Huddersfield Town shared the points with Luton in a scrappy game that Town might have won with a bit more cutting edge at the top end but equally could have lost had Eiting not managed to score a looping header that was very difficult to score from.
So it’s one of those games you can either feel happy to have taken something from or angry about not collecting a win. I’m probably somewhere in between and think a point is about right for a game where we failed to find a rhythm and didn’t do enough to create good quality chances.
Here’s how I’d rate each individual performance…
Ben Hamer – 6 out of 10
Not at fault for the goal, which was smartly finished by the Luton player. His passing wasn’t always perfect but he was at least trying to be a bit more creative with how he tried to pick out players. While it wasn’t a classic performance, at least the biggest transgression he made was misplacing a few of his long-range passes and he looked steady throughout.
Harry Toffolo – 7 out of 10
He’s been off the boil in the last few games, partly due to being targeted by opponents but also looking less dynamic because of the huge number of games he’s played. Today was a return to his usual level and he put in the cross that led to our equaliser following a trademark overlap down the left flank. Did his defensive work diligently and covered for his colleagues poor positioning on several occasions by dealing with two Luton players at once.
Naby Sarr – 7 out of 10
Won plenty in the air to take pressure off and tried his best to make things happen with his passing. His execution isn’t always perfect but I admire the fact he looks past the obvious square ball and tries to push Town up the field. When the pass wasn’t on he wasn’t scared of carrying the ball up the field himself either.
Richard Stearman – 7 out of 10
Seemed to get several lumps kicked out of him by the more physical Luton players but stood up to the challenge and didn’t do anything silly. I’m pleased he has made it to the international break without picking up his fifth booking after getting his fourth a few weeks ago. He put in the kind of gritty performance that this game needed even if it wasn’t all that pretty to watch.
Pipa – 6 out of 10
Wasn’t able to find quite as much joy with his stepovers and twisting runs as usual. I don’t know if I’m projecting a narrative onto the pitch that doesn’t exist, but I get the feeling he doesn’t like Diakhaby as a person or a player and the two don’t have any kind of understanding and get in each other’s way. I might be wrong but there seemed to be some tension on the pitch and it stopped both from playing their best.
Jonathan Hogg – 7 out of 10
A scruffy battle against a physical side was always going to be a game suited to Jonathan Hogg’s very particular set of skills. Skills he’s acquired over a very long career. So it proved, as he battled away in the centre of the pitch and did the dirty work he’s so good at doing. He still looks a bit laboured when he ventures forward and gets a nosebleed anywhere near the opposition box but that’s not what he’s in the team for and it’s the other midfielders’ responsibility to do the attacking work.
Lewis O’Brien – 6 out of 10
Did a lot of work in midfield but is still lacking that bit of finesse he needs to make his final ball find it’s target. Too many overhit passes and runs into the wrong areas. I’m not too concerned about this period he’s had since returning from injury as he’s still getting fully into the swing of Carlos’ system. The international break will give him more time on the training ground and I suspect we’ll see him fully firing when we come back in a couple of weeks.
Carel Eiting – 8 out of 10
The score is adjusted to reflect how excellently he finished the cross that Toffolo clipped in to him. I can’t imagine Ajax’s academy focus much on headed goals but Eiting’s perfectly angled cushioned header was the moment of quality in front of goal that had been eluding us all afternoon. The ball in had very little pace or angle on it, so Eiting had a lot to do in order to beat the goalkeeper and he did it superbly. It reminded me of Boothy in his prime and there’s no higher compliment for a headed goal in my eyes.
Other than the goal, Eiting had a reasonably good game. He played as the more advanced of the midfield three and managed to get on the ball more than in previous games. His passing was wayward at times but crisp and intelligent at others. I’m not sure it’s his natural position but Bacuna and Pritchard’s absences and O’Brien’s return mean he’s got to play where the spaces are in the midfield.
