Huddersfield....If you like your football played like a game of chess

I wasn't going to bother with a report but having just watched the highlights a few things might be worth mentioning. The first, and you had to be there to see it, was the INCREDIBLY boring style of football that Huddersfield play. I saw them twice against us last year and nothing seems to have changed. Obviously Mini Klopp likes it, and it got them promoted, but it's not going to keep them up. I'd put money on that right now, no matter how much of the Monopoly money they spend. You do wonder how the natives get so excited about it, but they seem to. I suppose winning plenty does that, but let's see how they react this season to some major beatings. Maybe they will be like us and just enjoy the ride, noisily.

I hate to see square, passing, keep-ball football but that's how they play it. You could almost say it's a throw back to what was played on the continent 20 or 30 years ago. Patient, tip tap, sideways moves, and then back again - repeat, ad infinitum. As someone else said, their keeper and defence must have had 70% of the match possession, all played not far from their penalty area. It was dire to watch but we didn't manage to take it off them often enough. That's not to say we didn't tackle, because we did. There was plenty of good defensive work, and tigerish midfield tackling going on. All of it, from us, seemed fair whereas from them.....well, different story. I nearly titled this report DIRTY UDDERS but thought better of it. They weren't dirty ALL the way through, just most of it. Whenever Hammill or Ugbo looked like getting clear they were floored unceremoniously.

There was much to admire from us though, especially in the first half. That early double flick on movement on the right wing between Yiadom and Hammill was sublime. Some of our triangular passing moves were a delight. It was just a shame that we couldn't make the last one penetrating enough. We were up against big strong defenders and we are just too lightweight up front. Then again, we all know that. I hope someone like their big lads (Quarner and Mounie) is on the horizon for us but I suspect we don't have the money for anything like that. Then again, maybe we do and that box office centre forward that we have been waiting for since Neil Shipperley departed is on his way in. Payne, or even Brown, could be the answer but the jury is out, especially on Payne. He has come a long way up in a short time, and although his header deserved a goal, I can't remember much else that he did. I suspect another spell at Gay Meadow (or whatever they call it now) is looming for Stefan. Brown, on the other hand, needs nurturing. I hardly dare say this but I see something of the David Hirst style of player in him - never gives up, strong on and off the ball. Turn that into first team goals and we could have something wonderful there.

But, and there is nothing new here, for all the nice football we played there wasn't much going on in the opposition penalty box. Hammill had one of his trademark curlers in the second half but there wasn't much else in the way of goal attempts. The opposition were not much better so it was all the more galling that, having apparently settled for a 0-0 draw, they go and score. Their impressive keeper Lossl kicked it from his own box, off the ground and it was headed on by MacDonald right into Mounie's path. He just had to lob Davies, and he did that. Last minute goal and cue wild celebrations. Did they think they had just won promotion with that goal or something? It certainly looked like it. You had to feel sorry for Davies, being so exposed like that because he had pulled off a couple of great saves in that second half to keep them out.

So, on we go to those great cathedrals of football - Rochdale and Rotherham. I hope we win them both and go to Ashton Gate with some confidence. They have plenty to go on, and with Isgrove and McCarthy absent today, the squad is not looking too bad. It's up front - as always - where the worry is. Hecky knows that, we all know that. You couldn't see us scoring today, and we didn't. That's got to change. No need to panic. No, really - there ISN'T!!

 

Oh yes? You saw a different game to me then, but then it's always that way. I didn't see much in one player and someone else praises them. That's football

 

It seems like I am in the minority (oops, that word is copyrighted isn't it? ) as regards my opinion on how Huddersfield play. I can't agree that they were one of the best sides we played last season. I just don't like the dozens of passes style of moving the ball around. Remember a couple of years ago Swindon came to Oakwell with the same look about them. Keeper to full back, cross the edge of the box, back to the keeper etc etc. Now I understand that this kind of "keep ball" football can be effective. You can bore the opposition to death and then just run right through them. Or, like yesterday, you can unexpectedly launch a monster kick to your centre forward who then scores.

Ok, the system isn't ALL bad but my God......it's awful to watch. We're all entitled to an opinion and I've stated mine clearly. If we hadn't played some nice stuff yesterday I might have fallen asleep in the hot sunshine. As it was the likes of Hammill, Yids and a couple of others kept me interested, wondering what they were going to do next.

I know it's "only" a friendly and we shouldn't make a judgement on what we see in them but, on the evidence of this one game yesterday, I don't think we are too far away from being competitive. We're probably not going to do what they did last season (Huddersfield I mean) but we should have enough to win some matches and upset a few of the big boys again. The addition of a battering ram type centre forward (as I've said before - a Chris Martin type) would make a heck of a difference to us. Can we have one please Mr Cryne?