Let's talk about the Huddersfield Town game

[selby]

  There are no easy games for us in this division, and the game Tuesday evening against Huddersfield is no exception, it's another game in a short period and we are having to be up for it and ready to go again after a hard game v Wycombe.
   Huddersfield themselves will be looking to get back on track after coming unstuck against Blackpool 3-2 and against 10 men from the 36th minute when Ennis of Blackpool was sent off.
   All the goals were scored in the first 36 minutes of the game, with Blackpool spending most of the rest of the game defending heroically their lead, perhaps a pointer to how not committing too much forward can frustrate their game plan.
   With Alfie May and Lynden Gooch in their ranks ex players of ours and Pearson an ex Huddersfield favourite possibly in our side also a little side interest for the supporters and both sides starting the season well both sides will want to put on a show and it could well be a very good game to watch.
   We have shown a capability to rotate the players with very few if any playing every minute of our games, and have done it successfully,  so could we make changes from todays game? The season is still young, we are still undefeated, and Huddersfield have signed and added some good players so are an attractive fixture, Are you one of the lucky ones going to the game?
  Can we deal with Alfie May who has flourished since leaving us? Can we reach the heights of play we showed at Middlesbrough and in moments against Wycombe especially at the start of the game consistently? if we can we will be a team to be reckoned with come the end of the season.
   One point I would like to make and some would disagree and fair does, to me we have looked a far better team in mid field and up front  than we have defensively. Our results have been great, but in every game our keepers have had to pull off some magnificent saves when teams have played through us which happens in games, and our keepers have pulled great saves out for us, that will not always happen and is an area we can improve on a lot, just my opinion you are welcome to disagree.
   So another busy week, lots to look forward to, lots for us to discuss, things really could not be much better  and all the games have been great to watch, a far better standard than last season, and the players have responded well to the higher standard.
   Please have your say on the game, any Huddersfield supporters welcome to comment, and a great game to look forward to with what should be a good attendance for a local derby, and to anyone attending the game have a great time.
   

[scawsby steve]

To be honest, Brian, I think our problems are more in attack than in defence.

[dickos1]

Yes agreed, I can’t think of too many saves TLT has had to make and we’ve conceded 2 goals in 4 games so defensively we’ve been very strong

[RobTheRover]

Agreed. We've looked very solid defensively with only 2 goals conceded in 4 games. It's the final ball that's our problem at the moment. We're overhitting or trying to pass through defenders.  Some composure and care required and the goals will flow.

[Fal]

Before Saturday I had this down as a nailed on defeat but 10 man Blackpool who have had an awful start managed to hold on for 60 minutes against them.

Will take a draw now to be honest, Alfie bound to score!

[Pancho Regan]

To be honest, Brian, I think our problems are more in attack than in defence.

Agree with this.
I don’t recognise Selby’s assessment that our weakness is our defence.

[Alan Southstand]

Our biggest problem is our front 3 and finishing. We were very good first half on Saturday until we got the final third. A combination of poor choices and an inability to find the right killer ball was our undoing. We should have put the game to bed and we didn’t and we paid for it. They got stronger and we got weaker - our substitutes having little to no effect.

Wycombe deserved their point, no doubt about that.

My concern for Tuesday is - can we recover to go again? There were one or two suffering at the end of Saturday’s game. Crew had already been replaced, no doubt suffering from his early knock. Bailey was sat on the grass at the final whistle and had been holding the back of his leg earlier in the game?

They’ll want to respond after their defeat, so we’re going to have a tough game.

[drfchound]

The match at Boro showed that we have more than enough good players to allow some of them to play at Huddersfield and not weaken the team.

[dickos1]

Only 5 teams have scored more than one goal more than us in the league. Including the cup we’ve scored 8 goals in 4 games, that’s better than almost everyone, feels a bit like we’re searching for negativities when they’re not there

[Alan Southstand]

As you well know, Dickos, 4 of those 8 were in the one game. Now compare our league results against the top sides in L1.

Stats eh, who’d have ‘em!

