Huddersfield Town’s season starts this Saturday when they travel down to Plymouth, so it feels about right to put together a season preview article. As has now become an annual tradition on this blog, I’m going to divide my thoughts into positive and negative feelings and put them out as two separate articles. I published the positive one earlier today, so you can read that one instead if you’d prefer some positivity in your life.
For the curmudgeons and, perhaps, the realists, I’ve put together a preview with all my darkest fears about Huddersfield Town included. And worrying about what lies ahead is fairly familiar territory for most Town fans, particularly those that have been following the club for a while.
I know some people will feel like an article that solely looks at the negatives is too miserable and I shouldn’t be writing this kind of thing. However, I think I can actually blame my audience a little bit for articles like this one existing. Last season’s positive and negative blogposts published around about the same time but the negative one received 1578 views, while the positive one only had 474. So while I would agree with anyone saying there needs to be more positivity, if you look at the kind of things Huddersfield Town fans typically click on, it tends to be the more downbeat and negative stuff (it’s not just Town fans either, the whole internet works like this too unfortunately and it’s why social media is such a mess, but that’s too big a subject for here).
The squad is too thin
It would be wrong to say there hasn’t been any transfer activity at Huddersfield Town this summer but unfortunately, most of it has been players leaving rather than coming in. While the departures haven’t been our prized assets, there has been a significant trimming of the squad over the course of the summer. While these players that have left weren’t players likely to be in our best eleven, most were useful backups and played a fair few games for us last season. Here’s a list of who we’ve let go and the number of games they played last season in brackets after their name.
- Duane Holmes (27 appearances)
- Etienne Camara (20)
- Will Boyle (16)
- Nicholas Bilokapic (6)
With Jordan Rhodes (34 appearances), Cannor Mahoney (9) and Aaron Rowe (1) not fancied and Tyreece Simpson (9) loaned out, we’ve got a lot fewer players on our books. That’s before you consider all the loanees that went back to their parent clubs at the end of last season too.
I will concede that we used too many players last season, with 39 different players being used in the league for Town, the second highest of any Championship team behind Watford, but it looks like we’ve swung to the other extreme this season and have a very thin squad.
Unless there’s a sudden influx of players, which we’ve already been told won’t happen because of financial pressures, we will have to rely on our academy products to step up and hope they can fill in any gaps created when the first teamers are unavailable.
We’ve already lost Hogg and Lees for most of preseason, so they’re likely to not be fit for the start of the season. Kasumu limped out in the last game. It feels inevitable that we’re going to lurch from one injury crisis to the next unless we bulk up our squad a little.
Neil Warnock is a great firefighter but is he suited to the long haul?
I don’t like to be critical of Neil Warnock after the incredible feat he pulled off last season. But I also don’t want to expect him to recreate the near-miracle survival job he came in and performed over the course of a full season. He managed to galvanise a broken team and get them playing out of their skin. But that’s his special skill, he creates a siege mentality and can pull great performances out of players to get them over the line. But we’re not going to be in that situation this season.
So the challenge this year will be to steer Town away from those high-pressure situations like the relegation scrap but to keep the team playing like their lives depend on it anyway. Can he do it? I wouldn’t put it past him but it’s a tougher task ahead of him in many ways this season. I think he’s someone that thrives in adversity, and if we’re comfortably mid-table and bobbing along nicely it’ll be harder to get everyone’s juices flowing.
Neil Warnock may have been his own worst enemy, in doing so well last season with this squad of players he’s proven they can compete in the Championship but only when they play to their absolute best. If he cannot squeeze the same level of performance from them again, over the course of the full season, then things may get a bit tricky.
The budget is very tight this season
If I understand it correctly, the budget for this season was submitted before the takeover was complete.This means that the new ownership had no say in the spending plans we submitted to the league and if they don’t stick to them they could potentially get into trouble. And at the point those spending plans were being submitted, the takeover wasn’t complete, so the previous ownership may have been on the hook for whatever they pledged to spend. Which is why we’re in this situation of having to trim our expenses where we can.
