Huddersfield Town were played off the park by Burnley in the first half last night but showed a bit of Terrier Spirit in the second half when they fought their way back into the game and at least showed a bit of fight. It wasn’t always pretty to watch from a Town perspective but by the end of the end of the game there were a few positives that could be taken away from the game, though that may not be reflected in some of the player ratings below.
So strap yourself in for a pretty brutal first player ratings article of the season…
Lee Nicholls – 6 out of 10
Made a decent save shortly after their goal and some other fairly regulation stops. He did, however, get away with a bit of a howler, when he got closed down with the ball at his feet which could have cost us a goal. This had been coming all night, as various Burnley players went very close to picking his pocket as he took his time with the ball at his feet. Hopefully he’ll have learned his lesson and take a split second less time on the ball in future.
Ollie Turton – 5 out of 10
Struggled a lot but was up against a very good winger, so I’m not going to judge him too harshly. His pass completion rate of 55% shows how uncomfortable he was on the ball and how he never really got going in possession. He never seemed to link up with Thomas and they didn’t work together as a unit in possession.
Rarmani Edmonds-Green – 4 out of 10
It was a tough assignment for his return to Town but he struggled to cope with the movement of Burnley’s forward line. He was caught on his heels a bit for the opening goal and could possibly have got a block in if he was more alive to the danger. I suspect he’ll be fine as the season progresses but the difference between playing in League One and the Championship is fairly big, so he may need a little while to get used to that transition. Though he did play quite a bit for us two seasons ago, so he should know what to expect.
Tom Lees – 6 out of 10
I thought he was our best starting player on the night, not outstanding but strong, dependable and handled Barnes well. We spent a long time in this game without the ball and Tom Lees helped to organise the back line and to keep the ball out of the net. I think it says something about how poor the rest of the starting eleven were when the best player earns that award mainly because of how they didn’t do a lot wrong, not because of the things they did right. But, in fairness, Lees did marshall the back line well and showed good leadership in a new-look defence that needed his experience.
Josh Ruffels – 4 out of 10
Had a really rough time in the first half, with his flank being targeted by Burnley for special attention and many of their attacks starting from that area of the pitch. He was run ragged and while he didn’t cover himself in glory, he was also not helped much by Koroma in front of him. I thought he improved a good bit in the second half and made a few decent tackles, which will have improved his confidence and given him some hope of keeping his place in the team for next week. He’ll also hope he will not have to play against that kind of quality too often this season too.
Jonathan Hogg – 5 out of 10
Sat too deep and didn’t impose himself onto the match enough. We could get away with it when we had Lewis O’Brien’s dynamism in midfield but now we don’t, it’s going to be hard to have Hogg in the middle of the pitch unless he adapts his game. He’s too slow and sits too deep, though this is compounded by his midfield companion…
Jon Russell – 4 out of 10
Four might be a bit generous as he looked to be moving in slow motion at times. His fitness looked questionable as he lumbered about the pitch and was gasping for air before we even made it to half time. His awareness on the pitch was nowhere near good enough either, frequently receiving the ball and turning straight into trouble and losing possession. I talked before the game about the issues we’ve had with Russell and Hogg playing in midfield together and that was exactly what we had in this game. Both sat far too deep and we couldn’t get out of our own half for long periods. Until one of them learns to adapt how they play I wouldn’t play them together again and instead would see them as being competitors for the single defensive midfield position and then play a more dynamic midfielder alongside them.
Duane Holmes – 4 out of 10
Pretty dire really, I can’t think of much he did that had a positive impact on the game. He linked up play a couple of times that meant the ball spent a bit of time in Burnley’s half for a few seconds longer than it might have done otherwise but this was not a great performance. He was playing quite high up the pitch but rather than help bring Ward into the game this instead just meant he was out of the game too. So at least Ward wasn’t lonely standing at the top end of the pitch while the game passed him by!
Sorba Thomas – 5 out of 10
I always find it hard to give Sorba’s poor performances a really bad score because even when it’s not coming off for him, he’s still one of the hardest working players on the pitch and we’re still relying on him as our main creative outlet. So every set piece goes through him, most breakaways have him charging down the field at full pelt, he’s the one calling for the ball when we’re building up attacks and he wants to make things happen even if it’s not working. But the problem is that on nights like last night, it wasn’t happening so it all fell to pieces. Hopefully this year there will be more players to share the creative workload and we can look to others to produce the moments of magic.