[Chris Black come back]

League is the control group for statistical analysis. Aside from it being the most important to us, the sides are by definition grouped by a similar level of ability and given the league will be of equal importance to the other sides we are playing in league games, they will be competing with same consistent level of effort and priority.

[dickos1]

As you well know, Dickos, 4 of those 8 were in the one game. Now compare our league results against the top sides in L1.

Stats eh, who’d have ‘em!

As I mentioned only 5 teams have scored more than one goal more than us in league games, only one team has conceded fewer than us. It’s a great start to the season and people are looking for negative things that don’t exist

[Chris Black come back]

Before Saturday I had this down as a nailed on defeat but 10 man Blackpool who have had an awful start managed to hold on for 60 minutes against them.

Will take a draw now to be honest, Alfie bound to score!

Not sure what happened to them yesterday given the early red card but in their three league games they’ve kept two clean sheets and scored a total of 7 goals. Hope we can learn something from how Blackpool restricted them yesterday as that seems the stand out result from their early league run.

[NickDRFC]

To be honest, Brian, I think our problems are more in attack than in defence.

Agree with this.
I don’t recognise Selby’s assessment that our weakness is our defence.

I imagine selby will continue to see our defence as a weakness, and McGrath in particular, until Faulkner is a part of it.

[roversdude]

I thought we looked slightly open on our right yesterday Bailey seemed to get dragged out of position a few times particularly with the fresh legged subs on

[McCammon egg n chips]

Don't think we can get too excited after just three games. But to completely contradict that if we get a result on Tuesday I will be taking it as a strong sign!

Seriously though I feel we're a decent striker short and eventually that will catch up with us and hold us back.

[Ian Nimmo]

I also disagree to the defence being our weakness, for me it’s definitely the lone striker.
It has not worked for Hanlan.
Billy took the role at Middlesbrough and he worked very hard, success occurred because we got players forward in numbers into the central area. Good example with Ben close being around the penalty area and Nixon for the last goal.

Billy took the lead again yesterday and again worked hard, but the difference was we didn’t get forward into the central area quick enough.

So for me, yes two sets of players but a noticeable difference in the two games.
I said in another thread about mols being marked wide by 3 defenders, and a lot of time we also had 3 players wide right.
We need to get more players central, this certainly happened a lot more at Middlesbrough.

[danumdon]

We showed last season (before the conversion of Street) that we could do ok without the main striker scoring all the goals, with everyone across the front line chipping in, this season in the higher league we need to be smarter as this may not happen, on the evidence so far we are creating the chances but not taking them, i'd like to see more shots taken from the build-up rather then try the extra pass, its been our downfall so far, if we shoot we may just score.

[Ian Nimmo]

Spot on danumdon, we too many passes, also often when we eventually take the shot there’s a crowded penalty which happened again yesterday.

[danumdon]

It annoyed me that their shot for the goal seemed to go through half the team! we need to learn from that.

[i_ateallthepies]

To be honest, Brian, I think our problems are more in attack than in defence.

Agree with this.
I don’t recognise Selby’s assessment that our weakness is our defence.

I imagine selby will continue to see our defence as a weakness, and McGrath in particular, until Faulkner is a part of it.

That defensive axe of Selby's must be ground wafer thin by now.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Can we stop the Selby baiting please. If you don't agree with him, tell us why.

Personally, I don't think there's anything to be too alarmed about defensively. We are playing better teams, who will have spells in games and will create chances, so it's more how we defend as a unit while being careful in possession in the middle third. We got turned over a few times yesterday with a careless pass (one which led to their goal)

So far, with the three teams we've played there's nothing to fear, so we should go into the game believing we can win. I don't know if it's my imagination but Huddesfields pitch seems a bit bigger, which I think will help us to find those spaces from diagonal balls etc to hit them on the break. Again, it will be another measure of how far we've come. So far 7 out of 10, well ok then, 9.

[i_ateallthepies]

Selby constantly looking for a chance to make out that McGrath isn't as good as Faulkner has become tiresome, or do you not agree, DBR?  What matters is that Grant doesn't agree with Selby and it's Grant's opinion that matters.  He hasn't done too bad with his player choices thus far.

