Huddersfield v BORO 1-2 (Coburn, Howson)

[TheJew 3,662 6.1k]

1 hour ago, Changing Times said:

He's a canny player but where are you playing him in this team, and what is it that you think we'd get out of him?  Who is he crossing the ball to or is he just crossing for the sake of it, which was actually a lot of what he did tonight really when you look at it.  He's not a goal scorer so he's not making a difference in that sense.  Let's say we'd had him tonight and played him instead of Jones or Greenwood, what difference do you think he'd have made?  

Ahead of Silvera, Greenwood and as much as it pains me, Jones and Rogers.

He's better than them all.

If he had played instead of Greenwood it would have made a massive difference. Especially as he wouldn't have been playing for Hudds.

He scores and creates, not just from crosses either. Check his offside finish.

[Dynamo Kev 1,819 6.4k]

13 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

If all our players were fit - How many of the starting 11 tonight would be in the team? 

RVDB, Fry?, Howson, Jones  and maybe Dijk 

As some posters have shown before .. We could field a very competitive 11 and now Bench, with injured players ... 

Dieng, Lenihan, Smith, O'Brien, Hackney, Forss, Latte Lath, Crooks, Dijksteel?,  

And we have just recently gotten Clark, McGree and Coburn back  .. And none of them should be 100 % match fit yet .. 

Regarding Dieng - If he misses the African Nations Cup, but is fit before January ends that could be good for us.  

With all players fit ..  What would you think our best 11 would look like? 

My Choice

Dieng, 
Dijk, RVDB, Lenihan, Engel,
O'Brien, Hackney,
Jones, Latte Lath, McGree,
Forss,
 

Dieng, 
Dijk, RVDB, clarke, Engel,
O'Brien, Hackney,
Jones, rogers, McGree,
coburn

lath cant hold ball up we looked better as a team with coburn up top. 

i think clarke looks great, out for a year and alreay seems like the bossman at the back when hes on.

[Pork Slops 759 1.2k]

Didn't think I'd ever be saying this if you'd have asked in mid-September, but I'm hoping Rogers is finally coming good following this recent run in the side.

He's either scored or assisted in 4 of his last 5 games and that would be 5 in 5 if it wasn't for a finger tip save from Mcgree's shot onto the post at Rotherham.

[TheJew 3,662 6.1k]

Not sure why O'Brien is getting picked... he has barely had a kick for us in CM.

The team above is what I'd play apart from O'Brien (Barlaser would be my pick, but then Howson) but I'd swap Coburn and ELL depending on opposition.

[TheJew 3,662 6.1k]

1 minute ago, Pork Slops said:

Didn't think I'd ever be saying this if you'd have asked in mid-September, but I'm hoping Rogers is finally coming good following this recent run in the side.

He's either scored or assisted in 4 of his last 5 games and that would be 5 in 5 if it wasn't for a finger tip save from Mcgree's shot onto the post at Rotherham.

I like Rogers. He was on a 1 man mission for the last 20 minutes trying to make stuff happen.

[LinoJo3 5,823 13.6k]

1 hour ago, Changing Times said:

He's a canny player but where are you playing him in this team, and what is it that you think we'd get out of him?  Who is he crossing the ball to or is he just crossing for the sake of it, which was actually a lot of what he did tonight really when you look at it.  He's not a goal scorer so he's not making a difference in that sense.  Let's say we'd had him tonight and played him instead of Jones or Greenwood, what difference do you think he'd have made?  

Was it not him that was bursting through the middle and playing people in? For their one on one that glover saved, the chance where they hit the bar and their goal?

[LinoJo3 5,823 13.6k]

9 minutes ago, TheJew said:

I like Rogers. He was on a 1 man mission for the last 20 minutes trying to make stuff happen.

Yea Roger’s has impressed me since he’s gone #10, I’d like to see him alongside Mcgree rather than greenwood, should only improve. 

