The best performance of the season – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 4-0 win over Cambridge United

Last night Huddersfield Town beat Cambridge United 4-0 in the best performance of the season (so far). While we’ve seen glimmers of what the team is capable under Michael Duff, it’s rare that we’ve played well for long stretches in a game, so this was the most complete performance I’ve seen from Town in a long time. Most likely back in the Corberan days. 

Everyone had at least a decent game and several players were excellent on the night, which led to some very nice attractive football, capped off with the goals we deserved. There were other pleasing elements beyond the pretty football and abundance of goals, such as the way we absorbed pressure when they pressed our defenders or how the midfield controlled play and dictated the pace of the game. 

It’s a strange but lovely feeling to approach a write up about a Town game without having to balance the positives with the negatives, this was all good. Nothing to complain about, apart from the fact that Town playing so well gives grumpy fans nothing to get worked up about. So most Town fans can feel very happy about this game, and the minority of those fans that approach football like a kind of primal scream therapy to vent their rage will have to find another target for their frustrations. 

Town far from sloppy when going for seconds

There was something very unTownlike about the goals we scored in this game. Three out of the four goals came from us reacting quicker than Cambridge defenders in the box. The opener saw Kasumu poking home the ball when he was first to the loose ball following Tom Lees’ saved header from a corner. Marshall was the first to react when Ben Wiles’ attempt hit the bar and bounced back into play. Then, for the fourth, Josh Koroma’s saved shot was snaffled up by Callum Marshall despite there being a Cambridge defender closer to the loose ball. In recent times, these have been the goals Town have conceded more than scored.

It can feel like bad luck when the ball goes loose in the box but is harmlessly cleared by a defender. However, these kind of goals aren’t really about luck, they’re about committing players into the box and taking up positions where the ball might come. So Town haven’t scored many goals from these situations because we’ve been historically quite poor at getting players into the box. In this game we piled forward when attacking and that gave us that better percentage chance of the ball coming to a Town player. Aside from that, our players showed a hunger and desire to get on the end of the ball which Cambridge struggled to contain. 

Even the second goal, which didn’t come from a loose ball in the box, was headed in by Brodie Spencer in the second phase after a set piece. Rather than trot back to take up a defensive position, he stayed in the box and got on the end of Marshall’s excellent ball into the box. 

There’s such a lot of talk about the mentality of this squad of players, after Andre Breitenreiter’s scathing critique at the end of last season, but in this game Town’s confidence (boarding on swagger) showed a change is taking place. The kind of losing mentality we’ve had in the past leads to players not bothering to follow in to the box because they don’t think the ball will come to them. If a player gets shoved in the box they used to whine to the ref but now we’re shoving back to get the few inches advantage that can be the difference between a goal or not. 

One game isn’t enough to scrub away the memories of so many years of struggle but it at least shows that a winning mentality is growing within this squad. 

Little triangles everywhere

If you start to see little triangles when you’re at a football match then you may have had your Bovril spiked. But in this game there were little triangle passing moves all over the pitch from Huddersfield Town. It was the sort of one-touch, pass-and-move football that we hear about happening in training a lot but only see in moments during competitive matches. But in this game we really wrestled control of the game with our positive and attractive passing football. 

It wasn’t the kind of tippy-tappy possession for its own sake that is relatively easy to do if you’re not showing much ambition to move up the pitch. It was incisive and creative passing, which looked to find gaps and exploit Cambridge’s high press when they committed too many players forward. 

While not every pass found its mark, Town managed an 81% pass completion rate in this match, a significant improvement on their average of 75% in League One games this season. By taking care of the ball that bit better, we managed to break Cambridge down and pull them out of shape. 

Town have had the work rate and defensive organisation side of things sorted out for a while now but I think that this improved possession football is a deliberate and welcome improvement to how we play. Duff has talked recently about not holding the ball well enough in our opposition’s half but he’ll have no such complaints in this game. It’ll most likely take a long time to fully embed this kind of play with the players available but this game provides the proof that we are able to play nice football with the players in this squad – I know I for one have expressed doubt about this in the past. 

Some memorable performances

No Town player played poorly in this game but some individuals need a special mention:

Callum Marshall had his best game in a Town shirt in this match. He still did the same things he usually does, like chasing down every shadow off the ball to put pressure on the opposition and battling hard with the defenders despite his small stature. But in this game he also showed a lot more quality than we’ve seen before, producing great moments across the whole game rather than just in flashes. His hooked ball into the channel to set Koroma off in the build up to the fourth goal was superb, made all the better that he followed up his superb pass with a cleverly timed run into the box to score.

David Kasumu would be the kind of player that I would hate if he was playing for the other team. He’s so good at nicking the ball and snuffing out openings that Cambridge often saw their attacks breakdown before they were even attacks. He’s also now carrying the ball with a lot more confidence and completing passes that he previously wasn’t even attempting. He’s gone from a fringe player to one of the first names on the team sheet and the reliability we’ve seen from him lately has been a huge part of our recent success.

Herbie Kane is often very tightly marked because opposition managers know how dangerous he is with the freedom to pick his passes. While there was an attempt to shackle him by Cambridge in this game, clever passing and movement meant he regularly got a bit of grass in front of him and often had time to pick out a pass. This led to some excellent dinked balls into the forwards and clever spreading of the ball to the flanks. He also did a good job of taking the sting out of the game by slowing things down whenever Cambridge had better passages of play. The only shame was that he didn’t score from the edge of the box when a very presentable shooting opportunity fell to him. I think a goal is coming for him soon despite his main preoccupation being to lay on opportunities for others.

Now to build on this result

The games are going to come thick and fast over the next few weeks, so it’s not a bad time for Town to put in their best performance of the season. Results have been good for a while now but quite often we had to battle for those points, this was the first game I’ve really felt like we’ve hit our stride. Can we play like this every week? Probably not. But I think we can make our lives easier by playing nice football and not relying on set piece goals and attritional football. 

The next test for Town will be Stockport at home, who will unquestionably pose a tougher test than 23rd placed Cambridge (though recent form suggests Cambridge United are more mid table fodder than relegation struggler, there league position is a result of a woeful start to the season). Stockport sit in fifth, just one place below Town and have the league’s top scorer in Louie Barry. But if Town can play like they did against Cambridge, I think few teams in this league would be able to cope with them. 

The nice problem Michael Duff has for Boxing Day will be whether to stick with the starting lineup that did so well in this game or put Nigel Lonwijk back in now he’s served his suspension. Brodie Spencer has scored two in two, so seems undroppable but I’m not sure where he fits if Lonwijk comes back in. Or Duff may even consider starting Ladapo after a selfless shift from the bench in this game, but Ward’s assist and general lively performance in this match alongside Marshall finding a hot streak of form suggests he’ll have to settle for a place on the bench.

Merry Christmas Town fans!