BFTG Huddersfield (H)

[LWJ]

Obita - lost confidence since not being automatic choice. Cant go past his man, NEVER a winger!
.

Obita beat his man more times last night than he has all season.

[Snowball]

I think McCleary is a show of his former self and we may be cutting him more slack than he deserves.

I've been saying for a while that Williams doesn't work as part of a machine. yes, occasionally one of his runs causes something to happen, but in general they remind me of the kid in the school team who thinks he's better than the rest, and always has to go for glory. Having said that, tho', last night they all played as if under orders to play safe (that went well).

Vydra is quality, but ATM there's something wrong. He buzzes around, but he needs a lump up front, and the nearest we have is Sa (maybe Liburd if he comes good.) IMO a battering ram CF is always a good idea. I remember the Everton defence saying how Long and Hunt just kept battering them. We need a thug or two.

We can't play both Piazon and Vydra, even worse if Sa isn't playing. As someone once said, you can play, but first you have to earn the right to play.

Back to Williams. He isn't the kind of disciplined player you need when more-or less you have just the two in midfield. Tish is better, Fernando is better. We are crying out for a Leightertwood type. With him in his pomp I think we'd be top of this league.

Something seems to have slipped in Steve Clarke's head. We started out the season trying for a solid, shut-out defence and got there. Four games ago we had the best defence in the league and that included the silly 2-1 defeat at Birmingham on Day 1. Now we look wide open and naive, with no midfielders covering, and I think this is probably because SC isn't playing a settled system.

At Fulham we more or less had a front four and at one time had both wingers the same side and zero on the right.

it's not individual ability, it's how the machine works, how the team is set up. They look like they are too afraid to play and we may have "possession" but at times it looked like an Adkins side with Gunter-McShane having a bet how many times they could pass to each other.

Impressed by Fernando and John and thought Obita was excellent in attack

[Snowball]

Obita - lost confidence since not being automatic choice. Cant go past his man, NEVER a winger!
.

Obita beat his man more times last night than he has all season.

Agreed. And if he played LW in front of Taylor at
least we'd be solid down that side.

[leon]

AAH - feel comfortable with him there of the two we have. Did ok

Gunter - did ok
Ferdinand - invisible 1st half grew into the game, but looked lost at times. Rusty
McShane - should have got the physio on just before their 2nd - he struggled and they scored. Form is dropping off sadly
Obita - dubious defensive performance, goes forward ok but nothing comes if it - hardly ever. Needs an extended spell on the subs bench.

Norwood - kept going and trying. Lucky goal from my view. My MOM
Williams - off night. Needs to get back to what he is good at, or some bench warming is due
McCleary - sadly a shadow of last seasons player. May have to settle for an active substitute role for a lot of the season
Piazon - to be fair to the guy he is just a boy and its not his fault he gets picked. He's a lightweight pampered kid with some skill but definitely not good enough in a mans game and has cost us points through complete lack of determination to press, tackle, defend. Maybe contract issues with Jose force Clarke to play him - he is an astute football manager and no fool - how else he can justify starting this kid is beyond me. Good at waving his arms around saying its everyone else' fault. Heartless - sooner he goes to Canada the better.

Blackman - good performance often with 3 defenders on him, nice passes trying to make it happen. Feel Clarke is overindulging him a bit too much now though after an explosive start to the season. The "play where you feel like it" approach loses team structure and shape.
Vydra - so so. Has pace and runs around a lot. Can't have him and Piazon in the side. Will get better in a settled line up

Subs
Sa - did ok when he came on. Starting on the bench probably a good jolt for him. Needs to be the guy who leads the line
John - has power and guts. Head and shoulders over Piazon. Pushing hard for a start.
Alex - very good, like him a lot. With Quinn/Tish out he needs to start in a 3 man midfield

Manager
Not good - I think Clarke got his team selection wrong again. Is making too many changes of personnel and style. Hindsight a wonderful thing but should have made subs immediately we went 2-0 up at Fulham to slow the game down and shut up shop. Infatuated with his luxury stars I fear and trying to keep everyone involved - a noble ideal, but its not working. Stick with the 4-3-3 that worked well before and settle on the best 11 to make it work. Needs to earn his corn in the next 4 games otherwise its going to get very stressful

3 points from 4 games- should have been 10 - those 7 points lost in the last few weeks may have cost us automatic promotion

Next week
AAH, Gunter, Taylor, McShane, Ferdinand, Norwood, Williams, Alex, Sa, Vydra, Blackman
subs; Bond Obita Hector, John, Hurtado, McCleary, Liburd

Definitely missing Quinn, HRK, Tish - at least 2 of those would have been shoe-ins to start tonght

Great post. agree about Clarkes use of Blackman. He can't do everything. He gets swamped by opposition players so needs to release the ball quicker. However our movement up front has been appalling.

