Donald Trump, as loathsome as he is, does have a habit of coming out with good sound bites. He promised Republicans once that they would win so much under him that they would get bored of winning. Under Michael Duff, it seems that Town fans have also become bored of winning, so much so that a 1-0 victory is not enough and many fans, myself included, came away from this game feeling like they wanted more. More goals, more entertainment, more razzmatazz. After being whipping boys and serial losers for so long, we might be at risk of becoming the thing that we most disliked in the big-time Charlie opponents that we’ve faced over the years. The kind of fans that demand thumping victories and expect teams to roll over and let us waltz to victory. While I’ve not heard anyone specifically say “We shouldn’t be only winning 1-0 against teams like Shrewsbury”, there has been that kind of feeling after this game.
In defence of my expectation of an emphatic Town victory for this game, we came into it as one of the league’s form teams, up against one of the league’s most unfancied and out of form teams. They were riddled with injuries and had played poorly in recent matches. But the game itself was a different story and we came up against a resilient and surprisingly dangerous opponent. To use a phrase much-liked by Mark Fortheringham, on another day this game could have gone differently for Town. If Shrewsbury took advantage of the defensive errors we made then the fact we only finished one of the many decent chances we created could have resulted in Shrewsbury taking points away from this game rather than just compliments. But as it stands, we won, we’ve maintained our 100% start to the season despite also being in the middle of a huge change in playing style and there are signs that we can break down teams that come to our stadium and try to park the bus. So maybe it’s fine and we should be happy to pick up three points regardless of the concerns this game highlighted.
Anyway, here are some of my more in depth thoughts on the game…
Was I expecting too much?
I think that the changes that have taken place at Town over the summer and the drop down to League One have naturally led to an inflation of expectation. Rather than just being hopeful of getting something from games, I’m now going into games thinking a win is quite likely, particularly when we’re coming up against teams that are set up to mostly defend and stop us playing. But all I have to do is think back on Town’s recent history for examples of when Town have been the team setting up to stifle the opposition to know that a negative approach will often yield results. Neil Warnock’s best results at Town often came in games with possession of twenty-something percent and a gameplan of counter attacking possession-based teams.
So this game may have served as a useful reminder that League One teams won’t roll over and let us rub their tummies when they come to our stadium. Tom Lees spoke after the game about how hard it can be to play against a team that sits deep and trying to draw out those teams and find chances is very difficult. Even more so if you’re still adjusting to a new style of play that’s vastly different to the system that was in place before.
It’s a strange transition to go from being a Championship struggler to a League One bully boy. Even more so as a fan that doesn’t really know what to expect from the teams in this league, after 12 years away from League One the standard and style of play has changed. Based on the three games we’ve played in the league so far and my hazy memory of our last time at this level (I’ve watched almost no League One football in the interim) I’d say the quality of League One in general is much higher now than when Town played in the third tier in the Lee Clark and Simon Grayson days.
I see it as a good thing that the standard in League One seems high. While I enjoy watching Town win, I also want to watch us play in competitive games and my impression is that even though we’ve won our first three games, each of the three teams we’ve played have presented tough challenges in their own wayiu. Given that Shrewsbury are the bookies’ favourite for relegation and they gave us a stern test in this game, I suspect we’re going to have plenty of difficult games this season.
There was plenty to like about this Town performance
Up to now, I may sound fairly downbeat about this game but as well as picking up three points, Town did play fairly well in spells too. Mickel Miller was my pick of the Town players with an eye-catching display down the left flank. His crossing seemed much-improved from earlier games, he got into great positions and caused chaos when he went forward. As he arrived on a free transfer with question marks over his injury record, I wasn’t hugely excited about Miller but he’s shown himself to be an excellent acquisition so far and provided he stays fit, he looks like he’ll be a real asset down our left side.
Another thing I liked about Town in the first half was how well we switched play from one side to the other. On multiple occasions we played some nice cross-field balls which quickly moved the play from one side of the field to the other. These were the passes that typically opened up space and gave us opportunities to get into the final third. Our build up play can look laboured and predictable if we just tap it about to the nearest players but when the ball is quickly moved to the other side of the pitch there’s usually space to attack. Not every pass succeeded but enough did to make this a useful approach when taking on sides that sit deep against us.