[Foogle 2,228 3.6k]

1 minute ago, LinoJo3 said:

Yea Roger’s has impressed me since he’s gone #10, I’d like to see him alongside Mcgree rather than greenwood, should only improve. 

Yeah I think that Mcgree would offer a lot more protection, at the moment Rogers, Barlaser and Howson in the centre is too porous with Greenwood not offering them much help out of possession (or much in possession in recent games). 

[p_mards 1,905 8.5k]

I've just about composed myself after getting back from the match. The performance level was obviously not very good but a win is a win; Given our injuries and crammed fixture list I'll take any sort of win. Carrick's change of formation to a 5-2-1-2 (I think?) gave us a much better structure to stop Huddersfield getting down our channels as we were wide open for long periods. Engel/Bangura and Jones will be better suited to wingback roles - especially Jones who plainly doesn't have the end product to be a winger. I'm still absolutely bewildered at how Jones missed his chance. I know I regularly say how poor of a finisher he is, but that even surprised me. He lost his balance but even so, he's surely got the have the technique to make contact with the ball. I feel almost honoured to have witnessed such an iconically bad moment.

When we went 1-0 up we should have managed the game so much better. I can't remember the exact situation but basically we got the ball deep in our half and tried to force a move and cheaply gifted possession to Huddersfield who nicked the ball high up the pitch and got their goal. Beforehand their crowd were up sensing their momentum building so we would have been wiser to keep the ball and not take them sort of unnecessary risks in them moments. It typified our tired performance.

I'll echo what others have said about McGree being a class above everyone. We've missed him an incredible amount this season as he knits everything together and is very good at opening up teams. I think he'll bring the best out of the likes of Rogers and Lath so hopefully we can get them on the pitch together consistently when he returns from international duty. It's the likes of him and Hackney that makes our team come alive; Without them we struggle.

It was a tale of more of the same ineffective football from Greenwood and Silvera. Along with Jones, they're well short of the level we need them to be at. They're all fortunate that this season is one of transition and our injury situation meaning they don't have much competition. I don't understand why Carrick doesn't fancy Greenwood in strike as he's surely far better suited to there than LW.

In amongst the majority of our attackers performing poorly over the festive period, Rogers has been the best performer by quite a considerable margin. While his performance wasn't the greatest today, he still played an incredibly good through ball to assist Coburn. It's such a perfectly directed and weighted ball that shows the flashes of quality that he's capable of. Hopefully we can continue to see him progress throughout the rest of the season. With 6 goals and 6 assists he's certainly going in the right direction. 

Glover did well overall. He clearly got away with his massive mistake in the first half and was rash with his distribution when the ball was at his feet but on the whole he performed well and looks a decent signing in his past 4 matches. He made an incredible full stretch fingertip save at a vital moment.

Berg was excellent yet again. It's almost become the norm now. For a 19 year old to be at his level isn't normal. Barlaser did well also. Coburn took his goal ever so well too. 

To be 3 points off the play-offs is pretty ridiculous considering our injury troubles and us being so far below our standards of last season. It gives me hope that if we make some improvements when players return from injury, more players progress and new signings then we should be able to push into the play offs come the end of the season. 

[Changing Times 16,078 23.1k]

3 hours ago, TheJew said:

Ahead of Silvera, Greenwood and as much as it pains me, Jones and Rogers.

He's better than them all.

If he had played instead of Greenwood it would have made a massive difference. Especially as he wouldn't have been playing for Hudds.

He scores and creates, not just from crosses either. Check his offside finish.

