After a series of promising performances without a win to show from them, Huddersfield Town hoped something would change against Watford. Sadly it did, rather than playing well and losing we changed to playing poorly and losing.
Most of our recent defeats have had a “What if…” feeling to them, where we’ve blamed our bad luck, bad referees, and too much paint on the goalposts denying Town. Against Watford we just weren’t good enough. There were brief flashes of promise, but generally it was a poor performance, and too many players had bad games. Here’s exactly what I thought of each of Town’s players…
Jonas Lössl – 5 out of 10
Couldn’t do much about the first goal, but may feel like he should have saved the second, which was fired in from a tight angle. A last ditch clearance avoided an embarrassing own goal from a Zanka back pass.
Chris Löwe – 5 out of 10
One of our better performers going forward, he regularly brought the ball forward up the left flank and overlapped his winger well. However, he missed tackles in the build up to the first two goals, when he could have snuffed out the danger if he timed his interventions better. The way Deulofeu left him on his backside was the second goal was particularly embarrassing.
Christopher Schindler – 6 out of 10
Not at his imperious best, but far from our worst player on the pitch. Looked a bit sluggish at times but coped well against the physical challenge of Watford’s Success.
Zanka – 5 out of 10
Gave away too many fouls and was one of several players that went to pieces for Watford’s opener. He seemed rattled at times and struggled to contain Watford’s attackers.
Erik Durm – 6 out of 10
Looked lightweight in the tackle and struggled to contain Pereira, who turned him inside out whenever he wanted to. Durm showed his commitment towards the end of the game when he didn’t pull out of a header despite the onrushing Success booting him in the head.
Jonathan Hogg – 7 out of 10
Buzzed about in midfield as usual and made a series of interceptions that broke up Watford attacks in their early stages. Was one of the few calm heads at the back when Watford attacked.
Phil Billing – 5 out 10
Subbed off because he looked like he was going to sent off. In fact, the sloppy tackle that stopped Hughes from breaking could very easily have brought him his second yellow card. This was one of the those performances where Billing looked like he couldn’t really be bothered. I doubt that’s the case, but he looked leggy at times. He did however nearly smash in a long range shot, but was foiled by Ben Foster’s decent save.
Aaron Mooy – 6 out of 10
Not a good game for Mooy either, but I don’t blame him. He played the first half as a left winger and the second half in a variety of positions, including right wing. Mooy looked like a square peg in a round hole. He had several decent long range shots saved in the first half, the kind of chances he was scoring in our promotion season.
Isaac Mbenza – 4 out of 10
Mbenza looks like a race car being driven by a toddler. He’s got the attributes to be a great player but doesn’t seem to have the tactical understanding to make the most of his abilities. Too often he was stood in the completely wrong position when a ball was played to him, or didn’t sense the danger when he should have been defending.
I think there’s potential for him to be an incredible player, if he can adapt to David Wagner’s tactics. Based on this performances, it looks like he’s going to need a bit longer on the training pitch before he can be an asset to Town.
Alex Pritchard – 5 out of 10
Nearly scored an audacious clip into the top corner in the opening stages, but didn’t quite judge it right. That was his most significant contribution to the game and he often struggled to make an impact. He’s been very good in recent weeks but against Watford he couldn’t get on the ball in the right areas and didn’t create much when he did have possession.
Laurent Depoitre – 6 out of 10
Depoitre did his usual job of chasing lost causes and harassing the defences but didn’t ever look like a threat. His style of play relies on chances being presented to him or defenders making errors, neither of which happened in this game. I like Depoitre and think he can do a job for Town, but I think it might be time for Mounié to start for Town up front.
Subs
Steve Mounié – 6 out of 10
Didn’t get much chance to influence the game. Watford controlled the closing stages, so there wasn’t much he could do.
Ramadan Sohbi – 6 out of 10
Like Mounié, didn’t get much of a chance to shine but did get on the ball a few times. He looks to be strong and can hold the ball up, but also seems painfully slow. It may be a bit harsh to judge him on such a brief cameo, I’d like to see him given a full 90 minutes to see what he can do.
Your comments about Sohbi being slow echo those made by Stoke supporters. They couldn’t believe we had bought him and let them have Ince, considering that they had by far the best of the deal.
john.headey@yahoo.com
The comment above was from me, not ‘Terry’.
At this rate it will be time to admit we haven’t got a better winger than VLP. He looks to be at least as good going forward, tactically sound and a better defender when required.
I think you have a point. For all his failings, VLP is in my opinion our most effective ‘winger’., and he does track back to some effect.
(What would he be worth if he could pass/cross/finish ?)
Our new signings look woefully short of the standard required. I appreciate it’s relatively early days, but we don’t have the time to spare to see what they can do. We simply need effective players now.