Danny Ward – 5 out of 10
Like with Sorba, this score is nearly all for effort rather than actual ability because he did very little of merit on the pitch but he did work hard and had almost no service from the players behind him. He did have a half chance that dropped to him in a chaotic moment late on in the game which he slashed at and it went over the bar but even calling it a half chance is generous. He was starved of opportunities to open his account for the season.
Josh Koroma – 3 out of 10
Something’s not right with Koroma. He was a wonderful footballer a couple of seasons ago but now he is in poor shape. His shoulders are slumped, his head is down and he looks seriously down in the dumps. Maybe there are some deeper lying issues but it’s quite possible that he just needs a goal or two to lift his spirits and to help him kick on. Whether he wants to have a career at Huddersfield Town or elsewhere he needs to improve his attitude on the pitch and then the performances and the goals will come. But as it stands he doesn’t look like he’s anywhere near good enough to be starting games for a Championship club.
Substitutes
Tino Anjorin – 7 out of 10
Made a big impact when he came on, literally. Barged straight through a pack of Burnley players and won a free kick. He fired up the crowd and also gave the players a lift just by being on the pitch. He was the footballing equivalent of Bez from the Happy Mondays, just having him there added belief and swagger to the rest of the team even when he wasn’t doing anything. His entrance into the game swung the momentum in Town’s favour and gave us our best ten minute spell of the game and it was unfortunate that we couldn’t score during that period. He did more than enough to justify a starting role against Birmingham next week.
Jack Rudoni – 7 out of 10
Like Anjorin, he contributed to our most positive spell of the game, offering an outlet down the left flank and looked a handful when he got on the ball. He’s skillful and tricky but perhaps needs to think a little bit quicker in the final third to keep up with the pace of play in the Championship but he’ll pick that up soon enough.
David Kasumu – 6 out of 10
When I researched Kasumu when we signed him, fans from MK Dons said that he likes a tackle, fouls too often, gets lots of bookings and is frequently injured. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that in his 17 minute appearance he did all of those things. Hopefully his injury isn’t anything too serious but it didn’t look great when he limped off.
Rhodes & Nakayama – N/A
In this new world of 5 subs I’m not going to bother doing write ups for the players that play just a few minutes, other than to say Nakayama’s free kick was pretty dire. He’s supposed to be a specialist but he couldn’t even beat the first man.
Manager 0 out of 10, 5 new players non start , no shots on goal diabolical
unfortunately DS picked the same starting XI as TS… Kompany was braver and included a lot of new faces in his team. I would’ve gone for starting at least 2 of the 4 new guys that were subbed in, but Schofield’s main mistake was probably playing Russell and Hogg – and not changing anything during the first half, even though it was clearly not working.
I also can’t understand what’s happened to Koroma. Without the long term injury, he’d have been the player of the 2020/2021 season. But from the start of last season he’s looked like someone who’d rather be anywhere but in a Town team (or on a football pitch at all).
Big season for Koroma, not sure he is a championship player anyway, had a season at Rotherham but wasn’t starting every game there. We could do with someone like Barnes, not pretty, but can hold a ball up and be a right pain for a central defender. Danny needs to get to know his best first eleven quickly, who will graft and who needs to be in the B team on a regular basis.
Well as you said, you have to be a pessimist to be a Town fan! Where to start, first ,a bad starting 11. Second a tortoise paced defensive midfield. Third, 2 poor wingers and no. 10. Fourth, not bringing on the subs earlier, he had 5 to use unlike 1 in the old days.
I thought the defense wasn’t quite as bad as you make out, after all they had absolutely no protection. I’m not sure if Russel can be made into a good player, he seems to have no idea what’s going on around him, at least Hogg knows what he should do. If Thomas plays like that again, I worry will he be a flash in the pan like Koroma. We are not short on wingers. The only bright spark was from the 3 subs, perhaps Schofield wanted to break them in slowly. Ah well !,
What a shambles. Forgetting the players for the moment unless there is a major change then with Danny Schofield in charge we are heading for Jan Siewert Mk II. He may be a nice chap who has passed all his coaching exams etc. but he has no charisma at all. With Carlos Corberan you never knew what to expect as he came up with all sorts of tactics to win matches with basically inferior quality players. As such he commanded respect from the fans and players alike. Now we still have the same inferior players but now they have lost that spark from the coach which helped them punch above their weight. Schofields first selection was abysmal. Burnley were not that good but with practically no opposition in midfield they ran riot. The writing was on the wall because Bolton did the same in pre season. We all want Schofield to succeed for Towns sake but it just looks like he’s out of his depth and we may have to suffer for 3 months before the penny drops with Hoyle.
