Following on from his extensive interview in The Examiner recently, Phil Hodgkinson answered questions from the Radio Leeds team before yesterday’s match. There were a few good points made, you can listen to the full interview by clicking this link, but the most interesting part was Oggy’s final question about targets for Carlos Corberán’s first season at Town.
Phil gave a surprisingly open answer to the question and detailed what he would class as a successful season for Corberán.
What are Carlos’ targets for this season?
Here is exactly what Phil said in the interview:
“After the first 10 games, at no point during the rest of the season are we looking over our shoulder nervously. And instil your philosophy.”
You can listen to the full interview for more details but Phil’s expectation for Carlos is to firstly make sure we survive comfortably this season and secondly to implement the style of play that Carlos believes in.
There isn’t a specific place in the table that he has to reach this target but it obviously requires not only avoiding relegation but also being above the scrap to go down too. Another way of saying this is he wants us to finish midtable or higher.
The philosophy target is a bit less concrete but I suspect this harks back to the Cowley’s reign. The Cowley brothers had ambitions to play attacking football with Town but put these plans aside during the run in and took a more pragmatic approach to grind out the results we needed. Phil clearly wants us to stick to playing a certain way.
Are these targets realistic?
Given the squad Town have given Carlos, I think these targets are quite ambitious but not completely unrealistic. He wants Town to avoid the relegation dogfight we had last season but (despite what Phil says) we have a weaker squad than last year.
To reuse one of those awful middle-management phrases you often hear, Phil wants Carlos “to do more with less”, which is a big ask but can be done. Carlos has already made great strides in changing the mentality of the players at the club and the squad are looking significantly fitter than last year.
My expectation for this season is for us to survive but only just, so if we can avoid the relegation fight all together then I think Carlos will have done very well.
Are these targets unambitious?
If you’ve been reading up to this point then you’ll know that I don’t agree that these targets are unambitious but I’m certain some fans will. There are a minority of Town fans that think setting our sights below winning the league is a failure of leadership and should be punished by public flogging.
Obviously nobody will be calling for Carlos’ head if he over-achieves this season but we must live in the real world. Our squad isn’t anywhere near the standard of teams competing at the top end of the league both in terms of quality and quantity of players.
There are early signs of Carlos being a good coach but it’s going to take time and investment to make Town competitive at the top end of this league.
How is Carlos doing against these targets so far?
We’ve not reached the end of the 10 game grace period Phil gave Carlos but we’ve already got enough points on the board to be well clear of the bottom three for a little while. If we can keep the points total ticking over by regularly picking up points then we should be fine.
Going on a losing run could plunge Town down the table but we don’t currently look likely to do that at the moment. Fixture congestion, Covid-19 and the intensity of training could lead to an injury crisis at some point this season and that could present Carlos with a major challenge but hopefully the new B Team system will mean the academy players are ready to step in and do a job.
The change in philosophy is well ahead of schedule as it’s clear for anyone to see that Town are approaching games differently now. It won’t always work, as it didn’t against Preston yesterday, but we are trying to play on the front foot now and are more entertaining to watch.
What happens if Carlos doesn’t meet this targets?
Phil was effusive in his praise of Carlos yesterday and was quick to dismiss Oggy’s reference to how quickly he had dispatched previous managers. But it’s worth remembering how happy Phil was with the Cowleys at the point they joined but he still sacked them at the end of last season.
Given the fact that the Cowley’s target was to keep Town up and they still got sacked, I wouldn’t say that hitting or missing the targets set is the most important factor for the board. It’s more down to whether they think Carlos is able to deliver the long-term aims of the club and will be happy to work within the limitations imposed upon him. If he can stay on their good side then he should be fine.
I think in general we have a pretty nice run of fixtures till Xmas and given some luck could be close to a playoff position if we are good enough to take advantage.
Therefore I agree with Phil, get the points on the board and then play the football you want after Xmas
We saw last season how being around the bottom three can have a negative effect on the team and make life much harder. If we can steer clear of that then it naturally allows us to play with more freedom and less pressure.
It sounds easy in theory but in practice we’re playing in a very tough league with a thin squad and new manager. Thankfully Carlos seems to be doing a great job so far and I’m optimistic he’ll do well for us.
I think adding a couple of loans to the very lightweight attacking department in January will see Carlos guide the team to a satisfactory position this season.
It may be that we bring in more free agents before then but I’d feel better with a few extra experienced players in the squad.
the person who needs to hold is nerve is the chairman we are playing good footballand no one wants to be fighting relegation but setting targets vreates extra pressure and is not needed. one game at a time his the best way foreward
I think it’s pretty standard to have broad targets for a manager. Even the players are set targets in terms of goals, assists, KM run in total and KM sprinting.
Hodgkinson talks a load of tripe. Around £30M+ from player sales. Dean Hoyle waiving his £15M repayment this year and a transfer spend not much more than petty cash. I feel for Carlos whose strike force(!) is all inherited. Populated with players deemed previously not good enough to play, young lads and free, out of contract players, who in footballing terms are a bit long in the tooth. He may give lip service to wanting to challenge for promotion but the last thing Hodgkinson wants is for Carlos to do well and Town to be promoted because he can’t really afford a Championship club never mind a Premiership club. Dean Hoyle who has much more cash than Hodgkinson found that out where he was a poor relation in the Premiership competing with all the billionaire owners of practically all of the other clubs.
Just one other comment. There is little chance of Carlos being sacked because if he isn’t backed by the board he will be gone before that happens. There are plenty of other clubs (including possibly Leeds) who could offer him much better terms and give him the tools to become a very successful manager.
Leeds won’t be in the frame until Bielsa hangs it up, which won’t be before the end of the season at the earliest. There is no doubt that whenever Bielsa chooses to leave, Carlos will be top of the list of replacement candidates, given how much Bielsa respects his coaching ability and because he knows his system.
So assuming Carlos proves his coaching talents over the next few months, by the end of the season Huddersfield fans will be hoping Bielsa renews his contract as fervently as Leeds fans will!