Huddersfield Town 1-1 West Ham Utd (10/11/18)

[The Old Mile End]

Can't fault fitness or committment of late with this side.

Good to see - been a while since we could say that.

[IronworksDave]

Just watched the game again and have decided that Pellegrini dropped a clanger ... we set up with three in midfield with Rice playing as the DCM ... however Huddersfield don't play through midfield, they play to the flanks ... that's not a secret that's how they always play ....

Rice ended up with pretty much nothing to do, he saw a fair bit of the ball and completed >90% of his passes so good stats but he was almost wasted ....

We did change this in the second half and looked better for it, but the starting tactics had us on the back foot and we never fully recovered ...

Just because a certain line-up works well that doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed when you know the opposition will be by-passing your normal tactics ...

First real 'game' error the boss has made ... probably cost us a comfortable win ....

[Georgee Paris]

What if the manager had faith that our system and players would be stronger than theirs? He set up the team thinking it would win but as you say Rice was wasted. Does that mean we should only play his preferred formation and tactics against the big boys and look to mirror the teams in a similar position to us in the belief our players are better quality and should win through? It’s and interesting theory. I guess as you suggest a good manager would adapt his team for each game and throughout a game if possible. Just think we are slightly hamstrung by injuries and having Antonio, Perez and Chico as the game changers at the moment. But yesterday we didn’t need to be compact in the midfield. Saying that we still got a point away from home.

[Puff Daddy]

Just watched the game again and have decided that Pellegrini dropped a clanger ... we set up with three in midfield with Rice playing as the DCM ... however Huddersfield don't play through midfield, they play to the flanks ... that's not a secret that's how they always play ....

Rice ended up with pretty much nothing to do, he saw a fair bit of the ball and completed >90% of his passes so good stats but he was almost wasted ....

We did change this in the second half and looked better for it, but the starting tactics had us on the back foot and we never fully recovered ...

Just because a certain line-up works well that doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed when you know the opposition will be by-passing your normal tactics ...

First real 'game' error the boss has made ... probably cost us a comfortable win ....

Excellent post mate. That being the case, one is left wondering why he set us up that way? I can only deduce he didn't have them watched, or receive any scouting reports of them beforehand. Moyes always had his next opponents watched

[hammerman11]

poor result and performance against a bottom team that we should be beating. Just felt that we shoot our mouths off about going for the win, confidence etc and then don't turn up. perhaps next time we keep our mouths shut.

team is struggling with lack of options in midfield for when obiang snoddy or rice have an off day.

Hernandez and Antonio were poor when they came on an offer us little.

Anderson is starting to look good though which is good news.

would have lost this in the past so that's a positive but I expected so much more for the next level of football.

onto city now and a game of how many !

[Patito]

They played it up to Mounie’s head more often than the flanks. Rice was very busy in front of the defence, hardly wasted.

[hammerman11]

big physical side who we couldn't handle as we lack the physical presence

even man city have a fernandino to do that for them when they occasionally lose the ball

[Absolutely Hammered!]

It's like we thought, because its huddersfield we didn't need to bring any intensity to the game. Looked complacent to me. Also... crosses! Once again can we practice on defending them as there were numerous times where we could have been punished yesterday.

Would be nice to be able to keep a clean sheet too. They are such a rarity now that wins will always be tough to find.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

They played it up to Mounie’s head more often than the flanks. Rice was very busy in front of the defence, hardly wasted.

Agreed.

They seemed to be very direct more often that not. I have to say I disagree with your post completely Dave. Also don’t think the set up from Pellegrini was the issue. The poor use of the ball and turning over possession is what cost us. Huddersfield pressed us and used large numbers in the middle to do so. The 2nd half we were much the better team anyway.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

Hernandez and Antonio were poor when they came on an offer us little.

Antonio I’ll give you, but Hernandez? Offered us something as soon as he come on. Nearly scored, a presence in the box. I do notice that when people aren’t keen on Hernandez they tend to ignore the good stuff he does.

[Monkeybubbles]

I thought our biggest problem was in transitioning, especially in the first half. When we have the ball, Anderson and Grady need to be finding space ahead of our midfield line and demanding a pass. Instead, they folded outside their marker too often, so Snodders and Obiang had to either run with it or ping it 40 yards towards Arnie.

