Town tighten up, Koroma & Wiles shine, Thomas exit looms, new signings needed – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 victory over Hertha Berlin

Huddersfield Town put in a very solid display against Hertha Berlin yesterday in their 2-1 victory. While results aren’t all that important in preseason friendlies, it was reassuring to see the frailties that were exposed in the game against Aris Limasso shored up in this game and Town were much more solid despite coming up against a high-quality opponent. 

In this article I’ll take a look at what this game might have shown us about Huddersfield Town, as we get ever closer to the start of the season. I think Michael Duff showed a slightly different side to how he could set Town up in this game, which was a bit less exciting but was reassuring too as it showed some flexibility and pragmatism. 

Town were deserved winners in the end, with Hertha Berlin struggling to break Town down and the game having few moments of quality. There was a spell just before half-time when Berlin were on top but other than that, Town looked comfortable for the majority of the game. Hertha Berlin played two friendlies yesterday and there was talk that their strongest lineup played Cardiff later in the day, but even the second-string of Hertha Berlin is a good test for Town and we came out the better team in my opinion.

A focus on the defensive side of the game

After Aris Limassol picked us apart consistently with fast, counter-attacking football on Tuesday, it was reassuring to see Town come up against Hertha Berlin and be hard to break down. That seemed to be the main focus of our approach to this game. In Michael Duff’s post-match comments he spoke repeatedly about how happy he was about how rarely we were “done on the transitions” meaning we weren’t too open when possession was exchanged between the teams and they couldn’t take advantage of players being out of position.

This was a huge improvement, with Hertha Berlin rarely being able to find gaps in our defensive shape. When they did, it was usually because of excellent cross-field balls, or pin-point diagonal passes out of defense which are almost impossible to legislate for. Similarly, we didn’t give away that many soft chances like we did on Tuesday. I thought all of the opportunities Hertha Berlin had were mostly from their positive play rather than anything hugely wrong with our own play. 

The price Town played with this more defensive approach was that there was a lot less fluidity to their attacking play. The attractive football that we’ve seen in the earlier friendlies of this preseason wasn’t quite as in evidence in this game, as Town favoured being more solid and hard to break down. So we didn’t see the defenders step out of central defence to join the midfield as much, or the wingbacks bomb forward quite as much and the midfield was sat noticeably deeper than in previous games, meaning the strikers didn’t get those overlapping runs which create space and give them options. This felt a lot more like the kind of performance we saw Town put in last season in the Championship, which is fair enough because despite being relegated, we did manage to draw a lot of games against teams with better players than us. I think this match was a chance to practice a way of playing when we’re up against a tough team and trying to be hard to break down. And it worked, even if it meant the game wasn’t a thrilling spectacle to watch.

The way Town pressed the opposition when they lost the ball matched up this more muted approach too. On the whole, we tended to allow Hertha Berlin to have the ball as much as they liked in their own half but would aggressively push on to them when they started getting into our half of the pitch. By dropping back a bit before starting to press this made Town more compact and gave us a more solid structure to press from, which means we still got in their faces and played a high-tempo style of defence but because we were conceding the first part of the pitch to them, it meant when we won the ball back it was typically harder for us to launch counter attacks because we weren’t winning the ball in dangerous areas. Pressing higher up the pitch is a higher risk and higher reward strategy, as it leaves you more open if you get it wrong but gives you better chances when you catch the opposition out. My hope is that we press high in most games but keep this alternative style as an option to switch to if we need to keep things tighter, either against better teams or when we need to see out narrow leads.

Koroma and Wiles could have a lot to offer 

I won’t go into a detailed description of every player in this game, as it was more of a team effort but I thought Josh Koroma and Ben Wiles were the two standout performers for Town, as they were the ones that created the bits of quality that we needed to unlock Hertha Berlin’s defence. Wiles scored from Koroma’s low cross for the second goal and Wiles’ corner produced the opener, so both created goals but other moments they were lively and showed some nice touches.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of new signings and the potential that comes with the unknown but perhaps Michael Duff might be able to also get the best out of some of the existing squad that underperformed last season too. Ben Wiles in particular has looked very sharp this preseason, with him looking physically to be in better shape but also playing with a bit more snap and purpose. Duff put it down to having more competition for places since Evans and Kane have arrived in his post-match comments but I think it may also be down to him being played in a system that suits him more too. 

As for Josh Koroma, I had a gut feeling that he wouldn’t hang around this season but with him being involved so much in the preseason games and contributing to many of our goals too it could be that he is part of the plans. Obviously we won’t know who’s staying and who’s going until the transfer window shuts, but based on his recent performances, I think he’s got a part to play in this system. 

Sorba on his way?

One player that seemingly doesn’t have much of a long-term future at Huddersfield Town is Sorba Thomas. Despite starting yesterday’s game, he played like someone who was working out their notice period. While he didn’t do anything particularly wrong, he also didn’t really do anything at all. There was a lot of trotting around and not a lot of touching the ball or making tackles, almost like he was petrified of picking up an injury before getting his move away from the club.

It was a bit of a surprise that Sorba was involved in this game at all though, as L’Equipe ran a story yesterday that he was going to join Nantes on a season-long loan. While this could just be paper talk, these stories usually have some substance to them. 

Given there have been other rumours of different clubs wanting to take Sorba Thomas from us on a permanent basis, this loan must somehow suit Town as well as the other parties involved in the deal. I would guess it would involve a sizable loan fee up front and possibly an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the loan for a prearranged fee. 

Sorba Thomas is a talented player, you just have to look at the stats for assists, crosses and key passes over the last few seasons for proof of that, but in some ways I’ll be pleased to see him go because of all the drama that seems to follow him around. Neil Warnock said that he is someone that is capable of getting into an argument in an empty room, which is probably why such a talented player isn’t attracting the kind of bids Jack Rudoni received despite having far better stats.

More signings needed for a promotion charge 

It’s not easy to judge a team on preseason performances, but so far, I really like the look of what Michael Duff is doing with Huddersfield Town. My only concern is that *so far* he’s not really being given the tools to achieve his target of an immediate return to the Championship. I’ve emphasised so far  in the previous sentence because we’re still a long way from the end of the transfer window but I think it’s important to point out this squad is still a work in progress.

So far we’ve only seen Jack Rudoni sold and two midfielders and two wingbacks come in. That doesn’t feel like the overhaul of the squad that was expected after the scathing criticism Andre Breitenreiter gave the team at the end of last season. In fairness, it seems that Michael Duff is getting a better tune out of fundamentally the same squad of players but it’s still unreasonable to expect him to get a huge shift in outcomes with such a similar group. Particularly when we’ve made a NET profit on transfers so far this season (£5m reportedly for Rudoni vs two frees and the other two costing under half a million each – though wages may bring it closer to balancing out).

If nothing were to change, I’d guess the current team would probably be able to challenge for the top six. But if we make a few quality signings I think we could be genuine automatic promotion contenders. Obviously without a ball being kicked, this is wild speculation but we feel to be short in a few areas. My wishlist at the moment would be two strikers, one defensive midfielder and one left-sided central defender. And we also need to move out players in each of those positions to stop our squad getting bloated, which is probably just as big a challenge for the club as it is to bring in the new players. Then there’s also the issue of bids coming in for our best players and then having to replace them, such as Helik or Nicholls.  It’s going to need to be a very busy five weeks to get the squad in the best possible shape for an attempt at automatic promotion.