[selby]

  Against Exeter we should have been two down in the first quarter of an hour at least, Exeter missing two very easy chances just playing through us.
  The Mansfield game I have seen very little of so will not comment.
  The Middlesbrough game they played through us on quite a few occasions, hit the post with a pile driver that cleared the area it was going so hard before we scored a deflection, then our keeper had the game of his career here and was our MOM with a string of great saves, that could have at least levelled the score on another day with the final score to a point masking what the score might have been.
 Yesterday our keeper made another great save from a header which was really the only notable save by either goalkeeper in the game.
  We can't depend on that continually happening.

[Alan Southstand]

As you well know, Dickos, 4 of those 8 were in the one game. Now compare our league results against the top sides in L1.

Stats eh, who’d have ‘em!

As I mentioned only 5 teams have scored more than one goal more than us in league games, only one team has conceded fewer than us. It’s a great start to the season and people are looking for negative things that don’t exist

Who, for goodness sake, is looking for negatives? 90% of the comments on here are in agreement and all are making positive comments about how we can improve things. And that’s exactly what Grant is trying to do - make us better. No negativity, just a few observations and opinions about what we can do to improve our lot.

If you think we’re already perfect then that’s your prerogative, but don’t interpret someone else’s valid comment as being negative.

Now, please can we have the one remaining loan slot filled with a young lad who’s destined for the top. That would do nicely.

[Petche]

  Against Exeter we should have been two down in the first quarter of an hour at least, Exeter missing two very easy chances just playing through us.
  The Mansfield game I have seen very little of so will not comment.
  The Middlesbrough game they played through us on quite a few occasions, hit the post with a pile driver that cleared the area it was going so hard before we scored a deflection, then our keeper had the game of his career here and was our MOM with a string of great saves, that could have at least levelled the score on another day with the final score to a point masking what the score might have been.
 Yesterday our keeper made another great save from a header which was really the only notable save by either goalkeeper in the game.
  We can't depend on that continually happening.

Wow! Nothing like trying to put a massive dampner on our decent start! So sorry we're doing quite well at the moment.

[Alan Southstand]

We should have put Saturday’s game to bed by half time, but we didn’t. The EFL is full to the brim with teams who cudda and shudda.

[scawsby steve]

  Against Exeter we should have been two down in the first quarter of an hour at least, Exeter missing two very easy chances just playing through us.
  The Mansfield game I have seen very little of so will not comment.
  The Middlesbrough game they played through us on quite a few occasions, hit the post with a pile driver that cleared the area it was going so hard before we scored a deflection, then our keeper had the game of his career here and was our MOM with a string of great saves, that could have at least levelled the score on another day with the final score to a point masking what the score might have been.
 Yesterday our keeper made another great save from a header which was really the only notable save by either goalkeeper in the game.
  We can't depend on that continually happening.

Since you can't comment on the Mansfield game, Brian, I'll do it for you. TLT never even got his shorts dirty. The only thing he had to do in the game was to pick the ball out of the net after a one off wonder shot.

Our defence was totally in control of their forwards throughout the game. We've a lot more problems up front.

[selby]

  I am not trying to put a dampener on anything, nor am I saying we are particularly weak in any part of the team, I am commenting on games as I see them on a football discussion thread.
  Football is a game at professional level of fine margins and as stated by others we have scored enough goals to be successful in games , and even better the goals are not dependant on just one striker in form and going forward we have looked dangerous even when we have not scored making teams make mistakes in every game and scramble to keep us out with midfielders also getting up there in the box in the last few games.
  Not to recognise the things we have not done that well which is not a lot, but we have got away with a few things, and we can be better.
  If you don't think we could have done better with the Wycombe goal which I am sure Grant will have been disappointed with fair enough that's your opinion your entitled to, but saying why you disagree is the point of the discussion thread, and I am open to being convinced by a reasonable argument.
 
 

[selby]

  My biggest fear for the game at Huddersfield is Bailey our talisman not being fit to play.
   He looked like he was carrying a knock at the end of the game Saturday, hopefully if he was he is ok for Tuesday.