Josh Koroma – 6 out of 10
He looked a frustrated figure today and spent a lot of time complaining to the officials for various perceived injustices. It’s hard to give this kind of performance a rating because he kept on getting into positions where he’d take on shots but those shots weren’t really good enough (baring one effort he curled wide which looked to have some genuine menace on it). So he deserved credit for getting into these positions but not too much because he didn’t trouble the keeper nearly enough. He’s doing well for Town this season and his three goals make him our top scorer but it’s clear there’s more to come from him if he can improve his finishing.
Frazier Campbell – 6 out of 10
Did lots of running around but not to a great deal of effect. I’m struggling to think of much he did in the game, good or bad, aside from closing down the defence. The stats say he had a few shots but two were blocked, one was off target and none of them made a lasting impression on my memory. Danny Ward’s substitute appearance will act as a reminder that he faces more competition for a starting place after the break and I hope this will lead to both players pushing each other into playing better.
Adama Diakhaby – 5 out of 10
Like Eiting’s score received a bump upwards because of his contribution for the goal, Diakhaby has had a point docked for his shocking marking for Luton’s goal. He switched off, lost his man and that led to the opportunity to score. You can be as quick as you like but without speed of thought you will always get caught out and he seemed to be daydreaming when he needed to be switched on.
His all round performance was mixed. There were plenty of examples of why he’s been so roundly maligned by Town fans over the years, with heavy touches, misplaced passes and his arm-flapping, shoulder-slumping body language suggesting he’s not a happy chap right now. But, and it’s easy to overlook this, he actually had a few nice touches here and there and contributed to a few attacks. As I mentioned earlier, he appears to have a dysfunctional relationship with Pipa which is stopping our right side from being a productive source of opportunities. I think the truth is that several players in the team regularly turn up opportunities to play Diakhaby in because they don’t trust him with the ball. He’s going to really struggle to do well for us until he is trusted more by his colleagues.
Substitutes
Christopher Schindler – 7 out of 10
Did a good job as the middle of the defensive three and allowed the fullbacks to push forward more. Despite Gavin in the comments thinking I’ve got some sort of vendetta against our captain, I’d say we looked more composed at the back when he came on and he did his job well.
Danny Ward – N/A
Good to see him come on and have ten minutes of the game but didn’t get much opportunity to show us what he can do. Played more as a left winger despite his favoured role being as a central striker. Our lack of options on the wing may mean that he had to play the role he specialised in when he was last a Town player, at least if Fraizer Campbell is fit and playing well.
Dumeaco Duhaney – N/A
Came on late after Pipa picked up an injury and didn’t have time to make an impact. I’m sure he’ll gratefully trouser the appearance fee for almost no work though.
We played exactly as I posted before the game and despite them game being very physical we stood up to the challenge well, not a classic but every point counts and in my view fourteen points
You are a nicer, kinder & evidently more generous guy than me!!
No disagreement with the keeper and the back four plus Schindler. They all did their jobs. Another assist for Toffolo – we’d have been lost without him; thank you to the Cowleys!
It’s after that I part company from you. Hogg was once again the outstanding Town player yesterday. There’s not much more that guy can do other than maybe shot & score. He definitely scores an 8 or even a 9 from me.
Eiting – at least you said you’ve adjusted his score upwards because of his goal. All I can say is that you must have adjusted upwards by at least 3 points!! Where was he throughout the first 45mins? I’d almost forgotten he was playing. And if he’s now our free kick specialist, well he’d better get a lot more practice in.
O’Brien – again very very disappointing. I can’t believe he’s been our player of the season last year. His passing is woeful.
Diakhaby – were you watching the same match? I never want to see him in a Town shirt again! He’s a disgrace and an embarrassment to the team and to himself. Yes he is that bad. And his attitude is woeful.
Campbell – as always runs around a lot but never ever looks like scoring a goal. What good is that for your centre forward. I’d like a centre forward who scores every other game and is slightly lazier!
