Huddersfield (A) 26/2 Build-Up

[Deleted Cyber]

Its just me. I know I am odd. But if Everton, Bournemouth or Watford had just lost twice to the team at the bottom of the league when your own team has aspirations of a top 7 finish I am sure there would be an outcry. Huddersfield beat man united last season but that was a one off for united who finished second last year.

They have won 6 of their last 9 wins against W team. Us Watford and West brom. Curious.

Personally, this type of result hurts the most especially when its deserved. I can take losing but zero shots on target and two clean sheets for a defence concedingr almost two a game is going to attract some real, justified and relevant criticism. Its pointless beating the best if you can't beat the worst.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

Going back to the thread, just an observation. I thought that the shoiuts of it being too negative were a bit harsh. To me , people were calling it as they saw it.

100% agree. I watched it live on BeIn 3 so wasn't following here, but having read back through the thread, every negative comment was entirely justified (unfortunately).

We had glimpses in the first half where Jota and Raul were looking to link up and make things happen, but nothing came off for them. Neves tried to get a foot on the ball and did spray some good passes around but gradually got worse as the game progressed, same as Moutinho.

I thought our first touch was very poor, from everyone. This season, I have been amazed at how Neves can ping a ball 50 yds at speed, and Doc or Jota can take it down with ease and beat their man, but it wasn't happening last night. This especially hindered us at the back, as Bennett and Boly frequently took a heavy touch and we were closed down quickly, putting us under pressure to get the ball out of danger, and we kept conceding possession this way, time and time again. You could see Hudds growing in confidence and a few times the back 3 switched off and gave their attackers acres of space in the box, that chance with the header early in the 2nd half was a prime example.

I dont get the criticism of posters criticising the subs - they were baffling. Costa made no difference and was not what was needed, and taking Moutinho off over Neves was nuts. Joao was tackling hard and battling for us in the final third, winning balls back and recycling possession allowing us to keep Hudds under pressure. His link up play with Jota was working and I felt if they had kept going, they would have created a goal scoring chance.

Nuno has to take a portion of the blame, he treated this game like it was gonna be easy. And to be fair, it should have been, so I can understand his approach, the players have failed to perform again, in a game against a bottom side so they need to take a look at why this keeps happening.
And posters on here need to do the same when people make valid criticisms of the team. We were poor last night. To disagree is just petty point scoring to suit an agenda IMO.

 

[Premier Quality]

I don’t see why it’s a sin to think a poor performance shouldn’t be called a poor performance. It’s entirely possible to think we’re having a fantastic season with the best team most of us have seen in our wolves supporting lives, and also think last night was really poor.

Likewise to pick out a single player - Ruben Neves is one of the best players I’ve seen play for us by a street, but he was poor last night. I’m happy to say so, and I’d still pick him for the next match, he’s only human and will have games where he’s not amazing.

It’s also possible to think Nuno is the best manager we’ve had in my lifetime, that I want him to stay here for as long as he can, and think he got it wrong yesterday.

Sometimes seem some people just want to argue for the sake of it, rather than debating sensibly.

 

[Johnny75]

Who is saying we didn't play poorly?

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Why do you think we've got it so wrong against Huddersfield?

Happy to debate it. Also I am very happy to say that your question about what the training camp abroad did is very accurate. Our game works best at speed. Slow us down and you reduce our threat. Do that and we don't create chances. Without chances you can't score. Nuno can adapt, but did nothing about the tempo last night. That was a real problem. The squad is too small. He may like it small but we are two injuries away from a significantly weakened side. Imagine if we lost Boly and Raul for 6 weeks?

I concede its a learning year and there have been far more positives than negatives, but the fact remains we have dropped poor points to Cardiff, Huddersfield, Watford,Palace all of whom slowed us down.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

Who is saying we didn't play poorly?

Paddy - during the match

 

[Johnny75]

Paddy - during the match

Not that Paddy needs defending but I can't see him having an agenda during the game DDW. Seems a bit harsh to say he was trying to score points when there was nothing to gain.

Maybe he was just trying to be positive in the face of some OTT comments.

 

[YoungWolf]

Why do you think we've got it so wrong against Huddersfield?

I think we struggle in general when a team sets out to do everything they can do 'stop' us rather than try and play their own game. Huddersfield showed an unbelievable energy I thought off the ball and we struggled with our build up. I thought that is maybe where the three in midfield would help us this time but only on some occasion where we able to play through the middle of them. Jota is usually our best player for this but he was often trying to drift left, which works to some effect, but he was too far away from Raul for us to be able to draw opponents out centrally. As Mark has said, we are best when we are drawing teams out to be able to play to our wing backs. We need to find solutions to when a team is happy to just sit off us once we gain control of the ball.

