Huddersfield Town were soundly beaten on the south coast today against a Bournemouth team that won’t have believed their luck after being gifted several goals following simple mistakes.
Here are a few of my initial thoughts on the game. Feel free to add yours in the comments below.
This article is a bit of an experiment. Rather than digest my thoughts on the game and write something up tomorrow I thought I’d just note down my scattergun opinions in bulletpoint form. Apologies if it comes across as a bit of a mess.
- That wasn’t the kind of performance that felt like a walloping. We actually played some relatively nice football for spells in the game and forced a few decent saves from their keeper.
- The huge number of changes to the squad equated to Carlos conceding defeat before kickoff.
- Even taking into account the changes to the lineup, the defensive errors were unforgiveable.
- Naby Sarr and Harry Toffolo were the guiltiest parties when it comes to silly mistakes and they’re both starting most games, so it goes deeper than the team selection.
- It would be easy to make Adama Diakhaby a scapegoat but I thought he was far from our worst player today.
- There’s now a lot of pressure on Carlos to get a result against Coventry on Wednesday night or this his approach to this game looks daft.
- I don’t feel particularly angry or disappointed about the result. We’d have probably lost this game with our best XI, so at least we managed to rest key men and give some fringe players a run out (even if few took their chance).
- Maybe this game will provide the board with some motivation to invest in a couple of first-team quality players in the upcoming transfer window as it has shown how weak our squad is.
- Hamer’s half-time sub seemed odd. He didn’t look injured and wasn’t to blame for any of the goals. Carlos will presumably explain in the interview but maybe it was to give Schofield a few more minutes.
- Danny Ward’s injury looked like yet another hamstring going and could see him rules out for a good while. Diakhaby was also down several times and could have picked up a knock but, let’s face it, nobody is losing sleep if he’s unavailable.
- It was good to see Diarra given a bit of a run out but he didn’t get many chances to run at Bournemouth’s defenders and looked alarmingly slow when tracking back.
- Edmonds-Green looks so good on the ball and adds composure to the defense even though he’s inexperienced. He did fail to close down properly for one of the goals though, so it’s not all good news.
- The Stanislas goal was one of the worst goals I’ve seen Town concede in a log time. He just ran in a straight line and nobody put in a challenge. Even a foul would have done the job but instead he strolled through and smashed it home. A real low point in an afternoon to forget.
- For all of Town’s failings, it has to be said that Bournemouth were very good and punished our mistakes ruthlessly. We actually caught their defence in possession several times in the first half but didn’t have the cutting edge to turn the chances into goals.
a bad result with errors early on costly but we did play some decent stuff and tested there keeper.putting in to context it is important not to over react but on social media that is asking a lot!/other results not bad for us and I fully understood why town made the changes its a marathon not a sprint
I pretty much agree with all that you said. For the most part we tried to be enterprising no matter who was on the pitch. The passing is so poor at times, not just in this game, I wonder how this can be – players not good enough? The plusses Diakhaby was more committed but he still looks woefully short of confidence, eighteen months ago I would have guessed Mbenza was the no-hoper not him; O’Brien was wonderful – almost and Edmonds-Green had a lot more work to do and accomplished most of it. The minuses – I’ll give you just one -5 goal difference.
I enjoyed enough aspects of the game to not feel too disheartened.
I’m amazed you have ever seen anything in Diakhaby to give you hope. I must have missed it. My abiding image of him is seeing him looking puzzled on the half-way line – apparently having no clue where to run or what to do when he gets there. And that’s before his complete lack of touch and skill let him down. I’ve never seen him shoot on target let alone score. MBenza on the other hand did beat De Gea – which, at the time was an achievement.
The signing of Diakhaby is a mystery that only a forensic accountant could explain.
I can’t comment – after 20mins at 3-0 I felt humiliated so turned off. The only surprise is that it was only 5-0.
None of us know just how much damage this has done. Potentially huge. Good players losing confidence; poor players cruelly exposed; and the worst thing will be players losing confidence in the manager. As soon as we all saw the team sheet at 2.00pm, we all knew we were heading for a torrid afternoon. If I was any of the ‘regulars’, I’d want to rant & rave at Carlos and ask him what the heck was he playing at.
We fans may not be visible but we’re all still here watching from afar. Carlos has forgotten us I think. We deserve better. We have pride in our town and in our team and what Carlos did today showed no respect for either.