While Town were ultimately wasteful in front of goal, it was pleasing to see us create so many chances. Miller put in a couple of great quality balls that needed simple finishes in the early stages, one which saw Ward and Marshall slide in but not quite connect, the other Marshall timed his run perfectly to head at the keeper from close range but couldn’t get past him. Then Hogg poked over the crossbar from close range when he should really have finished. Koroma slid Healey in to shoot just wide of the far post. Healey missed a one-on-one he really should have finished from another excellent Koroma through ball. Koroma hit the crossbar (though he was admittedly offside for this one). So plenty of good chances to score in a game where the opposition were deliberately trying to do everything to limit the space we had to create chances. So it could have been worse.
Another positive was Lee Nicholls interventions in this game. While it would be better that he spent the afternoon leaning against his goalpost smoking cigarettes and gazing off into the distance, while the real action took place at the other end, he did step up when we needed him. Surprisingly, he was called into action within a minute of the game starting and came off his line smartly to save from John Marquis. Then after we scored they had an attempt from range which rattled the cross bar which replays showed a vital fingertip from Nicholls that most likely diverted the ball that little bit higher and away from goal. He made another decent save from Marquis later when Lees lost track of his man in the box. Obviously, we don’t want to be relying on our keeper this much when playing teams towards the bottom end of the league but it’s good to know we’ve got one of the best keepers in the league (if not THE best keeper in League One) who can bail us out from time to time.
Town need to sharpen up in some areas
I don’t know if it was a symptom of our tactics or just players having an off day but I thought our midfield struggled to make an impact in this game. Jonathan Hogg seemed to well off the pace in this game (I thought he was very good against Peterborough and decent against Stevenage – so I’m not pushing an anti-Hogg agenda) and was caught in possession way too many times. In Hogg’s defence, he was often overwhelmed because Evans and Wiles were pushing too far forward, too soon when we were in possession and not getting on the ball enough. It’s been great to see Wiles getting on the end of passing moves to score goals in recent games but I think it’s equally important that he’s a part of the early stages of passing moves to help build up play. Too often our midfielders looked like additional strikers and we just had four players standing next to their defenders waiting for the ball to come to them.
There’s also the counterpoint to the praise I gave above for all the chances we made and that’s the fact we only scored one goal out of all those opportunities. While no team scores from every chance, Town had twelve shots, five of which were on target, and only one went in. Had Shrewsbury made the most of the plethora of chances they had in front of goal we could have drawn or lost this game. Whereas, getting the second or third goal would have given us a cushion where conceding wouldn’t have proven nearly as costly. Some of the wastefulness may be improved with tactics (Duff has talked about encouraging the players to avoid potshots and carve out high quality chances instead) and practice (though they bang them in every time when I watch the shooting warm ups) but I think signing a proven goalscorer is probably the quickest way to address this issue.
Another grumble is the number of mistakes we’re making at the back. After the match, Michael Duff seemed to accept that defensive errors are the cost of this style of football when you play out from the back. But the quantity and nature of the errors we’re making seems to go slightly beyond that. Taking more risks and trusting defenders to do more with the ball will lead to more mistakes but many of the things we got wrong on Saturday were just silly and should be cut out. Brodie Spencer, despite making some excellent contributions too, was the guiltiest of making errors. I’m disappointed that it seems likely that we’ll lose him for a while now, as I hoped he would play himself into form but the way he was nursing his shoulder as he came off suggested a spell on the sidelines beckons unfortunately.
Town still need to strengthen before the window closes
Marshall’s goal and general performance suggests that he could be a transfer gamble that’s going to pay off to some extent. While it wasn’t the hardest chance to finish, it took some composure to take down the ball and wait for the best moment to finish to the far corner. Similar situations that drop to our other strikers tend to end up with the ball blasted straight at the keeper but he seems to have a bit of quality in front of goal. Regardless, it still feels like we need more firepower to give us options at the top of the pitch. Michael Duff has said that he’ll most likely substitute both strikers in most games, so we need four fit and in form strikers throughout the season. So bringing in an extra striker seems logical to improve both the quality and quantity in this area of the pitch.
Our struggles to progress the ball out of defence and into attacking areas of the pitch against teams that set up to defend deep suggest we need a bit more quality on the ball in the defensive and defensive midfield areas. So a ball-playing central defender and defensive midfielder would be useful too.