I agreed with Nuno on this - "When we had possession it’s clear we could unbalance Huddersfield, but we didn’t too many times, we only had a couple of situations.". I thought this was mainly true in the first half when we were able to switch the point of attack from right to left where Jonny and Jota gave their right back some real problems. We just never quite got the ball in or the number of players into the box when this situation arrived. Only one time did Doc have that half chance where he should have taken a touch first at the back post as the angle was too wide (Jota should have lifted the cross instead of firing it across).

Equally, I agree with the person (either on here or twitter) who said we struggle to break down teams who play five at the back. This is no easy feat though. Pep has made reference to this before and it's also adds to why we are generally a very good side defensively. Their three central defenders always meant they had a spare central defenders. I would have considered either a switch to a front three or even the false nine system which MGW played so effectively for several games.

 

[YoungWolf]

Happy to debate it. Also I am very happy to say that your question about what the training camp abroad did is very accurate. Our game works best at speed. Slow us down and you reduce our threat. Do that and we don't create chances. Without chances you can't score. Nuno can adapt, but did nothing about the tempo last night. That was a real problem. The squad is too small. He may like it small but we are two injuries away from a significantly weakened side. Imagine if we lost Boly and Raul for 6 weeks?

I concede its a learning year and there have been far more positives than negatives, but the fact remains we have dropped poor points to Cardiff, Huddersfield, Watford,Palace all of whom slowed us down.

We lost Boly for three games and did just fine

 

[Johnny75]

I think we struggle in general when a team sets out to do everything they can do 'stop' us rather than try and play their own game. Huddersfield showed an unbelievable energy I thought off the ball and we struggled with our build up. I thought that is maybe where the three in midfield would help us this time but only on some occasion where we able to play through the middle of them. Jota is usually our best player for this but he was often trying to drift left, which works to some effect, but he was too far away from Raul for us to be able to draw opponents out centrally. As Mark has said, we are best when we are drawing teams out to be able to play to our wing backs. We need to find solutions to when a team is happy to just sit off us once we gain control of the ball.

I agreed with Nuno on this - "When we had possession it’s clear we could unbalance Huddersfield, but we didn’t too many times, we only had a couple of situations.". I thought this was mainly true in the first half when we were able to switch the point of attack from right to left where Jonny and Jota gave their right back some real problems. We just never quite got the ball in or the number of players into the box when this situation arrived. Only one time did Doc have that half chance where he should have taken a touch first at the back post as the angle was too wide (Jota should have lifted the cross instead of firing it across).

Equally, I agree with the person (either on here or twitter) who said we struggle to break down teams who play five at the back. This is no easy feat though. Pep has made reference to this before and it's also adds to why we are generally a very good side defensively. Their three central defenders always meant they had a spare central defenders. I would have considered either a switch to a front three or even the false nine system which MGW played so effectively for several games.

I can see why Nuno didn't go with a front 3 as that's what undid us in the first game. We didn't need 3 at the back last night but as we aren't going to change it I would rather see Coady strep forward and drive with the ball, in doing so drawing their players centrally which should give us space out wide. With that you don't really need Neves deep and play him further forward where his short passing (which is also very good) would be of more use. I guess we need to also push Moutinho beyond the front pair at points to make this system work.

It does mean we have to be more forward thinking in these situations.

I'm not sure Nuno's deep possession at a slower pace ever unbalances a team significantly enough as the opposition just spoils and that doesn't work for us. I think he's being very generous if he thinks we unbalanced them more than once or twice.

 

[YoungWolf]

I can see why Nuno didn't go with a front 3 as that's what undid us in the first game. We didn't need 3 at the back last night but as we aren't going to change it I would rather see Coady strep forward and drive with the ball, in doing so drawing their players centrally which should give us space out wide. With that you don't really need Neves deep and play him further forward where his short passing (which is also very good) would be of more use. I guess we need to also push Moutinho beyond the front pair at points to make this system work.

It does mean we have to be more forward thinking in these situations.

I'm not sure Nuno's deep possession at a slower pace ever unbalances a team significantly enough as the opposition just spoils and that doesn't work for us. I think he's being very generous if he thinks we unbalanced them more than once or twice.

Yeah I can see why he stuck with the shape. We don't need a back three but until we have better quality of players I don't see us changing the back three for some time yet (I think this itself would be a good discussion actually). As well as Coady has done in that role, we haven't really seen anything from him that suggests he will be the type to step into midfield with the ball - although I agree this would help us in those situations.

On your last part, I think that is what Nuno was saying. We had opportunities to but we didn't play quickly enough and so it only happened a couple of times. I think he made reference to a lack of tempo in fact.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Paddy - during the match

I never said that. I said the thread was negative and the comments being negative were OTT.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

Not that Paddy needs defending but I can't see him having an agenda during the game DDW. Seems a bit harsh to say he was trying to score points when there was nothing to gain.

Maybe he was just trying to be positive in the face of some OTT comments.

I never said that. I said the thread was negative and the comments being negative were OTT.