There’s also the issue of our revenue being fairly low compared to similar sized teams because our ticket prices are cheaper than other teams and we don’t bring in nearly as much commercial revenue as other Championship teams either. So we are spending more than we bring in, even if our spending might seem modest compared to other teams. This can all be improved over time but it’s not easy or quick to change and might not always be popular with fans either.
But regardless of the money coming in, we’re stuck with this season’s budget anyway, which means we’re not likely to see huge levels of investment. This has been the case for a number of years too, with the money received for players sold far outstripping the money spent on transfer fees every season since the excesses of our Premier League years.
This is one of the toughest Championship lineups in recent years
Southampton, Leicester and Leeds have come down from the Premier League this season and, despite my tongue-in-cheek prediction of Leeds’ relegation yesterday, I think all three are most likely going to be strong teams this season. And coming up we’ve got Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich who are all likely to be competitive.
Obviously there have to be teams at the bottom end of the league, because that’s how league tables work, but I think the overall quality of the league this season might be the highest it’s been for a very long time as the teams there are several other teams in the league that have continued to get better over the years too, such as Middlesbrough, Coventry Sunderland and West Brom. Then there are big teams that have underachieved in recent years but have quality players in their squad that expect to be pushing for promotion like Watford, Norwich and, Stoke,
So when you look at the fixtures for a nice easy run of games, there just isn’t one. Whipping boys may emerge over the course of the season but right now it looks like every team is going to be tough for Town and we’re going to have to fight for every point. The good thing is that last season Neil Warnock got the team to a point where they could get something from every team they played (apart from the Burnley game, which he literally threw away) so we should be competitive but I don’t expect anything to be easy next season.
Expect 20%-possession games and clinging on for results
Neil Warnock is often described as a long-ball merchant but I think that’s actually a bit of a harsh assessment of him. I think it would be more accurate to say he makes the best use of the resources he has available to him. Rather than trying to play beautiful football with a team that aren’t capable of producing it (see Danny Schofield) he set his team up to get results based on what they can do.
So last season, when we didn’t have a lot of goals in us and lacked decent midfielders, he had us set up to sit deep, soak up pressure and play on the counter to try and snatch goals on the counter. That led to games where we had possession stats in the low twenties and snatched goals from set pieces and breakaways. It worked a treat, to be fair to him, but it wasn’t pretty.
It was horrible football in many ways, but beautiful in terms of getting results against the odds and helping claw Town to safety against teams that were better than us on paper but couldn’t break us down. It felt fine under the circumstances but I’m not sure I want to watch that for a whole season but I can’t see how we’re going to manage to play a more expansive type of football when the only new arrivals so far are a backup goalie and a right back that Stoke deem surplus to requirements.
Where are the goals coming from?
I think I’ve already made the point about the lack of signings but there’s also a lack of goals in our squad. Which, when you think about it, are quite important. Matty Pearson was injured for most of last season and is a defender but still managed to become our joint top-scorer when he found a bit of goalscoring form from set pieces and managed to get to five goals for the season. It shouldn’t be that easy to become the joint top scorer. Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes both equalled his five goal haul, but both should have done better with the number of games they played.
We’re all hoping that the answer will be a new player coming in and scoring twenty or more goals in a season but those players aren’t easy to get hold of. You either have to pluck them out of obscurity, and I don’t think we’ve got a functioning recruitment setup with everything being in flux behind the scenes, or you have to pay quite a bit of money. Even decent Premier League loanees attract significant loan fees, with Everton’s Tom Cannon going to Preston for a rumoured million pound loan fee (or somewhere near that figure).
Are we really doomed?
This is the fourth year that I’ve been writing these previews and in previous years I’ve found it easiest to write the negative, doom mongering preview and then had to scrape the barrel thinking of positives. This is the first time that I’ve found it the other way around. While the concerns I’ve outlined above are genuine, I don’t think they’re anything to be unduly worried about and I think this is a season Town fans can be more optimistic than worried about. While you never know what to expect before a season starts, I think there are more positive omens than negative ones. I’m not expecting promotion, or even a top-half finish, but I do think we should be safe from relegation and with Neil Warnock in charge there is always guaranteed entertainment and laughs because he’s that kind of manager. He just attracts drama and intrigue wherever he goes and there’s always something to talk about when he’s nearby.
