helpful to the cause. 👍👌We are a work in progress with it being our debut season; however, you do have to learn fast and kick out the bad habits
Hi Chris,
I’m not worried about our home form at all. We played fantastically against Crystal Palace, very well against Burnley, and poorly against Swansea and West Ham. That’s not too bad in my eyes. The Liverpool game wasn’t worth worrying about, because we can’t expect a lot from the games against the top 6.
I’m not saying we should surrender when we go to these big grounds to play the best teams. But our gameplan worked well in the first half, where we frustrated Liverpool and kept the game tight. The strategy fell to pieces as soon as the first goal went in, but if Smith hadn’t made that mistake and we kept our shape it could have ended in a well-deserved point.
I see your point about away form, but I don’t agree with it. Fans pay money to watch their team, it doesn’t guarantee results. If we thought the team weren’t putting in enough effort then they could be criticised, but I don’t see that.
but of course that is*
I look 👀 at the away form with grave concern, not only for results but effort. I didn’t feel we tried enough at Liverpool and parked the bus. We should have attempted to test them more than we did going forward. Just the last two we haven’t tried. Burnley, yeah, we produced more in the effort department, then there was West Han where the effort wasn’t on show and we parked the bus. Crystal Palace we can’t forget, a memorable day as it was the first time we played since promotion and the effort was really on display. We have varying opinions and it’s the good thing about the world being a free world. I will continue to not accept the away form with a pinch of salt. If results are not coming, worry is bound to be there in some fans but, of course, it’s not in your system. You must have nerves of steel TerrierSpirit. As fans, some of us worry because we just want it to be addressed, so it doesn’t prove to be costly for our season’s ambition of surviving.
There will always be moaners. In any walk of life it’s easy to wish things were even better than they are. I wish Klopp had made Mourinhos mistake against us in the first half and left himself open to the big boot down the middle or a rare counter-attack arising from a mistake by a vastly expensive star player. Unfortunately he didn’t. I wish that chap at Swansea hadn’t reacted so quickly to Lossl’s badly directed pass. I wish that shot at West Ham hadn’t struck Zanka’s and ballooned crazily into our net. Without that catalogue of disaster ( or life – as Town fans have learned to call it over the decades) we’d be supporting a top six side.
We’re loving being in this division, it’s a childhood dream to watch your club battle with some of the best the sport has to offer. I just want more effort than what’s been on display in the previous two to be played away from the JSS and, ultimately, results. If we went well into December with this away form, then the panic button should be pressed and even if we lost at Bournemouth. Come on, the Cherries are in the bottom three and are silmiar calibre, not forgetting they are are a relegation rival. Against rivals like the Cheeries a points haul against should be accomplished more often than not. I even think there’ll be an outburst if we went there, really tried and still lost considering it’s Bournemouth and I wouldn’t blame them in a way. There comes a time when we have to stop defending the away form, even with the effort being there. Performances don’t get points, goals do. We can’t do that at the moment. There’s been no goal to cheer from any away end we’ve been in since Palace. We need something to cheer. We might have a psychological issue playing away. The surroundings of the JSS to away grounds are obviously different, and we’re just not getting wins when we don’t have 20,000 fans behind the team than just 2,000.
and just 2,000*
Cherries a points haul should be*
not forgetting they are*
I’m confused by this. Do you really see a lack of effort? That not something We have ever accused a Wagner team of. Even when we lost at Bristol in his first season, there were lots of things to criticise but effort was not one. What do you mean by ‘outburst’? Can’t imagine home or away we are going to boo the players who are trying hard, the manager who is working miracles or even (especially) the chairman and the board he has chosen. I suppose every outburst starts somewhere and perhaps you are laying the foundations for it? But to have an outburst away from home where ‘everybody has really tried’ sounds perverse to me.
Nobody is saying everything is perfect. But in the position we are in its only sensible to give Hoyle and Wagner the support they need and deserve. Talk of outbursts, discontent is self-defeating.
It would be interesting to discuss options and alternatives without bringing outbursts into it. Who can we pit up front to help get goals. Is Mounie the answer? Or stick with De Poitre? Can we cope without Willoams or Hogg in mid-field? Have we got a better outlet option that VLP? These and other issues would be interesting to discuss without getting too defeatist or upset. I have my views like everybody else. But in the end I have to conclude – Wagner knows best.
No, not all of the time Gavin, but in the last two away effort wise it’s been a bit low in terms of that team effort we want to see because of the limited amount of shots on the opposition goal 🥅. A lot of other times effort has been in abundance. There’s been some outbursts already, our fans know how to panic or start a moan and some fans aren’t happy unless they have something to moan about. We can clap 👏 effort home and away when it’s there but, when it’s a results business and we want PL survival, performances alone will not earn survival. We are not here to say hello, we are here to stay and with performances AS WELL as consistent registration of points we will be well on our way. Wagner does pick the team. We could debate all the team which player should slot into each position for each game, but it’s the manager who has the last say. He’s our Special One, so we wouldn’t have it any other way. Each fan would pick a different line-up. The fanbase wouldn’t come up with a settled line-up.
Debate all day which player*