Huddersfield Town vs Reading

Competition: EFL Championship Matchday 23

Date: 02/01/2021

Score: 1-2

Ground: John Smith Stadium

5 Conclusions from the Game

1. The Edmonds-Green mistake was inevitable!

It is brilliant to see players like Ryan Schofield and Rarmani Edmonds-Green in the first team, but it should not come as a surprise when either of them make a mistake. If anything I was surprised it took REG this long to make a key mistake. As David Hartrick mentioned in the 'Ooh To Be A...' podcast, the young players are only going to improve their game by playing and making mistakes. REG will learn from the mistake for the Reading equaliser and will improve as a result of it.

2. Town needs to be 2 goals clear, before sitting back.

Town has lost 15 points lost from winning positions this season, which would leave us in the automatic promotion spots, with Town succumbing to consecutive Saturday defeats when winning at half time. For me, Town needs to work on game management the most and it is something that Carlos needs to embroid into his tactical style. Danny Cowley was brilliant at it and although I think Carlos is a better coach, Danny Cowley's ability to manage a game better is the reason why you could be sure Town would hold on when going ahead last season, a feeling I don't get under Carlos.

3. Lucas Joao is exactly the player Town are missing.

Lucas Joao showed today why he is one of the best and most coveted strikers in the Championship, but he represents the striker that Town are in need of. Fraizer Campbell was good today, he took his goal well and harried down defenders, but I think an alternative to him is needed. Kieffer Moore at Cardiff is another example of what we need, a striker that can get in the face of the opposition defenders, be a nuisance and hold the ball up. I am not saying they are to replace to Campbell in the starting lineup, as I think the job is very selfless, but this player can come off the bench and cause havoc in the last 30 minutes.

4. Town is still failing to create enough high-value chances!

xG may seem boring and pointless to some people, but it is more insightful than shots on goal as it calculates a chance of a goal, based on the position of the shot and the position of defenders or keeper. For all of Town's brilliant attacking play this season, they have only had one game this season when they have recorded an xG of more than 2 (Nottingham Forest, home, 2.91 xG).
This is an area where we need to improve as Town only had two attempts today on goal which had an xG rating of above 0.1xG. Town are missing Josh Koroma at the moment, but the lack of quality chances that are being created is the worrying thing. Currently we are relying on our players to take every high value chance we get, if we have any chance of winning the game.

5. Plymouth game will give the players a much-needed rest.

Having named an unchanged lineup for the 5th straight game, it is understandable that a number of the players were tired and were at risk of injury so as a result weren't on top form - you could see this by the number of players that had their muscles taped up! I would be surprised if we see more than 3 of the players that started today start against Plymouth. Carel Eiting and Pipa will be two players that I think will benefit the most from a week off as neither looked as if they were at their best against Reading.
The Plymouth game should give a number of B team players an opportunity to show their ability and show Carlos that they can be trusted if given the chance, as currently, he is only using his substitutes sparingly. Most likely this is because of the defeat to Bournemouth in which a lot of the fringe players who make the bench up played in.

Town Team:

Starting 11: Ryan Schofield, Pipa, Rarmani Edmonds-Green (87' Kieran Phillips), Naby Sarr, Harry Toffolo, Jonathon Hogg, Lewis O'Brien, Carel Eiting (70' Alex Prtichard), Fraizer Campbell, Isaac Mbenza, Juninho Bacuna
Subs: Ben Hamer, Demeaco Duhaney, Jaden Brown, Kieran Phillips, Romoney Crichlow, Alex Vallejo, Aaron Rowe, Alex Pritchard, Ben Jackson
Formation: 4231