Cricket pundits always say “you shouldn’t judge a pitch until you’ve seen both sides bat on it.” Well TS has provided us with both sides; you pays your money and makes your choice.
The bottom line is that until we’ve played a few matches, we can’t know. You can reckon that 3 points on Saturday will put most of us into Camp A and defeat into Camp B. Such is the nature of the fickle football supporter.
One big difference to last season could be Sorba Thomas. If he and Warnock, click, add the possibility of using Jones on the other flank, there’s at least a goalscoring threat which is what we fans want to see. At the moment we’re looking weak in central midfield, so use our strength down the flanks.
As Kevin Keegan famously said “I’d love it, I’d bloody love it if…..” Town came out of the starting gate meaning business.
I agree that both could be the main goal creating threats this season. They both have issues. Jones physically as he is rather fragile and easily injured. Thomas mentally as up to now he soon loses heart and then his game suffers. If Warnock can overcome or handle these issues all will be well. Funnily enough Ward and Koroma are almost exactly the same. Ward easily injured and Koromas head soon goes down if it isn’t working out. We’ll just have to trust the dark lord Warlock. By the way the definition of Warlock is “a man who practises witchcraft; a wizard or sorcerer.” Whoooo!!
I never understood the budget being set low. Why? Unless budget in football means something else than in normal life, a budget is just a forecast of what you expect to spend in the forthcoming year. As far as I’m aware you can spend up to the top of your budget and everything is good if you stay within it. There is nothing to say that you have to spend money, just because it’s in the budget. So what was wrong with Hoyle setting a high budget then, if he couldn’t sell, just spending what he or the club could afford. As it is he has tied the hands of the new owner from day 1.
I can’t disagree with any of your comments but thought it worth mentioning some of the departures and unfancied players.
Duane Holmes was a good squad player but injury prone, of lightweight stature and regularly inconsistent. Nicholas Bilokapic may have been one for the future but was scared of crosses and Chris Maxwell is more likely to be a better back-up keeper in the short term. Will Boyle was drafted into an injury ravaged side and did OK but in reality he is not Championship quality.
Connor Mahoney and Aaron Rowe would not be missed if we could get someone else to take them off our hands, and I don’t think Tyreece Simpson is any great loss either.
The big puzzler for me is Jordan Rhodes. He is more prolific than Danny Ward based on goals per minute and is better with his link up play/stronger in the air. Both payers are in their twilight years so my big hope is that Kian Harratt and Kyle Hudlin are given the chance to step up based on their good pre-season appearances.
Ward is Warnocks favourite son and is the first name on the team sheet. Warnock also likes players who run about a lot and look to be contributing, even if they’re not (Waghorn for instance) and are unproductive. Rhodes doesn’t fit that category. He is more of a traditional striker who holds the ball up well and scores but needs service. It may sound silly but he also is too “nice” for Warnocks style so hasn’t much chance to be picked except in emergency.
I’ve been a Town supporter for nearly 60 years now, and I must say it’s been interesting, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s probably best to be a pessimist, then be delighted when they do well. What I can’t understand is when they get relegated from the top flight they always are really bad, other teams are favorites to be pushing for promotion, we on the other hand flirt with administration/relegation. I hope Nagle can stop us being a selling club so we can build a strong squad capable of competing and playing feelgood football.
The previous management also managed to fritter away £200 million+ with absolutely nothing to show.
Surely last years replies to your posts demonstrated that most of your readers could tell pretty much was about to unfold and were right to share their disappointment about going into yet another season with a weaker squad than finished the previous season?
Still no striker. Still no creative midfielder (not that we’d use one even if we had him) and Hogg a year older. Still (even more so) reliant on untried youngsters with no experienced quality along-side them. No sign that Rudoni promised tsunami of goals is about to land any time soon.
If Town fans expect another season fire-fighting it would be a brave man who would call them out for it.