Stray observations from Huddersfield Town's first ten games

A miscellany of stuff we've noticed about Town so far this season

Here are seven things about Town’s season that don’t quite fit into our main conclusions. Some are fresh insights, while others are worth repeating because they’ve shifted from one-off observations to clear trends.

1. Town have made the squad younger

At first glance, the average age of the Town squad has not fallen so much. They averaged 26.96 years old in the league last season and 26.61 so far this season.

But these figures are somewhat deceptive. To pick an extreme hypothetical, an average age of 25 could mean you have a squad full of players aged 24-26, or it could mean you have a squad composed entirely of 18-year-olds and 32-year-olds with nothing in between.

One is clearly preferable to the other. As a general rule, the most successful squads are those that have most of their minutes going to players in their peak years. That varies by position — you can go a little older for defenders — but generally falls somewhere between 22 and 30 for outfielders and 24-35 for goalkeepers.

Every player is different, of course, and not everyone will fit into a neat little box. Jamie Vardy only hit his stride in his late 20s and continued that well into his 30s, whereas Michael Owen burst onto the scene at 17, won the Ballon d’Or at 21, and was already on the decline by 25. But as a general trend, the data tends to stack up.

Last season, Town gave plenty of minutes to players in the peak age ranges, but also had a group of older players who played over a thousand minutes each. All of those players except Lee Nicholls were released in the summer.

In total, over 28% of Town’s League One minutes last season were accounted for by the likes of Tom Lees, Jonathan Hogg, Matty Pearson, Ollie Turton, Josh Ruffels and Danny Ward. Only around 57% of their league minutes were put in by players at the nominal ‘peak’ age, with the rest made up by youngsters.

This season, the squad profile looks more peaky — in a good way.

While youngsters are still playing their part at almost the same rate as last season, the number of league minutes played by those aged 30 and over has been cut by more than half, down from 27% to just 11%.

The difference has shifted to players in that peak age range, thanks to new arrivals such as Sean Roughan, Joe Low, Ryan Ledson, and a few who are just about the younger side of 30: Jack Whatmough, Marcus Harness and Lynden Gooch.

Only three players aged 30 or over have played a part for Town in the league this season: Nicholls, Alfie May, and Murray Wallace.