Huddersfield Town were beaten 2-1 at Stoke in a tight game which was decided by set pieces and individual errors. A draw would have been a fairer result but we can’t really complain after riding our luck in the recent wins against Sheffield United and Preston.
The good news is that this wasn’t the kind of defeat that suggests the wheels are falling off for Town. There were obviously things that could have been better but the optimism that came with three consecutive wins has only been slightly dented after another disciplined performance from the Terriers.
Here are a few of my thoughts on the game:
Town now have a way of playing against better teams
Phil Hodgkinson talked in his recent interview about how all the bad eggs have now been weeded out of the club and we’ve got a group of players willing to run through brick walls for the club. That’s great but it’s worth acknowledging that we’ve also lost alll those players with Premier League quality too (apart from Hogg). We’re now a team of freebies, academy players and bargains from the lower leagues – which is fine but means we’re not going to be able to match teams like Stoke. When they can bring players like Joe Allen and Steven Fletcher off the bench then you know they’ve got a better squad than us.
Last season we didn’t have a Plan B for when we came up against teams that were better than us. We’d just try and do our usual tippy tappy football and usually get turned over as a result. Playing with five at the back and sitting deep might not be revolutionary or exciting to watch but it does make us harder to beat in these types of games and means we’ll most likely pick up more points over the course of the season.
We’ve shown how this system can be adapted to dominate the ball and create more attacking opportunities in the Reading game but against Stoke it was definitely a safety-first approach that meant we were happy to not have the ball and most of our threat came from counter attacks and set pieces.
Both goals came about because of simple mistakes
After being well-organised for so long, it was a disappointment to see us concede two relatively soft goals. The first goal should have been easily headed away by Naby Sarr but he seemed to misjudge the flight of the ball and ended up nowhere near it, allowing a simple header for Brown just outside the six-yard box. Then the second goal came from a square ball that O’Brien should have snuffed out and Pearson couldn’t get out of the way of. Both were sloppy ways to concede.
With some own goals it’s just a case of bad luck, when a defender puts his body in the way of the ball and it bounces in, but Pearson had the time to set himself correctly and shouldn’t have got his feet so horrendously tangled when dealing with such a tame cross.
We all know how much soft goals cost us last season, so it’s a concern to see this happening again. All teams let them in from time to time but it’s when it becomes a habit that you start to worry. So far, Fulham aside, we’ve been much more solid at the back and have cut out the individual errors or at least aren’t conceding too many from them. It’s important that we go back to keeping things tight at the back in the next few games.
It’s still too early to know what to expect from Town this season
This defeat will bring a few fans back down to Earth but if anything it makes me feel a bit more optimistic. Despite the fact we lost, there were plenty of positives to take from the game and we have to acknowledge that we were playing against a good team in decent form. The fact we could have easily taken something from this game makes me feel like we could be more competitive this season but it’s still hard to know exactly where we should be setting our sights.
Before the season started it seemed likely we’d be in for another relegation scrap. Then after the Fulham defeat I genuinely feared we’d be down before Christmas. After those three wins it was tempting to start wondering if another promotion season could be on the cards but that feels a little bit too optimistic now in retrospect.
It seems obvious that Town won’t be up there with Fulham and West Brom at the very top of the table but I think it’s possible this team could finish anywhere from top six to rock bottom, it’s very hard to judge. If we keep our key players fit and everyone plays to their potential we could be in for a very successful year. If the wheels come off again then we may be left desperately hoping that there are three teams worse than us.
If I was forced to make a prediction at this stage, I’d be tempted to say we’ll end up between 13th and 18th. I’m hoping we’ve got enough about us to steer clear of the scrap at the bottom of the table but I’m doubtful we’ve got the quality to genuinely compete at the top end of the table.
Call me unambitious but I’d be happy with a season of steady progress and a midtable finish. The margin between a playoff contender and a relegation struggler can be very fine but I hope that the sensible transfer business we’ve done this summer might help to put us into that boring middle section of the table for once.
Sexism in the stands
The game itself provided surprisingly few talking points on Saturday but there was a post on Twitter about events in the stands that did open a debate. A female fan posted about how her afternoon at the game was completely ruined by the frequent sexist abuse from someone stood near her in the stadium.
Thankfully the club have stepped in and asked for details so they can investigate the incident properly and hopefully they’ll take appropriate action if there is enough evidence available. I’m not a fan of trial by social media, so won’t share the details of the man accused but I will say I wasn’t all that surprised to hear this had happened. I’ve been at plenty of games where the behaviour of a minority of other fans has taken the shine of the afternoon for me and those around me.
It’s completely unacceptable that anyone should receive abuse because of their gender (or sexuality, race, disability, etc) and I’m pleased that so many people have spoken out against this alleged poor behaviour.
Football stands need to have a bit of atmosphere in them, there needs to be passion and a bit of an edge but that isn’t achieved by amateur Alf Garnetts getting on their soapbox. Football should be for everyone and it’s sad that someone came away from the game at the weekend feeling like they’d been singled out because of their gender.
Looking ahead to Blackpool
Back to the football, up next it’s Blackpool tomorrow night and a chance to get back to winning ways. Prior to the weekend, Blackpool were yet to win a game and looked like they might be the league’s whipping boys but they managed an unlikely 1-0 victory over Fulham and suddenly don’t seem such an easy prospect.
They beat Fulham with just 29% of possession, so it’s likely Town will set up to dominate this game and look to play a more attacking type of football. Last season we typically lost games against sides that sat deep and allowed us to have plenty of the ball, so this game will be an interesting test of whether we’ve progressed or not. Hopefully the likes of Thomas, Sinani, Odubeko and Koroma will show they can unlock a stubborn defence. If not it could be a long night.
Don’t mind where the players are from as long as they put in 100% for team, if you take out Schindler , Mooy, Hogg and Jonas there wasn’t that much premiership quality . On evidence of the season so far I think we are making a decent account of ourselves, and I we would all think hand on heart that six points out of the next two games should be more than possible.
I was interested to see your comment about the club getting involved with the incident you recorded. A couple of seasons ago a chap near me regularly used foul language in the stand, not good especially with young children in the vicinity, after a while his behaviour improved significantly, I like to think someone reported him, I’m ashamed to say it wasn’t me but it should have been. The point is the club almost certainly reacted to good effect – one advantage of seat numbers.
I agree with most of your comments, I’m a big fan of three centre backs defensively, because of our past weaknesses at corners and freekicks, although it didn’t help us in this game. Also offensively they’re a threat with Thomas’ superior deliveries.
I take issue with Hogg being Premiership quality, his ball skills hardly grace the Championship and his lack of pace was a weekly embarrassment in the top division.
I think a draw would have been a fair result. I couldn’t see either team scoring again really. But an improvement on last year, and hopefully no nail biting in the last month of the season. I was watching my now local team who also play in blue and white stripes last night and thinking, am I watching Town. Loads of possession but not much idea what to do with it in the opposition box, apart from one player who scored two goals. That’s all Town need, and Malaga have even less money than Town, so the scouts need to find that gem please.
Not much to say – only Oggie’s commentary and short highlights to go from.
It seems to be a case of what might have been. Looking at the scores awarded to individual performances, nobody had a stand-out performance and there were a number of ‘sub 6’ performances. If you play at that level, more often than not, you’ll get beaten.
Let’s hope they raise their game this evening. And hurray, thanks to iFollow I’ll be able to watch it so I’ll have plenty to say next time!