Midfield worries, red card call lacked common sense, Edwards’ long throw, Hudlin’s claim – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win over Heerenveen

Huddersfield Town finished their preseason schedule with a 1-0 victory of Heerenveen on Saturday afternoon. They faced a stern test in the first half until a red card just before half time saw the visitors from the Netherlands reduced to ten men and Town dominated the second half. 

It wasn’t as full-blooded as some of Town’s other preseason games, perhaps both teams wanted to preserve themselves for the upcoming season, but it was still relatively entertaining. However, I’m not sure the game served up warranted the time and expense invested by the 300ish Heerenveen fans who enjoyed a weekend in West Yorkshire. They were in fine voice and seemed to enjoy themselve but they must be a bit barmy to have made the trip to England for a meaningless friendly – hats off to them.

First half possession struggles

Town’s preseason prior to this game has been mostly played against weak opponents. The games on the Cornwall trip were against teams far down the football pyramid, mostly for fitness rather than any test of footballing ability. Even Stockport, last weekend, were a League Two team, so not a proper test. The club have been tight-lipped about what went on in the behind-closed-doors games against Accrington Stanley and Derby, but again, they’re both in lower leagues too. This game against Heerenveen was the only game of preseason where we played a team that presented a real footballing test for Town. 

I’d say we scraped through the test, just about, in the first half. The game was very similar to many of the games Town played under Warnock last season, with Heerenveen having the bulk of possession and Town not able to establish a presence in midfield but still having a threat on the counter. 

As it was a friendly, there weren’t any stats produced that I saw, but I’d guess the possession massively favoured the away side in the first half. They stroked the ball about nicely and their movement off the ball forced Town to test the limits they were willing to go to with their man-to-man marking system (quite far was the seeming answer, with players popping up in obscure areas of the pitch to keep track of their man). 

I might be being a bit harsh on Town’s first half performance here, as despite not enjoying much possession, they weren’t unduly troubled by their Dutch visitors. The only decent opportunity came from a long-range effort when we stood off a bit too much and allowed space for a shot which Lee Nichols saved smartly, low to his right. 

My concern about this game is that Neil Warnock has said he wants to see us playing a bit more on the front foot this season but in this game, when we were playing against a team playing possession football, we went back into our shell. It’s good that this defensive position is hard to break down and is basically solid but the first half didn’t fill me with confidence that we’re going to see much change in this Town team from the one that spent a lot of last season with possession stats in the twenties (but we won a lot of those games – so maybe that’s not such a bad thing).

The red card – could common sense have saved this game?

I think the ref had to award the red card for the incident where Danny Ward was pulled down. His job is to enforce the rules, not make them up as he goes along, even in friendlies. So while it was a bit harsh, I don’t think there was any choice for the ref. 

However, I think it might have been sensible to maintain the quality of the game by allowing both teams to start the second half with eleven men. Given it’s an exhibition game that has no bearing on anything else, if both teams agree that it’s better to complete the match with two full sets of eleven players, then I don’t see any harm in the red carded player being replaced. So maybe Neil Warnock could have had a chat with his opposite number at half time and come to an agreement so both teams could get the most out of the game.

Neil Warnock said after the match that the purpose of this game was to test ourselves against a better team and see how we got on. So playing against ten men for the second half meant we didn’t get the test we wanted and it was probably not the work out we planned.

Having said that, with one man fewer to play against, we suddenly managed to string a few more passes together and played more in their half. This meant we built up a few nice moves rather than the more hopeful approach to attack play we’d employed in the first half. So perhaps it was a deliberate choice to play against ten men rather than eleven men, to make things a bit easier and work more on the build up side of our game. 

Edwards slotted in well

Friendly games are usually a chance to get a look at new signings and see how they fit in. Sadly, our lack of transfer incomings this summer meant that Tom Edwards was the only new player to watch in this game. The Stoke loanee did a steady job at right back, looking pretty solid defensively and contributing when we went forward. He showed he can pick out a pass too, as it was his chip forward to Hudlin that set in motion the move that led to the winning goal. I’ll be interested to see how he copes with a quick winger up against him, as he doesn’t look lightning fast, so that could be a potential weakness. But based on this limited first outing, he seems like a decent addition to the squad.

