Huddersfield (A) build up 20/2/16

[North West Wanderer]

Ha - of course! And you know it's not like me to be overly negative. But I thought he was atrocious, except the lovely pass for Mason's goal. His ball control is unbelievably poor for a professional footballer.

He also put Iorfa in twice.
He's not brilliant, but though compared to his midfield partners he was ok.
That pitch isn't helping either, and I know it's causing a lot of concern. The Compton pitches are used daily and are perfect, no excuse!

 

[Lord Knows]

Kenny Jacket will fancy Conor Coady for a goal tomorrow, I fancy him for a red card.

 

[playtheace]

Coady? Really?

He played ok in the second half to be fair.
Still think he needs to be played further forward and not a "mopping up" type midfielder.

 

[YoungWolf]

I'm not sure what he's meant to be.

I didn't see the Preston game so I can't comment on his performance, good assist for the goal though. Against Reading he was just dreadful. As Langers pointed out, his first touch is shockingly poor for a professional football. He started off very well this season (though he did look knackered after 60 minutes when I saw him in those early games), but it didn't last long and it's hard to see what he actually offers other than looking like a red card waiting to happen.

For £2m, it's an extremely poor piece of business.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If we play him as a defensive midfielder he doesn't protect the back four really. He charges into tackles every now and then but he doesn't have the nous or discipline to play there. If we're asking him to do anything with the ball then ordinarily that's a no go as his technique is largely awful.

I said a couple of months ago that I'd rather have Lee Evans in the team and I haven't changed my mind. Rubbish signing. As for last week, he did try hard but he has very little quality, he was better than Saville and Price but not by much. That entire midfield was a joke of a set up, what are you expecting to create with those three players?

 

[YoungWolf]

The midfield situation really is a bit of a mess. When we came up I was quite positive about how McDonald, Price and Evans would make the step up. McDonald has shown he has the quality, but he needs the right players around him. Price is a player I really like and think vastly underrated by Jackett, while Evans had his fantastic start but one bad patch and he was out, as can be the case with KJ. I feel like it might just need a bit of an overhaul, which is rather unlikely to happen considering the money we have since spent on Saville and Coady despite the two actually making us worse.

 

[Langers]

The midfield situation really is a bit of a mess. When we came up I was quite positive about how McDonald, Price and Evans would make the step up. McDonald has shown he has the quality, but he needs the right players around him. Price is a player I really like and think vastly underrated by Jackett, while Evans had his fantastic start but one bad patch and he was out, as can be the case with KJ. I feel like it might just need a bit of an overhaul, which is rather unlikely to happen considering the money we have since spent on Saville and Coady despite the two actually making us worse.

I think McDonald has had an incredibly easy ride this season. He's okay for this level but I genuinely wouldn't be too bothered if he left - he's not impressed me at all, he's capable of miles better.

So I think it speaks volumes when I say he'd still make it into my preferred XI! Coady started the season well but really doesn't look like a good footballer, I wanted Saville to come good but he was also crap on Saturday (how many more chances can we give him before also writing him off as a very poor signing?), I don't understand why Price doesn't play more often and I have no idea what will happen with Evans.

 

[Johnny75]

Price doesn't fit the 6'1 big and strong dynamic Jackett is going for and Evans clearly spat his dummy out and Jackett doesn't seem to forgive and forget that easily. A change of manager should facilitate Evans, Price and McDonald as a midfield 3 with Mason, Wallace and Siggy as a front 3. Lots of ball players in there and width given to the full backs and a very mobile front 3. We'd end up as a Championship version of Spurs if you like.

But that isn't going to happen so we have to suffer Wolves playing like the zombie extras from the Walking Dead for the next 3 months.

 

[Sniffer]

I haven't voted in any of the 3000 polls on Kenny Jackett's future however I'm now I'm firmly of the opinion that to get the best out of our midfield we need a change in the dugout.

 

[Langers]

But that isn't going to happen so we have to suffer Wolves playing like the zombie extras from the Walking Dead for the next 3 months.