Koroma – I’ve saved him until last. What do people see in him? I think he’s rubbish! The commentary yesterday said that times in the second half he looked like “a world beater”. What?! I think Luton didn’t mark him tightly because they could see he was rubbish and thought “no need to worry there.” I don’t know where to start with him. His passing, even the shortest of passes, is terrible. He’s got no left foot – he always cuts inside. His shooting, well it’s a joke. He smashes the balls into a defender’s legs more often than not. He frequently scuffs his shots or they’re a tame sidefoot. Seriously if we had had someone even half decent out on the left yesterday with Toffolo, we’d have won that game. He’s another player I’d be quite happy not to see again although it’s not then leaving many options as I’ve already axed Diakhaby and Campbell!!
Sorry to be so harsh. Luton were no great shakes. Town had almost 70% possession, did have plenty of shooting opportunities and all we have to show for it is one looping header from Eiting. A half decent front 3 would have buried them yesterday. We can but hope that Danny Ward returns fit & strong with his shooting boots. I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for your comment Simon. I always find it interesting how we all watch the sane game but come away with different opinions of the game.
I don’t really disagree with any of your criticisms if the players but perhaps don’t feel quite so strongly about them and am maybe more willing to look for positives in otherwise poor performances.
I’m not sure I agree with your assessment of Luton though. They’re a limited team but quite effective at what they do and have picked up some decent results this season so far. They’re the kind of team we always seem to struggle against, so I think yesterday’s result is a (very small) step in right direction as we managed to create a few chances even if we didn’t do much with them.
Diakhaby – May well have been the highest paid player on the pitch yesterday but, apart from all the other failings already mentioned, the most annoying for me is that he isn’t prepared to put himself ‘on the line’ and take a knock or two. His ‘challenges’ (lol) aren’t even half hearted. I can’t be doing with a player who’s drawing all that money every week and who can’t be a*sed. Buy his contract out and send him back to France to eat cheese and surrender..
Thanks for your assessment, I too think you’ve been overly generous; up to the fifty-ninth minute I was consumed by fury and depression. Town had regressed to every recorded deficiency over the previous two years: the marking shambolic ; the energy levels lower than we have come to expect and the passing woefully inadequate. Then came yet another inventive cross from Toffolo and a remarkably delicate and precise header from Eiting; subsequently my state of mind and the play improved.
The possession percentage of 68 is astonishing considering we seemed incapable of passing with any accuracy, sadly O’Brien the biggest culprit, I only hope he is not to become a one-season wonder considering his efforts and skill levels last time.
I am not the biggest fan of Hogg, but for many assessors he has been man of the match or close to it in recent games, so credit to him that he has taken on board Corberan’s philosophy, but there’s more than a nagging thought that this also explains our recent ineffectiveness.
I’ll start with my assessment of Hogg, 6 months ago I wouldn’t have picked him for ‘The Duck and Drake under 12’s’ he was a waste of space, absolutely no desire to go forward and getting in the way at the back but, now!! What a difference, not the first name on the team sheet but close. Forward thinking, inch perfect cross field passes, brilliant and I never thought I would say that!! The main problem is no goal scoring Centre Forward and Danny Ward is definitely not ‘it’ he is another converted winger who might get a goal or two. At his most recent club, Cardiff he scored at a rate of 1 in 6. I know I keep banging on about him and I’ve never seen him but we have a prolific scorer in the ‘B’ team in Kieran Phillips just give him a go, 30 mins off the bench anything to keep him interested otherwise he’ll walk. If he’s not good enough, OK, but let’s see before it’s too late. I was speaking to an Everton fan who watches at every level and he says he was the best finisher at Everton for many years and was annoyed at his departure. The only other Centre Forward we have is Campbell, ‘come on’ the opposition compare him to a Mosquito bloody annoying but no real risk.
Totally agree about Hogg. I have not been a Hogg fan for a while but these last 4 or 5 matches, he has been fantastic! His energy levels are amazing; his passing is more positive; he’s still tackling but not giving away as many silly free kicks. As I said earlier, if he could shoot and occasionally score, he’d be getting 10/10 from me every week.