[Ouroboros]

To many players underperforming.

We will look back at October and this week and regret this is where the play off push was lost.

Good night.

We're one point outside the playoffs. If we don't make them then I think it's fair to say that the events of November to May will also have had a significant bearing.

[Brum Royal]

Obita - lost confidence since not being automatic choice. Cant go past his man, NEVER a winger!
.

Obita beat his man more times last night than he has all season.

Exactly this (LWJ), did his man all ends up three times in the first half in front of the East stand. If anything he should have been getting much more of the ball than he did as we kept trying to force it too much down the left when our clearer opportunities for crosses came through Obita on the left.

[CountryRoyal]

Did anyone think Al-Habsi could have done better for the first?

Yes, and the second. I don't recall seeing a worse attempt at one-on-one goalkeeping than Al-Habsi tonight. I realise we have been blessed with Feds & Marcus who were very good at this.

Race off your line, make yourself look big, do SOMETHING.

He made one decent save, dropped one routine cross and another less routine cross that nearly resulted in a goal.

I don't think he should continue to start over Bond.

It's sad but I have absolutely zero confidence in either of our keepers. People are saying Al-Habsi is growing in confidence and is playing better but I don't see it. He might not be making the usual howlers to lose us a game, but he's not exactly making saves to win them for us either. Feds and McCarthy would have done better for both, new keeper in Jan is a priority for me, only if they are an obvious improvement, otherwise I'd rather just stick with Bond and develop his game.

[Brum Royal]

This team is clearly missing a couple of injured players at the moment. Tshibola provided the defensive shield for the centre backs that was so badly lacking in the first half last night. Bringing Fernandez on at half time was exactly the right call and he probably needs to start there on Saturday. I like Fernandez too, that's only the second game I've seen him (after Everton) but I really like the look of him and certainly him and Norwood formed a much better offensive-defensive pairing that Williams and Norwood's offensive-offensive pairing.

The other big miss at the moment is Quinn at left mid. The team is so lop sided at the moment as Piazon is so clearly not suited to playing left midfield. My last game was Rotherham, and I said the same thing after that one, Piazon is the weak link in the midfield and I think much of the problems Obita was having, certainly defensively, came from Piazon being so woefully out of the position so often. Going forwards Piazon drifts inside far too much leaving Obita doubled up on far too often (although last night he did a great job up against the Town right mid and fullback).

Whilst I agree with earlier comments about Clarke getting the team line up wrong, I think he should be praised for his substitutions to correct this. The two at half time made a big difference in changing the tempo of play and the balance of the team, and again bringing off the fairly ineffective Vydra for John was also the correct call.

As someone else mentioned earlier, I think Quinn will be a doubt for Saturday as he seemed to do his groin with about five minutes left and clearly said to Gunter to sit deeper and protect him for the remainder of the game.

[Sutekh]

Personally I blame Steve Clarke for that result. Very poor team line up with yet more unnecessary fiddling.

If you're going to return a centre back to the team after 6/7 weeks with no football whatsoever then provide cover in midfield to give a bit more protection while he gets back up to speed.

Piazon is no good without a solid midfield behind him, under no circumstances can he be considered a winger and as part of a front two he is lost.

Obita best attacking option in 1st half, shame he was the worst defensive option as well by being partially if not wholly to blame for both Huddersfield goals

It seams McLeary does not fit into SC's style of play and is struggling to get to his game. My theory is that he is both a wide and direct player and SC likes his teams to twiddle about and wingers to cut inside as much as possible.

Overall a totally unacceptable performance for a team supposedly meant to be challenging for even a play off spot.

Dread to think what sort of field day the likes of Whittingham and Jones will have on Saturday based on our form from the last 4 games.

[Sutekh]

In before the delete/merge

[Warfield North Stand]

Obita to blame for both goals. Screaming at the Lino about the 2nd when he was playing him on. Then then started screaming and whining at Anton for support who just looked away. Says it all really. What did Taylor do Saturday to be dropped? You can't keep swapping your left back every week. Makes no sense.

