It’s a bit late, but here are a few of my thoughts of Tuesday night’s 2-1 win against Blackburn.
Schofield makes another big contribution
Ryan Schofield is giving fans a look at why he’s been so highly rated within the club for years and it’s a delight to see. For the second game in a row he pulled out a save that stopped what looked like a certain goal. These reflex saves that he seems to specialise in have kept us in games and almost certainly meant we’ve got more points that we would have done with either of our other two other keepers in nets.
Matt Glennon, the former Town goalkeeper and current Radio Leeds summariser, was glowing in his praise for Schofield after the match but suggested he may need to work on being a more vocal presence on the pitch. I think he’s got a point but sometimes the issue is with his teammates listening to him.
Naby Sarr can be guilty of not listening to shouts from his keeper and going after balls that he should back off and allow the goalie to claim. He’s done this to both Hamer and Schofield at various times this season. Schofield may benefit from shouting louder but he also needs his colleagues to trust him and listen to what he says.
I touched on it during my player ratings article but Schofield’s arrival in the starting eleven has coincided with a reduction in defensive errors. I think this is in large part because Schofield has shown more willingness to punt the ball downfield when the short pass isn’t on. This sounds obvious but we kept making the same mistake for weeks but finally seem to be making better decisions at the back.
Loose passes
The quality of passing in the other half was seriously shonky at times against Blackburn, particularly in the first half. It seemed like a team of strangers playing with each other at times, with nobody on the right wavelength and passes being made for runs that didn’t happen or into spaces that had been vacated.
This slack passing meant we struggled to build up sustained attacks and gifted plenty of counter attacking opportunities to one of the most lethal attacks in the league.
I think a lot of the attacking problems stem from us having a Josh Koroma sized hole in the team and the various measures we’ve tried to cope with this issue. By losing one of our most attacking players and replacing him with a less attacking player we are having to find new routines when we attack and that’s my theory about why we’ve been missing simple passes, due to players making different runs now because players are in different positions. Not a good enough reason for being so wasteful but something can be worked on in the training ground in the New Year once the fixture schedule eases up a bit.
Pushing for the winner
One thing that has changed with Town this season is that we will push for a win in every game. Against Barnsley that unwillingness to hang on to a point might have been a factor in us conceding a late goal but against Blackburn the will to win was a huge part of why we scored late on.
Most managers would have sent instructions onto the field to slow the game down after Blackburn equalised to try and stifle our opponent who had the momentum after scoring and looked far fresher thanks to their subs.
So credit needs to go to Carlos for giving his players the licence to keep pushing for a winner. I hope this isn’t the last time we see Naby Sarr piling forward to try and win the game.
Sen-Sarr-tional
It’s impossible to talk about this game without discussing Naby Sarr’s contribution. His header for the opener was great but his second was sublime. The touch to bring down the ball and the strike to finish the chance were both superb. It would have been a bit of a surprise to see one of our attackers show such skill but it’s truly incredible from a six foot five centre back.
When he signed for Town, Charlton fans promised us that Naby Sarr would provide plenty of memorable moments, both good and bad. That’s how things have gone for Sarr so far. On the negative side we’ve seen penalties conceded, goals gifted and a red cars blotting his copybook but his positive attributes make up for these odd aberrations that he’s capable of producing.
I like centrebacks that have a bit of something about them. Michael Hefele and Efe Sodje are the two players that Sarr most reminds me of, but with the exception that Sarr’s actually a decent footballer as well as playing with a big personality. All three had a tendency to swing from calamity to brilliance at no notice and its something I like to see as a fan.
Not trusting the bench
As Blackburn brought on their subs in the second half it was notable how the game started to turn as they looked fresh and threatening as we stated to look very tired.
Bacuna, Toffolo, Mbenza and Campbell all looked visibly worn out after an hour and several other players were most likely in need of a break. Yet Carlos didn’t make his first substitute until the 84th minute when he brought Rowe on for Mbenza (who seems to be wearing more strapping on the back of his legs with every passing game).
I touched on this issue in my prematch article but this game proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Carlos doesn’t trust his bench to be able to come in and compete at the same level as the first eleven. So much so that he’ll let players that have clearly run out of steam stay on the pitch instead of bringing on fresh legs.