Don’t know what the fuss is, game written off before ko, six changes with a load of no hopers against a virtual PL side = 5-0, easy .just
kicks the fans in the teeth, good job we are used to it.UTT
simon you are over reacting don’t become a drama queen there are enough of them on other sites! carlos as forgotten us? players lose faith in the coach? give it a rest.
Well said Simon. I feel totally cheated and have already emailed the club seeking a refund for my iFollow. I know I wont get it but throwing games is akin to cheating and the three points gift wrapped to Bournemouth may make the difference between someone get promoted or not, This has called the integrity of the game into question and I don’t like it.
Good that you agree, Ian. Good luck getting your £10 back!
It was tantamount to throwing a match.
It would have a certain justice if Town got relegated on goal difference (or optimistically missed out on the play-offs on goal difference) and they can look back on this and be suitably embarrassed.
What a load of 💩 you talk. We look after ourselves THATS IT!. Resting players was the right thing to do, we still have 5 games in this period to go….. or would you prefer further injures do to muscle fatigue.
Look back to 1969/70 (promotion year). Nobody spoke of resting players. 42 league games, 7 players played all 42, one other played 40. Only 1 sub allowed. Some heavy/muddy pitches too.
You can tell I don’t have a lot of sympathy for today’s professional footballers and their need to be rested.
Its about time that Carlos realised were making too many mistakes at the back.
What a sloppy performance from cirtain players who don’t need to be named.
We the loyal Fans now need to see where the loyalty of our chairman lays.
We only have a small squad , we need some vital influx of new blood in January. But I’m pleased to see the youngens coming through, time will tell if they will make their mark wearing blue and white.
But now the state of the club is in our chairman’s hands now.
I think Dean will be so frustrated as much as we are.
Get your hand in the transfer market Mr Chairman.
When I saw the team selection I was hoping for damage limitation. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. It hi-lites out lack of strength in depth. If Schindler, Koroma and Ward are going to be out for a long period we certainly need to strength in January with the addition of a central defender, a central striker and a winger. I am surprised that Vallejo did not replace Hogg and wonder if CC does not think he is good enough. Another potential problem.
I agree with all the comments so far, in times of injury we can’t rely on Diakarby and Bacuna , even less so when 3-0 down. These boys maybe ok in a team that is winning regularly, and they can find a hiding place due to a good result, should go asap as they contribute nothing. In the last couple of games Sarr has been decent , can’t be that hard to drill a couple of mistakes out of him, as I feel he has been constructive in most games. Still say striking department is light, shows Ward and Campbell cannot manage 2 games a week, and we knew that before the championship started.
Sorry to disagree Rob. It is the errors that Sarr makes that mean he isnt decent. I said the same about Stearman earlier in the season. As for the Danny Ward injury – every cloud has a silver lining.
I’ve no idea what happened to Danny Ward today. To be fair, I did see him have a shot in the first 20 minutes.
I wonder how long he lasted and what injury he sustained?
He is a bit of an embarrassment. Maybe he did a bit more today? So far I’ve seen absolutely nothing that’s memorable.
I sort of wish I’d watched more than 20 minutes. I think I’ve only ‘walked out’ of a Town match that early once before – away at Brentford about 5 or 6 years ago when we went 3-0 down within the first half hour. (I think we actually recovered a bit in that match and lost 3-2 I think? Someone will remember.) Whatever, comments suggest that there were a few things to be positive about. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating – anything less than 6 points from the next 2 matches and it wasn’t worth the ignominy.
simon you are missing the point 6 points from the next two games are it wasnt worth it? he rested the players because he needed too the next two results are irrelevant to his decision. but everyone is entitled to a opinion
Interesting, David. I thought the primary objective was to win football matches and that Carlos thought he must have a better chance of winning the next couple with ‘rested’ players.
That’s something else I’ve always found strange. They say that the most tiring part of being a professional footballer, particularly in a congested fixture schedule, is all the travelling. If you asked me how I’d like to be ‘rested’, I wouldn’t choose to travel a round trip of what must be close on 600 miles only to sit on the bench. I’d tell the ‘rested’ players, “you delicate flowers, you stay at home, put your feet up, relax, watch a bit of telly, but please don’t pay £10 to watch the horror movie on iFollow called Bournemouth v Huddersfield as it will give you nightmares.”
simon i totally understand your frustration but the fitness levels today are far higher than the seventies and so many games in a short period does have a effect and most sides are rotating and only yesterday we picked up a couple more injuries that is part and parcel of the game and given the present situation the side as done well. we may now have a poor spellas cwill other sides but the fitness levels of all the squad are monitored. im sure all the clubs will be pleased to get to xmas and back to a more normal one game a week.utt
Well Ian, who are you going to replace Sarr with ? Or even Danny. Bet you were are on a high after the previous 2 games , we just haven’t got a championship squad , the youngsters may come through, but we will have to be patient and hope a couple come in January. Better supporting town than Wednesday or Wycombe ?
