If I told you that a single decision Carlos Corberán makes can change Huddersfield Town’s points per game from 1 to 1.67 then you would probably assume I’m talking about a key player or a particular formation that is changing Huddersfield Town’s fortunes. This selection, however, is more to do with Corberán’s physical appearance than his team selection.
After crunching the numbers, it appears to me that Huddersfield Town enjoy a significantly better points tally in the games where he wears his famous cream skinny chinos. Yesterday’s well-earned victory against Middlesborough was the sixth game of the season where Town’s head coach squeezed into these seemingly lucky trousers and was the third time he’d won wearing them.
A look at the trouser-related data
I’ve been called a sad act for several of my other articles where I’ve dug into silly stats to try and find a story but I think this represents a new low even for me. Regardless, I’ve gone through the trouser choice of Carlos in the league games he’s managed at Town so far and have found the following:
With cream chinos: Played: 6, Won: 3, Drawn: 1, Lost: 2, Goals for: 8, Goals against: 7, PPG: 1.66
Without cream chinos: Played: 8, Won: 2, Drawn: Lost: 4, Goals for: 10, Goals against: 12, PPG: 1
The stats are clear, the cream chinos are making a significant difference to the outcome of Huddersfield Town’s games. We score more goals per game (1.33 v 1.25), concede fewer goals per game (1.17 v 1.5) and score more points for game (1.67 v 1).
Stats fans will be shouting at their screens that this sample size is far too small and that correlation doesn’t mean causation but to them I say: “shut up nerd and stop spoiling my fun”.
Here’s the full data:
| With cream chinos | Points | Goals for | Goals against |
| Norwich |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Forest |
3 |
1 |
0 |
| Rotherham* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Swansea |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| Preston |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Middlesboro |
3 |
3 |
2 |
| Average |
1.67 |
1.33 |
1.17 |
*Against Rotherham Carlos wore chinos that looked more beige than cream but I’m including them in the data as it’s near enough, though I do wonder if we’d have won that game if he had been more bold with his trouser selection.
| Without chinos | Points | Goals for | Goals against |
| Brentford |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| Derby |
3 |
1 |
0 |
| Birmingham |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Millwall |
3 |
3 |
0 |
| Bristol |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| Luton |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Stoke |
0 |
3 |
4 |
| Wycombe |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Average |
1 |
1.25 |
1.5 |
Are they lucky chinos?
In a world where football managers tend to swing between dressing like a club shop clothes horse or a mannequin in Burton’s, it’s a welcome change to see a manager with a more creative approach to sartorial matters. Much like Corberán’s creative approach to football generally he likes to do things differently when it comes to what to wear on the touchline.
It’s quite possible that these chinos, as well as providing an elegant look, are somehow giving Huddersfield Town an edge in tight games this season. Maybe the seamstress who made them was a voodoo witch who cast a spell over them. Or perhaps Carlos wears these trousers when he’s feeling confident and he transmits that to his players on the pitch on cream chino days.
On a more practical level, we’ve tended to play at home more often when he’s wearing these trousers (4 games out of 6). It could also be because our opponents in cream chino games, despite being decent sides on paper, have tended to be the kind of team we enjoy playing – ones with a bit more quality and those that look to play more football. Whereas in the games he’s opted for darker coloured trousers we’ve tended to come up against the “low block” style of teams that haven’t given us much space in their third.
What difference could these chinos make to Huddersfield Town’s fortunes?
If we assume that the trousers are making this big difference to Huddersfield Town’s games this season then we can run some quick stats on how our season is likely to finish if he was to either wear them exclusively for the rest of the season or if he was to ditch them in favour of more sedate trousers.
If Huddersfield Town were to get the same points per game we’ve had with the cream chinos for the rest of the season then we would get around 53 points from the remaining 32 games, giving us a final total of 71 points. This would have been enough for us to have squeaked into the playoffs in sixth place last season (though it would have us just outside the playoffs in the five seasons before).
The maths is a bit more simple for the no-cream-chinos future, as we’re averaging exactly one point a game, which would see us gather a further 32 points from our remaining games and we would end up on 50 points. It’s statistically possible to go down with 50 points but it hasn’t happened in a long time in the Championship, so Carlos should be able to guide us to safety even without the help of his lucky trousers.
Are you still reading?
Congratulations if you’ve read all of this very silly article. Obviously, any reasonable person won’t think that the cream chinos are actually having an impact upon Huddersfield Town’s results but I hope you’ve been pleasantly distracted for the few minutes you’ve been reading this.
I really enjoy reading your articles, but I did give up after 2 paragraphs.
You’re better than this.
Thanks Eddy. The sad truth is that I’m not!
Oh you are. Your articles are really well written and informative (when you’re talking about football).
– and there may even be some people who really enjoy reading about chinos!
I’ve written to Santa on behalf of Carlos and asked for another dozen pairs, just in case.
All well and good and sadly I have to admit I read to the end? (I put that down to boredom via lockdown syndrome)but when you sayingsomrthing about the game and the extremely dodgy (never in this world!!) penalty
Fair point! I’m putting an article about the game together now. It’ll go up later today or early tomorrow.
I blame myself. I should have taken him to football matches on Saturday afternoons instead of Burtons.
TerrierSpirit.com’s Dad
Not for me. Sorry.
Shame when there were so many sensible talking points from Saturday’s match.
I must confess that when I saw CC chino’s before the game on Saturday, I actually felt better. Come on guys, we have all had a “lucky xyz” in the past. I still have my “lucky 1994 Wembley beanie hat”, which, and this is the honest truth, I wore when I went for a walk on Saturday morning.
I’d like to think its not what Carlos has in his chinos, more what he has between his ears, but then again I support Huddersfield Town and will take help from anywhere, and if its a pair of pants, then so be it, loved Warnocks comments after the game “should have been three up by ht etc, etc.” should have waited for the sunday papers to see the proper score, Town a totaly different team when R E G came on, should look to more of our younger players, and finally for goodness sake dont let Mrs Corberan throw them chinos in the wash or Town will be buggered alltogether. UTT,
Which was he wearing last night?
Black chinos, so the defeat was inevitable. Rather than investing in the playing squad in January, it’s clear that Phil needs to get down to the Next sales on boxing day and stocking up on skinny cream chinos. We can’t keep dropping points because the magic chinos are in the wash.