The thin squad and numerous injuries have left us with a bench that featured nine players but only two of them could expect to buy alcohol from a corner shop without the need for ID (Hamer and Vallejo – Pritchard almost certainly couldn’t buy a lottery ticket without his picturecard driving licence). Despite the assurances we’ve had from Phil in interviews, it’s becoming pretty clear that many of our youngsters need a bit of experience lower down the leagues before they can compete at Championship level.
Getting a few players back from injury will help with this issue of not being able to trust the subs but another solution is for those youngsters on the bench to make the step up and prove to Carlos they are capable of playing for Town now, otherwise they should be shipped out on loan to get experience. The Plymouth game, a week on Saturday, should provide a good opportunity to give these kids a platform to prove themselves and help decide who can play a part in the second half of the season.
31 points on the board – can we now look up instead of down?
After the last few season I’m hardwired to look at the league table from the bottom up but now we’ve got 32 points on the board and are showing an ability to pick up points against some of the league’s better teams, maybe we can stop looking over out shoulder and instead look up the league.
Town currently lie six points off sixth place, which was unthinkable at the start of the season when most fans expected a relegation dogfight after we saw so many players leave in the summer.
I got quite a bit of stick in the comments last time I said this season would be too soon for us to get promotion but I still think its true. I’m really enjoying watching Town this season and can see that we’re beginning to build something but we’re far from the finished article. I’d much rather see Town make steady progress and aim to get promoted with a team that’s close to Premier League quality rather than see us scrape up through the playoffs and then have to rebuild the whole squad in one summer to be competitive in the Premier League.
So, while it’s lovely to be far away from the scrap at the bottom of the table, I’m not going to be stressing out about us climbing any higher in the table for now. I’d rather see us develop the style of play in preparation for a good tilt at the league next season.
Your last sentence says it for me, we are a work in progress, the two obvious positions to fill are a quality midfielder who can make things happen, (didn’t Smith Rowe have a cracker for Arsenal) and that elusive goal scorer, it maybe Danny Grant but who knows, we can’t wait for Josh Karoma, but we need to be better equiped for a tilt at the top places, we have to go with Carlos Corberan and his team, he is in the Greaves, Buxton mould and can get Town better, it will be interesting to see saturdays team, will he play the same team or will he make wholesale changes for a top opponent, think of the headlines last time at Bournmouth, we have got to get as many points possible at home and make teams not want to come to little old Huddersfield. UTT.
I have no complaints about the progress that Carlos has achieved with Town but he is a strange character. We have got used to the Cowleys clapping and congratulating everyone or David Wagner running on the pitch and celebrating. Carlos hardly ever smiles, win or lose, and marches off the pitch after the match with the odd fist bump to the other manager. When interviewed he has to be pushed to mention any individual, always talking in general terms about the team. I do have difficulty understanding every word but he doesn’t seem to use first names much either. The team spirit is really good though so the players seem happy to operate under his guidance. Perhaps he is a different person out of the spotlight. As yet he as only had an empty stadium at Town so it will be interesting to see if he changes when the fans return.
Well observed, John. He is indeed a different character from his recent predecessors.
I got the impression that Carlos needed to rest a lot of players and basically wrote off the Bournemouth match and there may have been a bit of politics there too. He knows as we all do that his bench is very thin and what better way to demonstrate that than to play what was the second team. If they had done well, all to the good, but if they fail – which they did – there was no better way to show to the board that he needed reinforcements if he was to succeed.
I’m with you about not looking towards the play-offs. Much better to get automatic promotion with a team that, with a few additions, is then capable of competing in the top flight. A complete rebuild rarely works.
I also agree with everything you say about Carlos. I can only understand about 50% of what he says but clearly the players are on his wavelength! There has been maybe 4 or 5 matches this season where I’ve wished I’d not bothered paying my tenner but otherwise watching Town this season has been great. Saturday’s match v Blackburn was very typical – lots that frustrated us fans but lots to enjoy too. It does always look as though we’re trying to score.
What do I hope for in the transfer window? Only 2 ‘must haves’ – a midfielder who can dominate and a central striker who knows where the goal is. Of course I’d like better cover in almost all positions but in terms of the starting XI, just 2 signings please!
overall we are a team in progress and in this highly competitive division there will be more ups and downs.we are certainly playing good football and the old adage one game at a time is the best way.forget playoffs etc and relagation results will decide those issues we have more work to do but we have a coaching team that is developing as well as the players. with half the season to go we all have to keep working hard because this division is relentless with anyone capable of beating each other. happy new year to all and try and keep well