Soft goals, Sorba’s cupped ear, Russell’s aimless wandering, a collective failure and nursing fragile confidence – notes on a bruising defeat to Reading

Mark Fotheringham became the eighth consecutive permanent new Town boss to lose their first game in charge when he lost 3-1 to Reading on Saturday. It was an abject performance from the Terriers which highlighted many of the issues that have plagued the team since the start of the season. 

Despite some strangely upbeat post match comments, Mark Fotheringham must be deeply concerned about some of the things he saw on Saturday as Reading barely had to get out of second gear to brush aside a Town team that looked completely inept at times. Here are some of my thoughts on the game in more detail…

Three soft goal give Reading an easy afternoon’s work

The first goal Town conceded was the most forgivable, with Rudoni being out jumped on a corner but then again, it wasn’t a clever piece of movement or a fiendish ball in, he just lost his individual battle and his man powered in the header. Set pieces, both attacking and defending, were our strength past season and that is no longer the case. I don’t really get why this is the case though, as this role has always been Narcis Pelach’s responsibility and he’s still at the club.

The second goal made me really cross. There are no excuses for the amount of space that was allowed for Reading’s left winger to saunter through unchallenged before he played in the ball that led to the goal. Turton was AWOL but that doesn’t matter because Russell or Lees should have been coming across to cover him. The level of disorganisation to allow that to happen is staggering. Then obviously we failed to deal with the ball when it came in and there are some simple things we failed at there too. It was all pretty Sunday League.

Then the third goal was more akin to the catalogue of mistakes you would associate with under 5s football where the parents would chuckle at how uncoordinated their offspring were while they feebly attempt to swing their let’s at the ball. It’s one of the worst goals I’ve seen conceded in professional sports, given there are around four unforgivable errors before the foul went in. 

I think we’d  have probably lost this game anyway, given that we’ve just changed head coach, haven’t picked up a single point away from home yet this season away from home yet and Reading are doing well but the manner of conceding each goal is worrying. 

Sorba’s booking, cupped ear, crosses and fiver offer

It’s not the first time it’s been done but I wasn’t keen on Sorba being used as a second striker in the first half. I think his strength is crossing from wide areas, so playing him through the middle nullifies his biggest threat. He played better when he switched to the right wing into the second half and I thought he put in some fairly decent deliveries. He wasn’t at the level of the two games we played against Reading last year where he was superb in both fixtures but I didn’t think he stood out as any worse than any other Town player.

It’s impossible to avoid talking about Sorba’s attitude though because he picked up another completely senseless booking for a foul that was clumsy and blatant and a ridiculously over the top reaction when the ref correctly blew his whistle. These emotional outbursts are too common and while a bit of passion is desirable on the pitch, the level of hotheadedness doesn’t help anyone.

On a similar theme, when Tom Lees scored Town’s late consolation goal I heard reports that Sorba went over to the Reading fans with a cupped ear, the traditional “I can’t hear you saying anything now” response a player gives to opposition fans when you’ve shut them up. Only, scoring a completely meaningless consolation goal wasn’t exactly the kind of sweet revenge that justifies such a celebration. Instead it makes him look a bit daft.

Having been a bit critical of Thomas, I will now defend him and say that he’s come in for some unfair and fairly strange abuse from fans lately. The most recent example being in the video linked below where a fan waves a five pound note at him and makes some remarks about his abilities and commitment. I feel like fans that travel up and down the country have a right to give the players a bit of stock when they don’t play well but this feels over the line to me regardless of how much he’s paid for his ticket or traveled to watch the game. If someone spoke to someone working the checkout at a supermarket like that they’d probably get arrested.

WARNING: There is some fruity language in the video below.

Jon Russell continues to struggle

Apparently Ettiene Camara was rested for this game after looking a bit leggy in training so Jon Russell might not have been Plan A in central midfield but he had yet another poor game in central midfield. The tail off in his form from last season to this has been even more dramatic than Town’s as a whole  drop from promotion pushing to relegation certainties because Russell doesn’t even look like he belongs in this league.

The frustrating thing for me is that Russell isn’t even doing the things that used to come naturally to him anymore. He no longer has that time on the ball when in possession, he doesn’t pick his passes as carefully and he’s not using his strength to muscle through players and burst forward. When I think back to the things he was doing well for us under Carlos, they’ve just dried up.

Instead, he trots around in deep midfield but doesn’t have the game awareness to pick up threats. When he’s on the ball he either opts for a sideways pass to a fullback or a hopeful punt downfield. There’s none of the Chelsea class that oozed out of him when he first broke through. Maybe Mark Fotheringham can nurse him back to his best form but based on recent form, a spell on the sidelines may be the best way to help that process.

The whole team need to sharpen up for Luton

Even more players could be singled out for individual criticism after such a poor showing but I think a blanket statement that they all need to improve on Tuesday night covers it. It doesn’t matter who the coach is or what tactics you play, if too many individual players lose their battles and make silly mistakes we will lose the game. So Mark Fotheringham won’t have a chance of success until the players cut out some of the basic things they are getting wrong.

We know exactly what to expect from Luton, they’re a good team who work hard and don’t give anything away cheaply. If we make the same kind of mistakes as we did on Saturday there is no chance of winning the game. But, as we proved in the playoff semi final, they aren’t all that special a team if you can keep things tight and take your chances.

Mark Fotheringham’s comments suggest he’s trying nurse fragile confidence (or deluded)

Mark Fotheringham is new to being a head coach so is getting used to the media responsibilities that come with the job so he deserves a bit of slack. Carlos was like a rabbit in the headlights for a very long time and I think his unease went a lot further than just the language barrier. Having said that, Fotheringham’s comments about how much better we played in the second half didn’t quite match with the game I watched.

Perhaps I was too despondent by that point to take heart from an improved performance but I thought Reading were happy to let us have the ball and could easily have found another level if the game became more of a contest. Like we saw so often under Danny Schofield, Town only seemed to wake up once the game was almost unwinnable.

I have a feeling that Fotheringham’s assessment of the squad at this point is that they need nurturing more than they need a rocket up them. Rather than a foul-mouth tirade of abuse he’s tried to find a positive spark in this performance that he can use to fan the flames and build confidence going forward. If not, then we’re really in trouble because there really wasn’t much to praise about any of that Huddersfield Town performance.