Diakhaby had done more than Ward, and I accept that there may be no replacement for Sarr right now but that doesnt make his mistakes not matter.
At least Ward has played week for Town. Fair enough, it was only about three times – 8 years ago.
Having listened to Carlos, I think he and his team of coaches were proving a point to the board. He knew it was unlikely that we would do much against Bournemouth so he admitted that he picked the alleged “backups” from the squad for as many positions as he could to give them a chance to show what they could do. He also left them on in the second half to give them chance to improve – which they didn’t. He now has plenty of ammunition to go to the board in January to say that he needs a lot of new players to be brought in, either to start or cover. Also two other players are now injured, Ward again and Hamer with a strain. So if he needed proof he’s got it. He needs as a minimum a right back, centre half, right wing, left wing and a centre forward. We need to get rid of Diakhaby, Pritchard and Rowe. It also looks like Schindler, Elphick , Stearman and maybe Hogg won’t play for Town again due to their age and long term injuries so there’s a big job to rebuild this team – and it’ll cost!
Diakhaby had done more than Ward, and I accept that there may be no replacement for Sarr right now but that doesnt make his mistakes not matter.
I left my comments ‘till this am, as they wouldn’t have been printed if I had posted them straight away. I think if fans had travelled to that they would have the right to claim their expenses. It’s a good idea to blood youngsters but not en mass, their confidence will be rock bottom now. We did have a few chances after breaking up their midfield , but our efforts on goal were tame, my gran could have done better, and I,’m 68! Only good thing as others say, it has exposed how thin our squad is. Ward hasn’t imposed himself at all and seems a bit of a crock. So if it wasn’t before, it is now obvious what is needed in new players.
Yes, there has always got to be a scapegoat hasn’t there!? Nabby Sarr brings far more to the team than he gives away, but he always seems to be the last in line when Town play their “pass the parcel” game at the back. If you look at his otherwise commanding performances, anyone should see what an important player he is for the team. I thought that Town actually played quite well in the first half, but you can’t gift a team like Bournemouth a two goal lead and expect to get away with it. I also thought that Lewis O’Brien was exceptional and will make a good club captain.
a fair summing up richard
Its all got political, the fact is Town have a first eleven who on their day can give any team in the div. a game, the rest of the so called squad should get their bus fares in Jan. did Carlos write the game off ? smells
like it to me, with injuries we have you could expect a couple of changes,
but six ? I think the. Spanish eye is on the rest of the fixtures till Jan. I think it was a case of resting players regardless. given the opposition.
Cheer up Town fans, just think we have it all again midweek. oh well that’s showbiz. UTT.
UNIFORM
N
We have supporters with very short memories, before this season commenced, we were all hoping Town would not be in another relegation dog-fight. We had a new coach, a promised change in our style of play, and very little time to make these changes, The new coach required some time to assess the current playing staff, it does not take a Brain of Britain to work out that the Xmas transfer window would be the first opportunity to make major changes.
In addition, we had players like Mbenza and Diahkaby who had not been given any opportunity by previous managers. The 2020/2021 season was always going to be a re-building season. I honestly believe Carlos and his coaches have done a tremendous job in such a short time, our style has not just improved it has been transformed. We have players who were unheard of doing very well under new guidance and tactics.
Our current league position is better than we ever expected, our style of play has improved beyond our expectations. Yes, giving the ball and goals away when playing out from the back is exasperating, and requires attention. Two games a week has not helped, but all the other teams are in the same boat. The injuries sustained have also been a little cruel, and our style of play demands exceptional fitness.
Lets get behind Carlos, his Coaching Staff and the Team, it would be great to be there cheering them on, they need our encouragement. Lets stick to the plan, consolidate, finish mid/top half of table, establish the players who can go forward with Town, move on the ones who Carlos believes will not meet his aspirations. Let us not forget that Huddersfield Town have always tried to look after their playing staff. We have a reputation for trying to establish new positions for players who need to move on.
1. Establish our style.
2. Finish middle to top=half of table.
3.Assemble a group of players that can challenge for a top six position 2022/23 season.
James Q