[windermere_royal]

Did anyone think Al-Habsi could have done better for the first?

Yes, and the second. I don't recall seeing a worse attempt at one-on-one goalkeeping than Al-Habsi tonight. I realise we have been blessed with Feds & Marcus who were very good at this.

Race off your line, make yourself look big, do SOMETHING.

He made one decent save, dropped one routine cross and another less routine cross that nearly resulted in a goal.

I don't think he should continue to start over Bond.

It's sad but I have absolutely zero confidence in either of our keepers. People are saying Al-Habsi is growing in confidence and is playing better but I don't see it. He might not be making the usual howlers to lose us a game, but he's not exactly making saves to win them for us either. Feds and McCarthy would have done better for both, new keeper in Jan is a priority for me, only if they are an obvious improvement, otherwise I'd rather just stick with Bond and develop his game.

Disagree, I thought they were two excellent finishes, the first crept inside the far post by around 6 inches. and the second drilled into the roof of the net, in between he made a very good save, getting down quickly to a shot going inside the post, cut him some slack

[Handsome Man]

Ferdinand was shocking for both goals - like an old man who needed an extra 30 minutes to warm up. Apart from that we were ok. The referee was abysmal but Fernandez and John looked good. It's difficult to pick a man-of-the-match...possibly Blackman again.

[Brum Royal]

Obita to blame for both goals. Screaming at the Lino about the 2nd when he was playing him on. Then then started screaming and whining at Anton for support who just looked away. Says it all really. What did Taylor do Saturday to be dropped? You can't keep swapping your left back every week. Makes no sense.

I'd like Taylor left back and Obita left mid on Saturday to give defensive solidity and better balance in midfield

[WoodleyRoyal]

Clarke and Obita cost us what should have been a straightforward three points.

Obita was, as far as I could tell, at fault for both goals. Certainly the first was embarrassing. He made up for it to an extent with his best offensive performance for a long time, but we'd have been better off with Taylor in the side and never crossing the halfway line.

Credit to Clarke for building a great side, playing good stuff in a 4-3-3. Once you've done that, why would you keep messing about with a 4-4-2? McShane and Gunter shouldn't have to spend so long waiting for someone to become available, we shouldn't always have to look for Norwood, we need players between the lines and making forward runs. If Fernandez starts ahead of Piazon or McCleary then we probably win that match.

I think the referee will be pretty embarrassed by the drop ball fiasco, which was inexcusable. He made the right decision once he'd blown the whistle, but he should never have blown. If he was saying that the player couldn't come on, then he should have booked him. He also allowed Huddersfield to get away with a lot of off-the-ball fouls, and let some reckless challenges by both sides go unpunished.

Two random thoughts: can't we teach John to dribble properly? And when was the last time we had a centre back as weak in the air as McShane - maybe early Sonko? Else Khumalo or Sodje (neither of whom started more than a few matches)?

Taylor and Fernandez to start the next match, please.

I thought mcshane was dominant in the air and has been all season

[wingnut]

I don't know why folk are asking for Obita to be played left mid; he's been utter dogshit whenever he's played there before (not that he's been that much better as a left back for a while, mind). Moreover, we don't play wingers these days - just left or right sided midfielders. We have no width as Clark has clearly told them to play narrow all the time.

[tidus_mi2]

I don't know why folk are asking for Obita to be played left mid; he's been utter dogshit whenever he's played there before (not that he's been that much better as a left back for a while, mind). Moreover, we don't play wingers these days - just left or right sided midfielders. We have no width as Clark has clearly told them to play narrow all the time.

It was very evident yesterday when we had wide players in great positions to attack the wings in lots of space but the team stayed central, a bit bizarre since our goal yesterday came from John starting out wide and cutting inside and our top scorer has largely been cutting inside from the right this season.

[WoodleyRoyal]

The pitch has been reduced in width this season and quite considerably, couple of feet either side i reckon, Clarke clearly want to focus on going through the middle which makes his starting lineup of having two wide men even more baffling

[Delboy]

McShane got injured near the end of the game, would have come off if 3 subs were not already used. Doubt he will make Cardiff!

[JC]

The pitch has been reduced in width this season and quite considerably, couple of feet either side i reckon, Clarke clearly want to focus on going through the middle which makes his starting lineup of having two wide men even more baffling

Do you know that as a fact?