New arrivals soften the blow of bruising defeat to Walsall

I had a much gloomier article planned about Town’s miserable Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Walsall, where Matty Pearson’s silly red card incident led to Town going 2-0 up then collapsing to a 3-2 defeat. But Town made a double loan swoop from Wolverhampton Wanderers yesterday which addressed some of the biggest issues raised by the game on Tuesday night, so perhaps the tone of this article can now be a bit chirpier. Which is nice. 

So this is a two-in-one article, where I’m going to look back on the dismal night’s work on Tuesday and take a look at the two new players that arrived at Town on Wednesday. 

Town deserved to be dumped out of the cup

Despite being 1-0 up at the time of Matty Pearson’s red  card, they were second best even before being reduced to ten men. Even though we were the team from the league above, Walsall looked the better team and were attacking with more intent and stopping us from getting into any sort of passing rhythm . In fact, Town’s passing throughout the game was verging on diabolical. Even though we were trying to impose a possession-based approach and dominate the game, we repeatedly failed to complete simple passes to find a teammate. Not when trying something ambitious, going forward, but the negative, sideways and backwards passes were going astray and putting us in trouble. 

The defensive work was sloppy at times too. Matty Pearson’s red card was perhaps a bit soft, but he shouldn’t have let his man get in front of him and he definitely shouldn’t have raised his arm and given the referee a decision like that to make. Other referees may have not seen enough in the contact and waved play on but I’m not sure it was wrong to blow for the foul and once that decision is made, the red card has to follow given the player was denied a clear, goal-scoring opportunity. 

With ten men, the game was always going to be a struggle but when Josh Ruffels headed in our second, I thought we may have enough about us to see out the game. I’m not sure we got the tactics right though, as I think we should have sat in and protected the lead a bit more once we were ahead and made it harder to break us down. As galling as it is to cling on to a lead against a team from the league below, we were missing a man and we know from experience, it’s hard to break down ten men who sit deep and don’t give you much space. We seemed to allow them plenty of gaps to exploit in the second half and that’s where their goals came from. Though, I suppose, some of it was just not being aggressive enough in our defending, regardless of tactics. 

Michael Duff’s unexpected co-commentary on Sky Sports +

I couldn’t make it to the game on Tuesday night, so had to settle for watching the match on Sky Sports +. Given the placement of the crowd microphone, the subdued atmosphere, the main commentator being almost asleep and the volume of our head coach’s voice, Michael Duff could be heard clear as day throughout most of the match. It was quite interesting having the insight into his instruction going on to the pitch – he was constantly giving orders to the players, like he was playing a game of voice-controlled FIFA (I know it’s now EAFC but I’ve barely adjusted to Marathon becoming Snickers and would happily call this game’s tournament the Worthington’s Cup). Given these were mostly seasoned pros and they’ve been playing under him for a good while, I was surprised how basic and continuous some of his instructions were (and at times baffling, like “get in the envelope Anthony Evans” – which thankfully didn’t lead to the midfielder posting himself back to Huddersfield after another subdued performance).

I suspect Duff’s bellowing from the sidelines is a symptom of his frustration that the players aren’t performing in matches as he’s instructing them to perform when they’re on the training pitch. I can’t imagine he’s telling them to lose their battles, let players drift past them or to misplace basic passes. Though from the instructions I heard Duff giving out, it is possible to tell there’s a plan that could pay off in time. He wants this team to play decent football, to be on the front foot and to take teams on. The players aren’t delivering for him but he’s trying to drive them forward. 

Past managers have talked about philosophies and styles of play and then served up a turgid brand of football and tried to put a positive spin on it in the press room. At least with Duff you can see him trying to wring the best he possibly can out of the limited group he has available. It should improve with time too, as these patterns of play become more embedded and also we recruit towards this philosophy. 

One of the changes that Duff has brought in that has worked well is the increased fitness levels. I’ve noticed that at the end of every game we’ve played this season, our opponents (and the Town players too, in fairness) will nearly always put their hands on their knees and start gulping air like they’ve just finished a marathon or collapse on the floor like they’re completely done in. Sometimes this can be disappointment with a result but I get the feeling every team that plays us this season has to work incredibly hard to keep up with the relentlessness of the way we play. The slick passing side of the game is probably going to take a while to bed in but it’s pleasing to see that the work rate is already there, even in a game where we were reduced to ten men for over half of the game.