Fending off offers for our best players and moving on ones we don’t want may also be a challenge for the week ahead too. Players suchas Kyle Hudlin and Scott High are at a stage of their career where they need to be playing regular first team football and clearly won’t be at Town in the near future. There may also be players closer to the first team but not playing regularly that could be moved on, like Josh Ruffels and Oli Turton – though those two are useful squad players and would be much harder to sanction transfers on even if they wanted to leave.
Could Town extend their winning run over the next two games?
Town head into Tuesday night’s League Cup game against Walsall as favourites despite being away from home and being expected to field a weakened team. Duff made eight changes in the last round against Morecambe and still brushed aside the opposition with relative ease, so I’m hoping we might be able to repeat the trick again in this fixture – though Walsall may be stiffer opposition.
The really important game on our horizon is the match against Rotherham at the weekend, and it’s likely to be a stern test. While Steve Evans’ team have lost two and drawn one of their opening fixtures, they have been a bit unlucky in those games and the underlying stats from their games suggest that they’re a decent team that will give us a good game. Whereas, our three wins have papered over some slightly iffy performances, particularly the last two games which have been against teams we didn’t expect to trouble us as much as they did.
It’s quite possible that Town will find the games against the league’s better teams the easiest ones to play in some respects. Because it’s not likely that Rotherham, at home, will pile men behind the ball and cling on for a 0-0, so we may find ourselves in a more open game of football. Though with Rotherham being managed by Evans, it will be a brutal and no-frills style that they will play. Regardless, I’m looking forward to us playing a team I expect to be competing with Town in the top third of the table towards the end of the season. Whether Town or Rotherham are competing at the very top end of the table come next spring remains to be seen.
Good article TS your first two paragraphs or so summed up my thoughts on Town in general, my expectations prior to this game were, like yours sky high, I/we really should know better by now!
At times we were quite enterprising going forward, creating numerous chances but consistently failing to convert. Marshall scored from probably his most difficult opportunity and it was disappointing to see him overhauled by quicker defenders when clear through on goal.
Defensively we were inept at times, the midfield being non-existent when most needed; Nicholls, of course, was exempt from criticism with two fine saves, even his distribution could not really be faulted, although giving it to one of our defenders does not fill me with confidence, as you’re never quite sure what they will do with it.
The passing was wretched at times with the usual culprit to the fore. Miller and Kasuma were eye-catching, as was Koroma with his shamefully wasted through balls, he is clearly no longer a one trick pony.
The Spencer experiment may well have come to an end, temporarily through injury, if not permanently. He seems devoid of confidence even though he’s played on the left-hand side as an international albeit as a fullback in a four not in a back three, it’s clearly not working at the moment, replacing his pace will be problematic. It’s obvious why it’s been done, amplified by the closing back three, they’re generally fine in the air and in most defensive duties but ninety minutes of them would see speedy, tricky opponents feasting on open spaces. I shall be very interested to see MD’s solution to this issue.
I think the last two performances has shown that it’s not quite so simple to change the mentality and style of play in just one preseason. The squad is still mostly the team that was built to play low-possession, counter-attacking football and has a losing mentality running through it. I think there have been strides made both on the footballing and mentality side of things but there’s probably still a way to go before the transition is complete. So while my expectations have been lifted, it’s probably better to have a patient mindset even though it’s been a great start.
While Spencer has been a bit of a lightning rod for criticism, if he’s out for a while we may miss him. I doubt Matty Pearson is going to be an upgrade in terms of silky passing or creativity as his favourite pass is the big hoof down field. However, he does know what he is and doesn’t do anything overly elaborate, which may be useful at times.
Thank you, TS. An interesting read as ever.
I doubt there’ll be many who disagree with your analysis. I didn’t see the match; I listened to it on iFollow and the commentary did convey what a drab performance it had been and that on another day Town could/would have lost that match. The highlights that I’ve seen confirms to me that Nicholls could have been man of the match for 2 or 3 fantastic saves.