Koroma just isn’t good enough for the Championship. He can’t make the space for a clear shot and he seems to scuff more than he hits. His goal against Millwall was a mishit and if he had been a yard further out his conversion of Mbenza’s cross would have gone over the bar. Grant never really got any service but managed to score. In this team there are loads of chances and he would be scoring every game. I hope to be proved wrong, but I also don’t think Ward is going to be the answer. So we still need what everyone outside the club has been saying for a long time, a proper striker and however careful the club is about spending money, this is as much (or more of) a priority than having pretty training facilities
I feel it’s very harsh to bash Koroma and say he’s no good, he’s scored goals and helped create them this season. Yes he wasn’t great yesterday but I can see the improvements in his game and he’s getting in to the right places.
Hogg has been one of my favourite town players for a while. I don’t mind if you can’t pass a ball like Beckham or dribble like Messi, not many players work as hard as Hoggy and that makes up for so much, I also use that metric to give Campbell a break too. He doesn’t always look like scoring, but really how many chances do we create for him, not enough. But his work rate really does help the team, Lewis O’Brien’s goal against Millwall came from Campbell putting in a decent challenge tracking back.
Diakhaby unfortunately isn’t suited to this team. He is a luxury player, although haven’t seen much of anything from him that denotes luxury, but ultimately he just doesn’t work hard enough and then sulks. Unlike Mbenza who is willing to put the hard work in, barring marking his man against Bristol which he held his hands up for, he has looked renewed and dangerous. We just need to find Diakhaby a new club and find someone a bit more industrious.
Unfortunately we still haven’t had decent performances from our more creative central midfielders. I’d like to see Daly given more chances, with Pritchard’s injury record and Bacuna’s hit and miss performances it’s probably a good time to try him out in there.
Dave
we are at team in transition and yesterday without being at our fluent best ie our opponents take credit for that some forget there are two sides on the pitch we got a point and for me we got the tactics spot on after we got level we learnt from birmingam for being too open so lets not go over the top when we win or lose as I’m sure we will be ok and I agree the midefield isn’t at its best but not through lack of effort.
Definition of vendetta
1 : BLOOD FEUD
2 : an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts
Did I say that?
We have to give a bit of credit to Luton, again we had a team that let us have the ball & invited us on, they new in a few positions we lack creativity, against teams like that we need our forward players to give us a bit more & sorry diakharby is just not good enough he (must be fantastic in training because he pulls the wool over every manager that comes in), Koroma is going to be a good one but still raw, O’Brien & eiting are still getting up to speed, I don’t really know what the answer is plus i do think we are playing a lot better than last season so maybe a little patience is needed we have a little break for the manager to work with the players & a transfer window coming up
patience is some thing lacking in all walks of life not just football but overall I agree we are playing better but we need to put things in perspective we are not yet ready for a top six challenge but we may well be come the second half of the season
Despite the fact that staying up his itself a achievement and that wont alter this season the league gets more competitive every season and there will be many twists and turns for all clubs before this season is decided
When you see a performance like at Millwall, you start to believe anything is possible. But then the realities of Bristol City and Luton Town have brought us all back to the realms of reality. They say you should look at the table after 10 games and that’s a fair reflection as to where you’re at. The table tells fewer lies. I’m tempted to exclude the horror start – defeat to Rochdale, defeat to Norwich and defeat to Brentford; goals scored – zero. Since then, Town have actually won more than they’ve lost so your call for patience is well made.
A point against another boring “give em the ball” championship side who use muscle more than skill was about right for sat. this is just the the start of a complete overhaul of a tired club that the so called Prem Lg, nearly finished off, we paid a lot of money for duff players, some of who we still have, I agree with”davidtinker” we have to let Carlos Corberan and his team do it his way which is not going to be tomorrow, it was good to see that when Eiting scored we had six men in the box, every Town fan knows that the priority has to be a goal scoring striker, then I think Calos’s tactics paying off. just a word on Town greats, my all time Town Great was the best captain I have ever seen in the stripes ie- Jimmy Nicholson, brought up at Man. U and showed it every game.
UTT.
I too have fond memories of Jimmy Nicholson. Captain of our promotion side of 69/70. I’m not sure how he’d have got on in the modern game; he certainly wasn’t a box-to-box midfielder. He was undoubtedly a good captain, very much controlling things from central midfield.