Huddersfield Town made it two wins in two with their 2-0 victory against Reading on Saturday lunchtime. The game was finely poised, with both teams being too wasteful in the final third despite the two teams trying to play good football. Thankfully, two set piece goals won the game for Town but it could have been a different story if Reading had taken their chances at the other end. I’m not sure I’d call it lucky though, as a game between two well-matched opponents will usually be decided by fine margins and Town made the most of their chances and Reading didn’t.
Collectively, Town weren’t quite as good as they were in their opening game but we were away from home against a good League One team, so perhaps that was to be expected. I thought Town would need quite a few games to get up to speed after so many changes in the summer, so winning these first two games despite obviously not being at full steam should be a source of encouragement rather than concern. There looks to be more to come from these Terriers but finding ways to win when you’re not at your best is always a good thing.
Here’s what I made of each individual performance…
Owen Goodman – 7 out of 10
There’s a lot to say about Goodman’s passing, so I’ll probably dig deeper in my writeup tomorrow but on the whole, the bravery and accuracy of his passing really helped Town when dealing with a high press. He certainly has a high tolerance for risk when he’s playing out from the back but I think he’s got the ability to back it up. Goodman also showed he can stop shots too, with a great save against a deflected shot that could have easily wrong-footed him.
Lasse Sorensen – 6 out of 10
After I confidently predicting Gooch would start ahead of him, Sorensen came in and didn’t do anything too wrong in the right-back slot. There was one occasion he ran straight into trouble in the middle of the park and gave the ball away but the majority of the time he was steady away. Defensively, he seemed more solid than usual but that took away from his attacking play, which is always going to be a tricky balance for the player in this position under Lee Grant.
Jack Whatmough – 8 out of 10
Like Joe Low last weekend, he didn’t connect cleanly with the set piece he scored from but showed the desire needed to get it into the net thanks to a toe poke from his own knock down. He also looked very solid at the back. I particularly enjoyed him smashing their striker early on, to establish that he wasn’t going to be pushed around. There were also some lovely diagonal balls forward into the corners which really helped relieve pressure and kickstart breakaways. Could have been a 9 out of 10 but I’m knocking a point off for his weird fringe.
Joe Low – 7 out of 10
I find it reassuring to have someone who is basically a real-life giant at the heart of our defence. While it was his defensive partner that really caught the eye, Low was solid and also smashed their centre forward too. I believe his substitution after an hour was more to avoid injury rather than anything more concerning.
Mickel Miller – 7 out of 10
Brilliant run and cut back from the byline that Taylor should have buried. Provided a lot of penetrating runs from deep, as the left-back role allows him to do. We relied on him heavily to bring the ball forward, with him having more touches of the ball (85) than any other player on the pitch. I feel like both he and Roosken are probably most effective this way, as playing as a winger means tighter marking and receiving the ball higher up the pitch where there’s less space. Very concerning to see him pull up late on in that way players do when they’ve pulled something. Hopefully nothing serious but with our luck with injuries, we may miss him for a while.
Herbie Kane – 7 out of 10
Took the ball in tight spaces and usually found another, better placed, Town player with his passing. Kane isn’t going to win a foot race with many players and doesn’t fly into tackles but I always love watching him pick his passes, as he sees the game better than our other midfielders and has a real eye for a pass. He also played a major role in our second goal with a lovely curling free kick, which was almost a carbon copy of the one Joe Low scored from last week.
Ryan Ledson – 6 out of 10
Not a headline grabbing performance but a decent one nonetheless. Ledson did a lot of dirty work in front of our defence and tidied things up in midfield. Lucky to only be booked for retaliating to a Reading player’s provocation when the play had stopped, perhaps the overly dramatic tumble from the Reading player helped his cause.
Alfie May – 7 out of 10
The hardest performance to judge, because May got quite a lot wrong in this game, didn’t have many chances and didn’t look completely comfortable in the Harness role as a tucked in winger. But he’s also quite obviously a classy player and when what he was doing paid off, it was impressive. He was wound up by the officials and some rough treatment from Reading but that seemed to bring a better performance from him rather than see him lose his head. Another player that could have seen red though, as he pulled the shirt of a Reading player when on a booking, so maybe he lost his head a little bit.
Ben Wiles – 6 out of 10
After being arguably our best player last weekend, this was a more subdued performance from Wiles. At his best, Wiles excels when the players around him are doing well too, so in a tight game like this where there wasn’t a lot of free flowing attacking play from Town, he’s always likely to struggle.
Ruben Roosken – 6 out of 10
I really appreciated Roosken’s movement to make himself available in this game. This was mostly done too far away from Reading’s goal for him to be truly effective though and he wasn’t as involved in our attacking play as I’d have liked.
Joe Taylor – 6 out of 10
Should have placed his shot better when teed up perfectly by Miller in the first half but it went straight to their keeper. Maybe he thought he had less time than he actually did, as he snatched at the chance a bit when a more powerful strike was an option with the space he had. He ran tirelessly to try and latch on to the balls over the top but struggled to get any change out of Reading’s defense.
Substitutes
Josh Feeney – 6 out of 10 – Looks too skinny to play in central defence but doesn’t play like a lightweight. Won plenty of headers in his short spell on the pitch and didn’t look like a huge downgrade from Joe Low.
Sean Roughan – 6 out of 10 – Glad to see him back on the pitch after picking up a knock last weekend. We looked more solid but less exciting with him at left-back.
Lynden Gooch – 6 out of 10 – Made some decent runs and looked sharp.
Dion Charles – 7 out of 10 – Looked lively and a nuisance to defenders with his running. Won the free kick for Town’s second goal.
Cameron Ashia – 8 out of 10 – Not on the pitch for long but made it count with a beautiful vollied strike into the bottom corner. This was his league debut, and other academy kids in this position often choose to go safety first and ease themselves into men’s football but Ashia didn’t. He did well to help us run down the clock as well as getting the second goal that gave us a buffer. Town’s lack of depth in the winger position may create the opportunity for Ashia to get plenty of minutes this season, on the basis of this outing, that might not be a bad thing.
Well we were both right. You predicted both Taylor and May to start; I predicted that this was putting a square peg in a round hole and not sensible. I think we saw that it doesn’t work.
It’s often about ‘what ifs’ but this was a case that if May, and not Taylor, had been 10 yards out and centre of the goal, ball coming at him at a nice pace, would he have netted? But more importantly, bringing Taylor on at 60 mins for May, that would really have kept up the momentum up front. Charles actually didn’t do too bad coming off the bench but he’s not got the pace or the goal threat of Taylor.
The one unanswered question – in the absence of Harkness, if not May, who plays wide right? There is no obvious player. (NB Sorba Thomas had a dream debut yesterday for Stoke) Away from home, I’d probably have gone for Sorensen and Gooch at right back.
I doubt this was the last time we’ll see May and Taylor together but it didn’t work as well as I hoped. It’s probably a better option for those teams that come and pack men behind the ball, so we can have as much fire power on the pitch as possible.
May would most likely have finished Taylor’s chance, but I expect Taylor to score those too. Watching the shooting drills in the warm ups, Taylor always strikes the balls the cleanest and usually finds the corners. Doing in with no pressure is obviously different to a match but I think the ability is there with him, he’s just not produced his best form for us yet.
Gooch has played right wing plenty of times in his career and at a higher level but it would still feel a bit depressing to have four fullbacks on the pitch and no specialist wingers. The answer is that we need to dip into the transfer market to fill this position.