What Huddersfield Town were doing badly and how they've improved
Michael Duff's side hit rock bottom against Northampton and Blackpool, but have shown some signs of recovery that they need to maintain
We had planned to write this article before the Barnsley games, focusing on the things that Huddersfield Town had stopped doing that had been working for them at the start of the season.
Thankfully, they’ve provided us with something a bit more encouraging: a glimpse of what they’ve started doing better since a pair of truly awful performances against Northampton and Blackpool, which themselves were just two defeats in a terrible wider run.
We need to be careful not to think Town’s problems are now all behind them following two 2-0 wins over Barnsley, one of which featured two much-rotated sides playing in the EFL Trophy.
But we’ve taken a look back at the Blackpool fixture and Town’s past three games to see where they have started to improve again and what they need to do to keep it going.
Stay energetic
Re-watching the Blackpool game was a painful experience. Town’s performance was somehow even worse the second time around, particularly having seen them improve off the ball over the past few games.
For much of the game, Town were entirely passive. Blackpool seemed to be set up to play for a draw and looked almost surprised at how much time they were getting on the ball. If Steve Bruce had prepared them to play against a high press, the opposite ended up being true.
At their best, Town’s gambit has been to put pressure on the centre-backs and central midfielders to force the ball wide, at which point they actively try to win it and start a swift attack up the flanks.
But Town allowed Blackpool to consistently keep the ball in the middle — especially in the first half. The Blackpool goalkeeper, back four and central midfielders had 46% of possession before the break. Town were so listless they were essentially allowing seven men to dominate the ball.
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