Why Huddersfield Town have one of the worst defensive records in League One

We watched every goal Huddersfield Town have conceded in the league this season to figure out where things are going wrong

Huddersfield Town have the second most potent attack in League One this season, but have been repeatedly let down by poor work at the other end of the pitch.

Only Plymouth, in 21st place, have conceded more goals than Town’s 30. The price of these mistakes has been hammered home over the past five league games.

Town have dropped points in each one because of defensive lapses. This cost them enough points to account for the difference between their current ninth place and a position in the top four.

So why have the Terriers been so poor at the back? To find out, we’ve rewatched all 30 goals they have conceded this campaign to identify where improvements could have been made, which types of mistakes occur most frequently, and which players are most often responsible for avoidable errors.

With Lee Grant under pressure, we must also consider how much of Town’s struggles stem from his tactical approach, and how much are the result of individual errors by the players.

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What kind of errors are Town committing the most?

We have identified seven key areas where Town have let themselves down, plus a handful of goals where we were unable to identify any clear errors from a Town player.

Those areas are:

• Individual errors: We have divided these into four sub-categories — goalkeeping, marking (letting an opposition player go free in the box), positional errors (players drifting out of position, leaving teammates with too much to cover) and simple defensive mistakes (e.g., missing a winnable header or scoring an avoidable own goal).

• Soft defending: This is where the marking or positional work is adequate, but a player lacks commitment in what should be a 50/50 challenge, misses a winnable tackle, or is not strong enough in an aerial duel. This comes down to our judgement that if a player is more committed to their task, they have a good chance of making a goal-stopping intervention.

• Poor play out from the back: Giving the ball away in a dangerous area, or putting a teammate in trouble with a sloppy pass in or around the penalty box.

• Silly foul: Conceding a set-piece goal to a clumsy or cynical foul that could have been avoided.

• No obvious error: Includes deflected goals or strikes where Town have done all they realistically can, but have been beaten by a good bit of play from the opposition.

We have counted every error in the build-up to each goal Town have conceded. For example, the second goal Town conceded against Luton featured seven mistakes, including two instances of poor play out from the back (Josh Feeney’s dodgy backpass and Owen Goodman’s poor ball out), four instances of soft defending (four players failing to cut out the ball or win a challenge when they had the opportunity to do so), and a goalkeeping error (Goodman parrying the ball directly into a danger zone).

Some goals are open to interpretation, but we have tried to use our judgement to strike the right balance between being critical and being fair. We believe our numbers give us a pretty accurate indication of where Town are going wrong.

When you count it all up, there is a clear leader for which kind of mistake is occurring most often and costing Town goals.