[Monkeybubbles]

I can understand Pedro getting the hump when he was hooked. I thought he was knitting things together quite well, just wasn't given much to work with.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I've only seen MOTD and listened to sky's comments live so I can't really comment on how well we played (or not). However this seems like exactly the sort of game we'd have got nothing out of last year, just as last week we'd have settled for 2-2 and in the Leicester game we'd have folded hallway through the 2nd half and lost 3-1. Huddersfield have managed to make life difficult for lots of visiting teams without actually beating them.Last season's game was pretty even until we scored a couple in quick succession to break their spirit. They are a severely limited team, but manage to compete really well.

Agreed - Liverpool could only score 1 goal and were extremely lucky to go away with all three points - Huddersfield never stop competing and they've been unlucky a couple of times [ Tottenham , Liverpool and Crystal Palace ] - having said that these are the type of teams we should be beating .

[Dwight1970]

I remember reading a comment on here from a Man City fan saying one of the criticisms of Pellergrini was that lack of preparation he seemed to make for the opposition and it was almost just a matter of setting up his side and let the opposition worry about us.

At a club like Manchester City this properly is not as big an issue than at a club like ours where unlike those at the Etihad a lack of quality means we will struggle to recover games where the initial tactics were miscalculated for the opposition. At his other clubs I guess he has had the time to build that winning formula something that is rarely given in the Premier League nowadays or maybe he simply inherited a better squad to work with than he has here.

The hope is Pellergrini finds a successful formula quickly that means the opposition are more worried about us than we are from them but for me that still seems some way off and in the meantime I fear we will continue to drop unnecessary points and we could see a Bilic mark two situation where a manager simply cannot find a successful balance of an attacking style of football and points before the pressure mounts.

Sadly years of under investment in the playing side both on and off the pitch (be that training facilities or an consistent football identity for the club) totally handicaps any manager who is attempting to bring us quality football without the fear of constant struggle on the pitch in achieving it.

Performances like yesterday which was little different to me than say Brighton I think are going to be the norm under Pellergrini at the likes of Newcastle, Fulham, Southampton, etc over the coming weeks, where the opposition look to exploit us early on as we are wrongly set up and then they look to defend the lead against a side who are not exactly prolific on their travels.

Hopefully Pellergrini finds the winning formula soon to avoid this but having witnessed two performances this year at Huddersfield and comparing them it is difficult to see after £100m and an upgrade on the manager where the big improvements are to believe we are any closer to achieving than we were under either Moyes or Bilic.

[IronworksDave]

They seemed to be very direct more often that not. I have to say I disagree with your post completely Dave. Also don’t think the set up from Pellegrini was the issue. The poor use of the ball and turning over possession is what cost us. Huddersfield pressed us and used large numbers in the middle to do so. The 2nd half we were much the better team anyway.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/12849 ... d-West-Ham

No denying they were putting it in the box, but if you follow this link and look at the heatmaps you will see Huddersfield didn't attack down the middle at all ... nor did they have any meaningful possession in our final third ... so your right they were direct but that came from out on the flanks, it was from there that they swung it into the middle ....

Where Declan was playing looks like a Huddersfield free zone ...

Agree with you completely that we turned over the ball far to much we are so inconsistent, but don't agree about the midfield action ... the game was played out on the flanks by both sides .... on the same site but check out chalkboard - passes ... shows clearly where the action was ...

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/12849 ... d-West-Ham

My 'live' impression was much as yours, only watching the game again were the tactics so clear ...

[Doc H Ball]

Just left Huddersfield having observed the silence at the war memorial.

Good town and folk. Hope they stay up - their support is a credit to them.

[Cuenca 'ammer]

could have easily been 1-0 down inside 2 minutes with the header from Mounie (I think) and then could have been 1-0 up inside about 4 minutes if Arnie sticks that one away.

seemed to define his day from then on..

[smuts]

Created our own problems in the first half yesterday for the goal and the chance they nearly took soon after.

Fair play trying to play out from the back constantly but on a soaking wet pitch with the ball zipping off the turf?

[e17]

Huddersfield and their team have been done a disservice by a few on here

They’ve had a dodgy start, but got started last week, and we’ve done well to stop that momentum being carried on yesterday. In times gone by we would have lost that game by 2 away from home, not come back to gain a point.

[bubbles1966]

The patterns of Brighton, Burnley and Huddersfield seem to me to be:

1) The first goal is all important;

2) We are struggling a little bit against 'lumps' - Diop, particularly needs to dominate because Balbuena and Rice are both a little bit smaller than a fair few others who play the same positions ;

3) Our choice of pass seems poorer - snatched/rushed - when we are behind;

In each game though, we've dominated the ball and created enough to win.

The return of Carroll will give a different plan B and makes a big difference at the back as well against the type of players we've encountered recently.