Well then about Mr Hoyle, if everything is going great the guy is a hero, if not a villain. Can anybody out there tell us town fans if anybody out there is going to take over or finance the club ? Thought not !
Who knows with Hoyle. Perhaps there are others interested in the club but Hoyle won’t sell unless he can wangle his money back.
Poor performance particularly first half, poor team selection too, why bring in players to replace those lost for peanuts the not play them? Looked better if not brilliant once a couple of them came on far too late. Not lost the faith yet, but give the new boys a start and sign a fecking forward, neither Ward or Rhodes can last 90 mins
Corberan played a back 3 far more times than a back 4. We have basically the same players but without Colwill. We should be looking to replace Turton for a wingback and give Ruffels a chance of wingback. Please no Russell and Hogg together AND SIGN A STRIKER.
I didn’t see the match in full (being based in Asia so it’s the middle of the night) so cannot really comment on that but I do feel compelled to comment on sensible reaction, particularly from Examiner comments.
It may well turn out that this is going to be a difficult or poor season but it is simply too early to tell after one game. The Championship is the longest of hauls and it is possible to start slowly and win the league. Forest just got promoted that way. Let’s see where we at after 10 games.
We lost a playoff final, our coach at a very late point, our best player and another top performer, and had a shorter pre season than most an is ideal. You can hope for a positive start but the reasons above really point to a period of adjustment and renewal.
We lost to Burnley, a relegated PL side. Again, you can hope that early is the best time, they are adjusting too etc but even so the bottom line is they are a fundamentally better team and have been over an extended period of time. The scoreline clearly flattered us but there is no panic needed over this result.
If the new boys came in and looked better second half that is far better than the alternative! I think losing Pearson like this was a blow too far.
I would hope that Hogg/Russell is finished as an idea, clearly too slow and static. Russell was the weakest player against Bolton in my book and he needs to get working harder and sharpen up.
Terrible performance, a poor start, but it is far from all doom and gloom everyone. UTT.
There has been a lot of praise for Burnley in the media for their performance, but the fact they only won one nil after the worst 45 minutes I’ve seen town play tells you they’re not worked beaters. But that’s irrelevant really. The formation and personnel were wrong from the off, I can understand giving the players who finished 3rd last season a chance to keep their places, but it’s clear some of them are not up to speed, they looked like they were still in pre season. Maybe LoB hid the deficiencies of Russell and Hogg together, but it looked like Hogg was sat in his usual deep pocket, Russell was asked to play too far forward leaving a gap behind him and Holmes was basically playing as a 10, leaving Russell in no man’s land on his own in the middle with no idea what to do. I think it’s hard to bash Turton and Ruffles, whilst the latter wasn’t great on the ball, they both looked better second half once the changes were made. Thankfully I don’t feel too pessimistic as Tino, Rudoni and Kasumu all offer hope, I think both Rudoni and Tino will start against Birmingham, but I’d prefer their roles reversed, think I’d prefer Tino out to the left cutting in and Rudoni in the middle. I think Holmes would be better where Russell was as he’s more dynamic and can get about more, Hogg can then do his usual job sat right in front of the centre half’s. We need to move on from this game very quickly. It was atrocious.
What a load of rubbish , town need a new manager and quickly , someone like Duncan Ferguson who can motivate the players , at the moment with the free or loan players we are not up to staying in the championship , but maybe that is what the management team want .
Who gave the numbers above? ‘Tom Lees the best player’ ? He was woeful on the ball, not a bad defender but his ability on the ball is scarey we can’t continue to play out from the back with him in the team. Even our keeper who was my m.o.m. for his real job, shot stopping, was hopeless with the ball at his feet which makes the two of them a liability on the ball, Nickols would be OK if we had a ball player in front of him. REG and the Japanese lad to start next game.