We’ll certainly have a better idea as to where we are after the 2 matches this week – an away match in the Cup followed by playing away in a Yorkshire derby is going to be a challenge. My hope is that after these 2 matches, assuming there’ve been no signings or departures of consequence, that we have cemented a back 3 of Pearson, Helik and Lees, that Iopenda plays & impresses on Tuesday night so he gets a league start on Saturday and cements his place, and that one of our strikers (ideally Marshall) knocks in a few goals so makes himself a ‘must start’. The duo up front has been chopped & changed and we need to invest time in the best twosome which, for me, is Marshall and Koroma. And come 2.30pm on Saturday, if Town are still in the Cup and have 12 points, happy days.
Despite a back three of Pearson, Lees and Helik not being packed full of ball-playing ability, there will be few defences in League One better that that lineup (even if they are collectively a bit on the slow side too). It’s also worth remembering that Carlos Corberan managed to build a team around these defenders that ended up third in the Championship not too long ago. So some of the criticism Lees and Pearson get is a bit over the top, particularly in the context of us now being in League One.
Evans and Wiles have been a fairly settled pair in the advanced midfield roles in the league so far but if Iorpenda impresses tomorrow night he could put pressure on those other two. I’ve been very impressed with everything I’ve seen of Iorpenda so far and would like to see him given every opportunity to shine. Though sometimes that can mean rationing his opportunities carefully so he’s not overexposed too, as frustrating as that can be from a fan’s perspective when you want to see a new talent as much as possible.
I think you make a good point about us needing to resolve the issue of the preferred striking pair and sticking with them for a while. On current form, I’d agree that Marshall and Koroma are the picks of the bunch but I’d expect Healey to be our best long-term source of goals if he stays fit and I’ve no idea who will be the most likely to partner him from the start of games. Radulovic, based on the money we spent on him and his scoring record abroad should eat up this league but that’s looking less and less likely. Maybe a new face will arrive in the next few days.
It was dreadful to watch at times, and I think we were lucky to come away with 3 points. Shrewsbury virtually won every 50-50 ball, which goes to show that we are desperate for a good quality number 6. A left-footed centre back with pace, and a striker who can score us 20+ goals a season. Personally, I would try and sign Joe Taylor from Luton. Hogg gives 100%, but he’s finished. Spencer is never a centre back, and would not get in front of Sorensen at wing back. That was Sorensen’s worst game for us, and their defence closed him down. He never seemed to get forward into their half, something Duff needs to sort out in training for future games. We can’t rely too much on Marshall, he missed two sitters in the first half. A tap in from a cross from the left, and then the same again with his header. That with the goal he scored would have put us up 3-0, and an easy win. Healey I think is a total waste of money at over £2 million. Radulovic will never make it in English football, and spends more time on the treatment table. Koroma just is not consistent, even in League 1. The rest of our so-called strikers need to go. Ethan Erhahon, from Lincoln, would be an ideal fit into our defensive midfield, and only 23 years old. The trouble is, Kevin Nagle will not spend the money to bring in the players we need, as they will not come cheap.
I think Sorensen has set a high bar for himself in previous games and didn’t hit those heights in this game. Possibly because they knew we’d try to use him as an outlet and didn’t give him the space he’s had in previous games. I’ve seen enough of him to be confident he’s going to be good the majority of games this season.
I think we were lucky in some respects in this game, because Shrewsbury had some decent chances that they didn’t put away but we had more that we failed to finish too. So on balance, I think we deserved the win but I think it might have been Steven Chicken or one of the other Town podcasters who said a fair score would have been something like 4-2 or 3-1 to Town. Because this was a far more open game than 1-0 suggests and a single goal wouldn’t usually decide it.
Marshall has now scored in both games he’s started and looks lively, so I’m quite optimistic about him, even if he should have had more on Saturday. Healey really should have scored his one-on-one, which looked even worse when I saw the replay, because in the stadium I thought he was unlucky but watching it back he just didn’t do enough and looked like a striker low on confidence. If he was banging them in, he’d have taken it around the keeper and rolled it into an open net but because he’s not off the mark yet, he shot too early and made it a relatively easy save. Whether he lives up to the rumoured price tag remains to be seen, I’m more optimistic about him than you (but his injury record does worry me).
We were linked with Ethan Erhahon in the January window but nothing came of it and I’ve heard good things from pundits who know this level well, so I’d be delighted if we signed him. He’d be the perfect long-term successor to Jonathan Hogg and he’s got a bit more to offer than that too. I’m not sure it’s a question of money being a blocker, often it’s the player’s own motivation, agents, if their desired wages fit within existing structures and loads of other tedious details. Though he seems like the kind of realistic but aspirational target we should be going for if we’re serious about building a team that can get us out of this league and then be immediately competitive in the Championship when we get back up there.