But with less bite, obvs.

 

[Papper]

Should have been much more for our player of the season.

I know. We should have sold him earlier. Maybe they'd have got a couple million more.

 

[Papper]

MacDonald and Price should both be playing. Both superb at releasing the ball quickly through the channels. Unfortunately KJ has never been able to assemble a cohesive unit to play around and in front of them. None of them have ever been on the same wavelength. That's when we used to play football though. Any reformation must begin in defence.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I've never seen McDonald as someone who uses the ball quickly, if anything I'd say he prefers to have too many touches too often and that's when he gets caught out if he hasn't got other options around him to get him out of a sticky situation.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

With the Midfield we have in McDonald, Coady, Price, Saville, you could twist and turn them like a Rubiks cube as many times as you like but never get them the same colour. Their all old hat and need stripping when/if there is a new manager.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Price doesn't fit the 6'1 big and strong dynamic Jackett is going for and Evans clearly spat his dummy out and Jackett doesn't seem to forgive and forget that easily. A change of manager should facilitate Evans, Price and McDonald as a midfield 3 with Mason, Wallace and Siggy as a front 3. Lots of ball players in there and width given to the full backs and a very mobile front 3. We'd end up as a Championship version of Spurs if you like.

But that isn't going to happen so we have to suffer Wolves playing like the zombie extras from the Walking Dead for the next 3 months.

Great article on Pochettino in the Guardian the other day. http://www.theguardian.com/football...hettino-tottenham-premier-league-best-defence Read it and thought that was exactly the way we should be playing - at a Championship level, obviously. Seems so bloody straightforward...

 

[Papper]

I've never seen McDonald as someone who uses the ball quickly, if anything I'd say he prefers to have too many touches too often and that's when he gets caught out if he hasn't got other options around him to get him out of a sticky situation.

If you put the Dave Jones and Karl Henry of 2008 in our current team they would also look out of place.

 

[DejaVuWolf]

Price doesn't fit the 6'1 big and strong dynamic Jackett is going for and Evans clearly spat his dummy out and Jackett doesn't seem to forgive and forget that easily. A change of manager should facilitate Evans, Price and McDonald as a midfield 3 with Mason, Wallace and Siggy as a front 3. Lots of ball players in there and width given to the full backs and a very mobile front 3. We'd end up as a Championship version of Spurs if you like.

But that isn't going to happen so we have to suffer Wolves playing like the zombie extras from the Walking Dead for the next 3 months.

With those six players we would end up as a League One version of Spurs at best.

 

[Johnny75]

Great article on Pochettino in the Guardian the other day. http://www.theguardian.com/football...hettino-tottenham-premier-league-best-defence Read it and thought that was exactly the way we should be playing - at a Championship level, obviously. Seems so bloody straightforward...

Following that logic, and to me it's sound, you would have Iorfa and Hause as your CB partnership as both are adept at full back but built to play centrally with Coady sat in the middle of them instead of either McD or Price who would be interchangable in that system. It does mean we'd need actual attacking full backs to be brought/ come through but I'm hoping Deslandes and Simpson could do that role.

If only we had a forward thinking manager who could do this...

 

[Norman Deeley]

Following that logic, and to me it's sound, you would have Iorfa and Hause as your CB partnership as both are adept at full back but built to play centrally with Coady sat in the middle of them instead of either McD or Price who would be interchangable in that system. It does mean we'd need actual attacking full backs to be brought/ come through but I'm hoping Deslandes and Simpson could do that role.

If only we had a forward thinking manager who could do this...

That's the bloody frustration isn't it? As long as you're using tactics that were outdated 10-15 years ago you haven't a hope of improving. Sure, we might lose a few with Iorfa and Hause at CB and Coady in front of them, but at least we'd be building for the future

 

[Penk Wolf]

Deutsch might be in luck.

Doherty has just posted this on Twitter/Instagram with 'Game day, nothing better'.