Huddersfield Town have had a poor start to their 2018/19 season, with three defeats and one draw from their opening four games. Admittedly, two of those losses came against top-six opposition, but performances in those games was disappointing even when you account for the opposition. Losing is fine, but rolling over and letting them tickle your belly is less acceptable.
In this article I’m going to try to pinpoint where the problems currently lie for Town and David Wagner. This isn’t an article that’s moaning about our current situation, rather I’m trying to find what the problems are and then it may be easier to see how we can turn this slump around.
Lack of goals
Obviously scoring goals is the principle problem facing any football team, but a lack of goals has been an issue for Town throughout David Wagner’s (otherwise incredibly successful) time at Town. We’ve failed to score in more games than almost any other team in the football league since the start of last season.
The widely-held belief was that our lack of goals was due to our wingers not providing enough service to the striker last season, so we’ve heavily invested in three new wingers in the summer (more about them later), but so far we’ve not seen an improvement. Jon Stanovich’s consolation goal at Man City is the only time we’ve found the net so far this season, which at least saves us the humiliation of not being able to give a Goal of the Month award out for August.
26 – Huddersfield Town have failed to score in 26 matches in all competitions since the start of last season; only Northampton Town (27) have done so more of all clubs in the top four tiers of English football. Struggle. #CarabaoCup
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 28, 2018
Predictable attacking play
Our lack of goals may be more a symptom of our style of play rather than the individual players on the pitch. Last weekend’s game against Cardiff felt very familiar, as Town dominated the game until Hogg’s red card but couldn’t convert 72% of the possession into decent chances.
We’ve struggled in the exact same way against teams that sit deep against us several times over the last few years and it’s hard to see an easy solution. The principle problem is that our possession is mostly in areas of the pitch that don’t harm the opposition and we don’t have the creative spark to open up well-organised defences.
Trying to move the ball forward more quickly may help with this problem, and committing players forward when we get into good positions. Too often our lone striker is trying to compete for balls in the box on his own, while the rest of the team are camped around the edges and holding their position. A more fluent attacking style may leave us more open to counter-attacks, but taking calculated risks may be the best way to break down stubborn defences.
Individual errors
I’m not going to name names or point fingers, but it’s fair to say that there have been plenty of silly mistakes this season so far, some have cost us dearly and others we’ve got away with. Poor decision-making and a lack of composure are the main issues here and it’s hard to completely cut these out because human beings make mistakes.
The odd mistake is natural, but the number of blunders we’ve seen this season feels a lot higher than last year. I think these kind of problems happen to teams that are low in confidence, as players do odd things when they start to feel under pressure. Sticking to basics and not trying too hard are probably the easiest ways to cut out silly mistakes, so that’s what I hope we’ll stick to in the games we’ve got coming up.
Our tactics lack ambition
I’m very reluctant to criticise David Wagner, because he’s done such great things for Town, but he’s still learning and I think he might have got his tactics wrong a couple of times this season. I can understand the instinct to play defensively when up against tough opposition but from the stands it can seem like we’re waving the white flag when we set up to hang on to a 0-0 against top teams, particularly when it doesn’t work.
Our players aren’t suited to playing a deep-lying defensive system. We’re not threatening enough on the break, and we can’t resist constant pressure from top teams. Leicester City turned counter-attacking football into a fine art in their title-winning season, but it’s incredibly difficult to master that style of play.
Town under Wagner have always played their best when playing aggressively and putting opposition players under extreme pressure. It’s exhausting for players to play in this system but we’ve got a team of players that are willing to work hard, all over the pitch, and it’s brought us great rewards over the years. I’d like to see us return to this higher-tempo approach.
Our summer signings haven’t produced (yet)
It’s possible that everyone expected too much from Town’s new signings, but the only new recruit to impress so far has been Kongolo. He was our earliest signing of the summer and already had six-months experience of Town’s approach to football. The other signings are still bedding in, and their few opportunities haven’t had the devastating impact that fans hoped for.
The good news is that we’ve hardly seen the new boys yet, and they’ll only get better the more they get used to our system and familiar with their teammates. Sohbi looks like he’s got incredible skill, Diakhaby has blistering pace, and Mbenza could be the goal threat we’ve been crying out for. It’s only fair to judge these players once they’ve been given time to adjust, even if we’re desperate to see them succeed as soon as possible.
Changing the tactics to more aggressively press opposition and trying to play further up the pitch will give our new attacking players a better platform to display their talent. I don’t think any attacking player would have been able to shine in such poor recent team performances, so it’s better to judge them when we’ve been able to recapture our form and play with more swagger.
Too many customers and not enough fans
It’s debatable how much fans affect the players on the pitch, but the mood in the stadium feels different this year, there isnt’ the same buzz. Last season we were just happy to be here, but now it feels like fans are expecting more than the team can deliver.
I think it’s fine to have a bit of a moan about your football team from time to time, but I’m not keen on the relentless negativity some fans indulge in, both from the stands and on social media. If you’ve paid for a ticket to a game then I believe you’ve paid for the privilege of the odd whinge, but you at some point you’ll need to ask yourself if you’re a fan or a customer of Huddersfield Town.
Customers pay for a service and are entitled to complain when they’re disappointed with what they’ve paid for. Fans, mostly, support their team regardless of the results or performances. The word fan is, after all, short for fanatic, so it’s time for supporters to show their fanatical side now we’re starting to struggle.
Obviously it’s easier to vocally support a team that’s playing good football and getting decent results, but true fans can create the noise that spurs players into action, rather than sitting back and waiting to be entertained.
How can David Wagner and the team turn this around?
There’s a chicken-and-egg kind of problem when football teams start to struggle. Good results will lead to more confidence, which lead to better performances, and then increases the chances of better results in the future. But we need to find a way to kick start our season.
My opinion is that we shouldn’t worry too much about results for now and should instead focus on getting the style of play back to the old Terrier Spirit approach. We need to terrorise the opposition and chase them down on every blade of grass, force them into mistakes and commit players forward when we win the ball.
The results will sort themselves out if we can start to show a bit more bite. Even if the results don’t improve, fans will be far more forgiving of losing after putting up a proper fight rather than getting bogged down in negative tactics.
Reasons to feel positive
These problems facing Town right now aren’t insurmountable and there are reasons to be positive now. Here are the ones I can think of…
- We’ve only played three league games, two against top-six opposition and one we played with ten men for the last half an hour, so coming away with a point isn’t all that bad
- David Wagner has consistently turned around bad patches and steered the ship back on course. November 2016 and 2017 were both terrible for Town, and the run of games leading up to the playoffs included some dire football. All of those bad patches were followed by a run of great success. We’ve overcome adversity before, so there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again
- Just one good result can completely turn this run around. Even a scrappy 1-0 were it goes in off someone’s backside would break the negative cycle and see us rise up the table
- Collin Quaner is still at the club (for now). Knowing we’ve got him tucked away as our secret weapon fills me with confidence
Great analysis. Always enjoy your posts. Keep going! UTT