I went into the game still scared by last season having only seen the Harrogate friendly and Morecambe games live and was expecting this game to be very hard work and was not disappointed – I thought we were shockingly bad – U expect Shrewsbury to pull away from the relegation zone and they cut through us with ease and against the other promotion hopefuls I think we are going to end up getting a real hiding. I didn’t realise Wiles was on the pitch, Spencer again too many errors and not sure why he and Lees didn’t started at opposite sides given ease Lees looked later in came when he had to swap. Evan’s unexpectedly at a very poor game, Ward not sure why on pitch. Nichols, Marshall, Kasumu and the brilliant Millee only ones to redeem themselves. No transfers in by end of week I can see us missing play offs.
I would hope that against teams that are also hoping to go up we’ll have compeltely different types of games, were it’s two relatively equally matched sides going at it with each other. Whereas the last two home games for Town have been more cat and mouse affairs, where we’ve had to be cautious to try and coax out a defensive team without leaving ourselves exposed at the back. We’re still learning about being a big fish in a small pond at this level but it wasn’t particualrly pretty against Shrewsbury. I can see why Duff was keen to accentuate the postives of getting the points in the bag but I think he may have been exaggerating the performance to paper over some of the problems on the pitch that we all saw.
TS frank and insightful analsyis as usual.
As Stephen suggests – I have still to be convinced by Nagle’s interests in the football rather than the real estate – after his string of unneccessary misjudgements last season. If he was as ambitious for the team as he says he is – there would be some money to patch up what , as TS suggests, are the gaping holes to be filled – front rear and mid.
Duff did seem to suggest he was hopoing for tranfer movement this week, but difficult to be optimistic.
Thanks Andrew. My impression has always been that Kevin Nagle is a fairly transparent and genuine person when it comes to his dealings with Huddersfield Town. He did make mistakes last season (the timing of Neil Warnock’s sacking being the princple one but I don’t want to reopen that can of worms!) but on the whole I think he’s shown his willingness to invest so far.
This is a pretty big week for the club in terms of transfer activity. If nothing happens, at least we’ve not lost anyone but I’ll be disappointed we’ve not addressed those obvious gaps. If we don’t recruit anyone and we sell one or more key players I’ll be seriously worried about the implications that could have (particuarly after being reassured that there’s no fire sale) and I’ll be delighted if we keep our best players and bring in a few new ones to bulk us up where we most need it.
If Nagle doesnt invest this week, after the cup disaster, it will surely show he is not serious about his purported ambition to get promotion
Blimey some pretty negative views out there this week – cheer up everyone!
I have to say I also agree with the match analysis and was pretty frustrated during the match and after it. It was difficult to watch and they had done there homework on Sorenson and they executed the game plan pretty well despite losing but they will take positives from it.
Then, I had a sleep and watched the interviews and highlights the next day and felt a lot better…..
We won, with a clean sheet, against the low block, despite a few players having off days.
Duff and Lees made excellent analysis in their interviews, I was a bit surprised by Duff I thought he might come out gunning again especially as he was apoplectic most of the match on the touchline but he didn’t and I though he played that really well for both players and fans.
I think a lot of my frustration was the ghost of seasons past, you can just see how we would have been beaten in the Championship, but in this league the chances go begging or you get away with more. I’ve been saying it since pre season I just think its time to turn the page on the Hogg, Koroma, Ward players and rebuild with new blood.
More positive, it really could have been 3 or 4-0 too and another day those chances will go in, at 2-0 the complexion of the game would have really changed anyway as at 1-0 they were always in it and it was nervy. Closing Sorenson down left opportunites for Miller to play well and influence the game which he did. I often felt last year if you closed Sorba down we had nothing else to offer. This year we do. I though Evans was also poor on the day but it was just one game and its a shame Kane was out but theres normally other options.
The stadium looks great, 18000 in L1 is a big day out for a lot of our opposition, and we have 3 league wins under the belt. A strong start yet we can all see this team is going to improve a lot yet.
Finally, we have a clear style of play now and when could we last say that? UTT