He's scored 5 goals in his entire career mate.  I don't see that as much of a goalscorer really.  By way of a comparison, Greenwood has 5 for us this season, and Jones has 4.  He's definitely a creative player I know that but most of that creativity does come from crosses - 18 out of 26 career assists.  He has 7 goal involvements this season in 1900 mins, that's the same as Greenwood who has only played 1200 mins.  Rogers has 6 in just over a 1000 mins, Jones has 5 in 1650 mins, Crooks 9 in 1500 mins, Silvera 4 in just under 900 mins.  He's obviously playing for a worse team, which has to be factored in somehow, although it's difficult to quantify how much difference it makes exactly.  I really don't see how he'd have made a massive difference tonight for us though.  Who would he have been setting up with chances?  I suppose the argument would be Coburn after he came on but it's not like we had the ball a lot in attacking positions in the second half, and in the first half he'd have been trying to supply the same players we think played poorly.  I think he had a better game than a couple of ours did, I wouldn't dispute that, but ours have played much better games this season so it's like comparing a high point to a low point, which is never a very good comparison to make if you can help it.  Also, and I don't know how much this matters, only the manager and coaches at the club will know, but his overall game looks quite poor - he doesn't do a lot defensively, his passing accuracy is below all of our lot - maybe because he crosses quite a lot.  I dare say he'd be handy for set pieces but another attacking player who doesn't score that much himself feels like the least of our needs right now.

[Changing Times 16,078 23.1k]

3 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

Was it not him that was bursting through the middle and playing people in? For their one on one that glover saved, the chance where they hit the bar and their goal?

I confess I'd forgotten the one v one (the one in the first half I think you mean?), he did well for that one I agree.  Although I could be unkind and say that having to out sprint Howson and Barlaser probably helped but that was a nice ball through you are right.  The chance where he hit the bar was a nothing pass to me, any of our players could have done that, he picked up a loose ball and played a 15 yard pass to someone in at least 5 yards of space (because VDB wasn't concentrating again).  I really don't see that as anything even remotely special to be honest, it's basic stuff you'd expect from any professional let alone a Championship player.  As for the goal I think he gets lucky, he did burst through a bit mind, which was decent play, but he actually loses the ball, and they only score because Fry panics for some reason and screws up clearing it.  Would we be calling that good play if it was Silvera or Greenwood or Jones?  I feel like we wouldn't, in fact I'm fairly sure some people wouldn't.  Thomas had more touches than any of the attacking players on either side tonight but I don't think he stood out particularly other than that he crossed the ball an awful lot.  The best bit of play was arguably from Rogers, which to me was a better ball than either of the two passes highlighted. 

It sounds like I'm crapping on the lad but I'm not.  I quite like him, I think I may have mentioned about us signing him in the past actually  One thing I like is that he's both footed as far as I can tell, or at least comfortable enough with his weaker foot for it not to be much of a weakness.  But this feels like a situation that I've seen quite a bit where we play poorly and suddenly all our players are rubbish and everyone else's are better, which we know isn't really true.  I feel like Thomas would have been available in the summer if we'd been interested - I know he went out to Blackburn on loan last season for some reason - but we didn't go for him then and we signed players who to me are quite different in how they play so he wouldn't seem to be a natural fit for us but that's just my take on it.

[Erimus74 5,353 5.5k]

6 hours ago, SimonD said:

Crooks? Yer getting old mate! 

Haha, yea, thats what three 12 hour shifts do for you, 😂

[Erimus74 5,353 5.5k]

Engel for me has to be ahead of Bangura, especially after the cheating has appeared in his game, his constant running like bambi on ice, never seems to feel he has the ball under control & if the rumours are true regarding someone interested in him then get rid, dont want to see that side of the game at the Boro

[Bruce 3,157 2.5k]

Jones and Sorba Thomas are both the same age. Here's their respective Championship records.

Played 99 (7,293 mins), goals 8, assists 15, cards,  25 / - / -

Played 113 (8,444 mins), goals 5, assists 25, cards 24 / - / -

One is better with assists the other is better at scoring. 

[Hammy legend 1,266 1.4k]

28 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

Engel for me has to be ahead of Bangura, especially after the cheating has appeared in his game, his constant running like bambi on ice, never seems to feel he has the ball under control & if the rumours are true regarding someone interested in him then get rid, dont want to see that side of the game at the Boro

I don't think Bangura can play for another team this season,  am pretty sure he played for the Dutch side before we bought him.