Huddersfield Town continued their miserable run of form with a 5-0 thumping at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The key features of a Huddersfield Town game in the 18/19 season:
While the scoreline was heavier than usual, everything about this game felt familiar:
- an early opportunity spurned by Town (Mooy’s header)
- a relatively soft opening goal (a good finish, but Lössl left his near post unguarded)
- Spells of positive play by Town let down by a lack of attacking intent in the final third
- A controversial refereeing decision goes against Town at the worst possible moment (Kachunga’s clumsy challenge is given as a penalty when it should have been a free kick)
- A Huddersfield Town penalty appeal is dismissed (Kachunga involved again, this time going down in the Chelsea box)
- The opposition dominate the closing stages of the match as Town fail to find a way to get back into the game
Virtually every game Town have played since the win in Wolverhampton in November has followed the above formula and it’s getting pretty tedious. Not that we could have expected much more from a trip to Chelsea, but the way we willingly succumbed to defeat in London was a stark contrast to the defiant display we put up in the same fixture last season.
Confidence at rock bottom
While defeat felt inevitable in this game, the manner of the defeat was still disappointing. The early goal was clearly a body blow to the team and it looked to me like nobody in a Town shirt thought they were likely to be able to get back into the game. With goals being so scarce this season it’s not unreasonable for them to think that either.
Jan Siewert has a huge task ahead of him to get this squad performing and believing in themselves. Clearly he’s going to have a major rebuilding job in the summer, but the squad he has available between now and then are all playing below their best and he’s got to find a way to bring back some belief to the team. I don’t envy him either, as the players’ confidence appears to be in tatters right now.
Relegation now all but certain
It’s now possible to get odds of over 50/1 for Town to survive in the Premier League. The kind of reversal of fortune required to stay up would require a run of positive results the length of our run of terrible results.
While relegation isn’t a nice thing to experience, at least this slow realisation of what’s ahead of us is better than the bitter disappointment of getting relegated on the last day of the season. We can plan for our Championship campaign next August and Siewert can use the remaining games to get the measure of the squad and work out how to get the best from them.
What can Town fans hope for this season?
We can forget about survival, but I’m hopeful that it won’t be a completely miserable end to our time in the top flight. Here are a few modest targets for Town to aim for before the inevitable return to the Championship:
- Avoid the lowest points total in the Premier League era. Derby County hold the current record at 12 points. Given we’re on 11 points now it seems unthinkable we’d fail to secure another couple of points between now and May. However, I’ll feel a lot better once we’ve got 13 or more points.
- Break the winless streak. This will be tricky against Arsenal, but our next three games after that are Newcastle, Wolves and Brighton. None of those games will be easy, but we’ll have a better chance of notching our first win since November.
- Beat one of the top six. One of the absolute highlights of our Premier League seasons was beating Manchester United at home. It would be great to claim another scalp before our relegation. Town play Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United before the end of the season, so there are four opportunities to try to pull off a memorable victory. Given current form it seems unlikely, but you never know.
- Get off the bottom of the table. We’re currently 13 points from safety, which isn’t a gap we’re likely to be able to close. However, Fulham are only 6 points away from Town and aren’t playing well at the moment. If we can capture a bit of form then it’s likely we can avoid the ignominy of finishing at the bottom of the table.
Accepting that fact that we have too many players who are just not up to Premier League standard, I think JS was naive with his tactics. Whilst I accept that we need to win matches, I think it was foolhardy to attack Chelsea with a 4-3-3 attacking formation. I think we should have gone with a more defensive formation as we did last season and tried to hit them on the break. I think the majority of fans would have accepted a 1-0 or 2-0 defeat but not a humiliating one.
I think David Wagner was ground down by having to make this choice between playing more attacking football and getting hammered or being more defensive and losing by the odd goal or two. Neither is particularly appealing but the players we have mean we’re going to lose most games regardless of the tactics. I’d like to see Town play more attacking football, but there’s a responsibility on the wingers to track back and get stuck in when we lose possession. There have been signs of Diakhaby’s potential in the last couple of games but he spends too much time strolling around the pitch for my liking.