Fair enough but when you post stuff like this

We will win it second half. Jesus, comms threads on here are run a bath, get in, slit those wrists stuff. Its fucking staggering.

over and over, it seems like you are flying in the face of whats actually happening on the pitch and more concerned with proving a point to those posting negative comments

 

[Johnny75]

We weren't battered though DDW and the comments were OTT as anybody reading the matchday thread would think we were comprehensively outplayed by Huddersfield. The reality is we weren't outplayed and we were our own worst enemy.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

We weren't battered though DDW and the comments were OTT as anybody reading the matchday thread would think we were comprehensively outplayed by Huddersfield. The reality is we weren't outplayed and we were our own worst enemy.

"we were our own worst enemy" - I agree
" the comments were OTT " - I disagree. They really weren't that bad!

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Fair enough but when you post stuff like this



over and over, it seems like you are flying in the face of whats actually happening on the pitch and more concerned with proving a point to those posting negative comments

Nope - I was showing bemusement at first that then morphed into exasperation at the level of negativity that posters couldn't wait to fire off.

 

[Premier Quality]

Nope - I was showing bemusement at first that then morphed into exasperation at the level of negativity that posters couldn't wait to fire off.

Mate, I’ve had a look through and can’t really see anything before you posted that (half time) which would qualify - Would you mind quoting a couple so I can see what you mean?

Not having a dig - context is key in this stuff.

 

[Jinky]

"we were our own worst enemy" - I agree
" the comments were OTT " - I disagree. They really weren't that bad!

Yeah, they weren't bad at all. Some posters go out of their way to create an issue when someone isn't being overly positive, because it fits their agenda. As I said earlier, the people who were crying about the comm thread being "too negative" last night (and this isn't the first time) were a bigger hindrance than those posters who actually commented on the match and what they were watching.

 

[MobNet Wolf]

So I've had time to reflect on last night's 'performance', and wanted to comment on Nuno.

Nuno has every right to be annoyed and frustrated with the players. Not one of them came out of last night with any credit and we are not good enough to win games when 80% off the starting line up are performing at a 5 out of 10 level, best. But for me, the biggest finger has to be pointed at Nuno himself. I hope he does some serious soul searching and self analysis over the next couple of days before we take on Cardiff, because that wasn't good enough from Nuno and his team last night.

As soon as I saw the starting 11, I said we should have freshened things up. I don't need the benefit of hindsight to call that one because it was obvious at the time. We had traveled about as far South as we need to in this league at the weekend - and had another long trip for this one, a couple of days later. We have a small squad (at Nuno's request) so if players like Adama, Cav, Vinagre & Saiss can't get a look in for games like last night, when will they? He should have made some changes - and it was quite obvious after watching 10 minutes that it wasn't going to work. Huddersfield themselves had made a lot of changes and their side was full of young lads who wanted to make an impression. The crowd were behind them at the start and our opening 10-15 minutes, where we simply sat back and allowed them to have the ball, made things even worse. We only have ourselves to blame for that - and the fact Nuno took over an hour to make a change is baffling. I can only assume he took a note out of Paddy's book and was relying on "blind faith".

However, when he DOES finally make the change - he brings on MGW/Cav, taking off Moutinho and leaving Neves on (who genuinely looked like a park player last night). Poor from Nuno again. The final change took the biscuit. If you're a Huddersfield defender who has spent 80 minutes pressing play, chasing down players - who wouldn't you like to see coming off the bench for the final 10-15 minutes? Helder Costa or Adama Traore? For all of Adama's faults, I would say even his harshest critics on here would agree the answer is the latter. Seeing Costa come off the bench rather than Adama probably gave the Huddersfield lads a little boost that saw them over the line. As soon as Costa came on, Hogg crudely took him out, and that was the last we saw of Helder for the rest of the game. It's so fucking predictable, yet Nuno continues to make the same mistakes.

We don't have the squad size to make wholesale changes at the weekend - but Nuno needs to do something. I haven't even got on to the tactics yet, or the lack of pace/urgency with the ball, or the fact our big name players seem to think they can win these types of games in 2nd gear etc - but these things have been well covered already.

Simply put - Nuno has a LOT of credit in the bank; but he needs to have a serious look at himself before the Cardiff game to ensure we don't see a repeat performance.

I find it weird people are attacking this post. This is exactly my take too.

It seems some people on this thread have decided to take the North Korean approach of shutting down debate about the Dear Leader.

Exactly as Jinky says:
I love Nuno.
He has years of credit in the bank.
Last night he got it wrong.
His biggest weakness is substitutions.

Those statements are not exclusive.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Yeah, they weren't bad at all. Some posters go out of their way to create an issue when someone isn't being overly positive, because it fits their agenda. As I said earlier, the people who were crying about the comm thread being "too negative" last night (and this isn't the first time) were a bigger hindrance than those posters who actually commented on the match and what they were watching.

Fine. I will stay away from match threads in future so you can all whinge to your hearts fucking content in peace.