Town’s two new signings address our biggest issues

I can hear the howls already, that our biggest issue is to sign a striker (and I assume the work must surely be being done to make that happen today or tomorrow) but I think bringing in a defender and defensive midfielder who are both comfortable on the ball was actually more important. Even though they all have question marks over them, Town have Healey, Koroma, Marshall, Ward, Radulovic, Harratt and Jones who can play up front. Keiran Phillips also returns from his loan in America in a few months, where he’s been pretty prolific. We’ve also got Kyle Hudlin hidden in a cupboard at the back of Canalside somewhere, though the club seem to have forgotten about him lately (he didn’t feature in the last B Team game and there’s been no mention of an injury or loan out for him).  So that’s nine senior strikers on the books at the moment (though that number will surely be smaller when the transfer window closes and we’ve moved some out on loan or permanently). But with Kasumu seemingly covering both right wingback and attacking midfield, Hogg is more or less the only defensive midfielder and in central defence we have nobody with ball-playing ability who is a genuine central defender and not a converted fullback. 

So Nigel Lonwijk and Joe Hodge’s arrivals solve a problem much more pressing than the striker issue (though I’m not denying we also need a reliable striker too). While the results in recent games have been positive, the performances have been sub-par and that’s mostly been because we’ve struggled on the ball and the most troubling area has been progressing the ball out of defence and up the field. With Brodie Spencer injured and Jonathan Hogg out of form, that problem wasn’t going to get any better any time soon without fresh faces arriving. 

Reading the blurbs on these new arrivals they sound like just the players we need. While permanent deals would have been better, loanees will tide us over for this season and hopefully bring the bit of quality that we need to get us out of this division. Both are billed as having quality on the ball and having the ability to pick out a pass, which are the skills that are currently lacking in the areas of the pitch these players play. 

Nigel Lonwijk has already been promoted from League One with Plymouth, in a previous loan, so has previously played alongside Mickel Miller and more importantly has experience of this level and of getting out of the league. While he is right-footed, he is comfortable playing on the left side of a back three and will most likely play the majority of his games in that position. From his interview, it sounds like he’ll enjoy the freedom that Michael Duff allows his central defenders and will want to join the attack when he can and start off attacking moves. Given he’s from the Netherlands and if you squint a bit he looks a bit like him, he’ll most likely be typecast as a League One Virgil Van Dyke. Let’s hope he can play like him too. 

Joe Hodge isn’t a new name to anyone that has followed Town transfer rumours over the summer, as we’ve been linked with him repeatedly and were apparently close to bringing him in back in July. There will have been reasons why the deal couldn’t happen until now, most likely Wolves wanted to be certain of their playing squad for the season ahead before sanctioning loans but at least we’ve got our man now. He seems like a good player to have too. Described as a player that can tackle, pass, cover plenty of ground, he seems like exactly the player we need at the base of our midfield. With a bit of luck, he’ll settle quickly and Hogg will take up the role I hoped he’d occupy this season as the backup option on the bench to help us when needed, not the first choice. Having someone with Hogg’s experience on the bench to bring on late in games is a valuable weapon but relying on him to start most games is far too risky. 

Can Town round off their transfer window with the final piece of business?

Every transfer window for Huddersfield Town is defined by the hunt for a striker. Will today or tomorrow bring us the goal-scorer that we need? Talk of Joe Taylor from Luton doesn’t seem to be going away despite the fact he’s been getting a few minutes for Luton recently off the bench. There was even some frantic speculation online yesterday when someone thought they’d seen him getting a northbound train. 

While it would be lovely to make a big, statement signing of a striker before the transfer deadline arrives, we’ll cope if we don’t. I would say that it’s just as important that we repel any late bids for our best players at the same time. It’s probably too late to bring in replacements for any key players that leave. However, trimming the squad to a manageable level and allowing players to leave who aren’t going to get any game time would be a sensible move to avoid having unhappy players lingering around the training ground.