One thing that did catch the eye about Edwards was his long throw, which Rory Delap recently taught him how to do. Having learned the technique from the all-time greatest long thrower, this could be a very useful tool to have in our arsenal this season. Even more so because he’s a fullback, and would be taking half of our throwins anyway. The days of Duane Holmes, not-all-that-long-throws are over and we seem to have a specialist. Add to that players like Hudlin and Harratt, who are both good at attacking aerial balls into the box, then you can see a source of a few goals this season already.

Kasumu limping off adds to midfield concern

If Town’s options in midfield were a bit thin before this game, David Kasumu limping off in the first half now leaves us another injury away from a crisis. While Neil Warnock played down the injury and it’s possible his withdrawal was merely a precaution, if Kasumu isn’t fit for Saturday, and Hogg remains injured too, we’re left with very few specialists in this area of the pitch.

Rudoni and Scott High are the remaining proper midfielders in the squad, (with Rarmani Edmonds-Green now being a regular makeshift defensive midfielder too but he’s quite obviously out of position). Brahima Diarra is also occasionally deployed a bit deeper in midfield to make up numbers however, he’s far more effective when used further up the field and looks a bit lightweight when put in the midfield engine room. 

Otherwise, our other midfield options are either untested B Team players or square pegs in round holes. Ben Jackson is a utility player that seems to do a job wherever he’s asked to play but I’d worry about him against a top-quality Championship midfield. Josh Austerfield has stepped up to the first team in preseason but is inexperienced at this level, so may struggle if he’s expected to play a lot of games all at once and it would be better to ease him in gently. Josh Ruffels or Tom Edwards could be used as makeshift defensive midfielders but moving them would create a gap elsewhere on the pitch. 

So despite our summer transfer window shopping list just being the word striker underlined six times, it may actually be that our priority in the market should shift to midfield. Goals are important and we obviously need a striker because we didn’t score enough last season and have basically the same strikeforce again this time around, but we also have a gaping hole in the middle of the park to fill too which needs urgent attention too.

Hudlin stakes his claim

One of the success stories of this preseason has been Kyle Hudlin coming into the first team group and looking like he can do a job. By scoring the winning goal in this game he added further evidence to the pile of reasons why he should be kept around the club this season. He could have further emphasised this point if he’d have nodded home the absolute sitter that he missed late on in the game, but other than that, he had a very good game when he came on as a second half substitute.

Beyond finishing, I thought Hudlin’s build up play was very good. He used his body well to shield the ball when the ball was played into him. Rather than just pinging balls onto his head, he actually looked most useful when he played balls at chest height, so he could hold off his defender, bring it down and lay it off to those around him. 

I’m quite keen to watch more of Hudlin because he’s an interesting sort of player, because there’s obviously more to him than just being a battering ram to hammer the opposition and win knock downs for other players. He’s got a decent touch (for a big man – sorry, can’t help it) and possesses a bit of skill too. However, when you have the kind of strength and size that he has, it would be daft to not use it to your advantage. So I’m curious to see how that mix of skill and awkward size are combined to create an effective footballer. It would be a waste to just chuck him on and tell him to just try and win as many headers as possible, but equally, it would be daft to only ever play it to his feet and tell him to try and beat defenders with speed rather than using his strength and size. 

Are Town ready for Plymouth?

I don’t think you ever really know if a team is ready until the season starts but I think Town have done enough this preseason. While the lack of signings is obviously a concern and isn’t worth going on about too much more here, the squad we have at least know each other well and there’s no excuse for the players needing them to gel and the manager doesn’t need bedding-in time either.

So I think we should be in good shape. We also should be where we need to be fitness-wise. With five official friendlies played and an additional two behind closed doors games slotted in too, the players have plenty of “minutes in the tank” compared to last season’s poorly planned preseason that saw us start so badly. 

It’s possible we may see a new face or two added to the team between now and Saturday, which would probably settle a few nerves. Particularly if it was a player with a bit of X Factor with the promise of goals and excitement. But even without an addition to the forward line between now and the Plymouth game, we still have the bulk of the squad that Neil Warnock used to keep Town up season, plus Sorba Thomas, Pat Jones and Yuta Nakayama, so it’s not all doom and gloom.