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Preston North End, 5 conclusions

18/08/21

After a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Fulham on Saturday, Huddersfield had to respond. It wasn't pretty, but it was needed, 3 points for The Terriers as they beat Preston North End 1-0 to get their first win of the season. An own goal from Sepp Van Den Berg condemned the Lancashire side to defeat. The game lacked real quality from both teams, but Town won't care, as they beat Preston for the first time in 5 attempts.

It is a win

Who cares about the way we played at this point in the season, it's a win and our best start to a Championship season since relegation from the Premier League. Town showed how hard it was under Danny Cowley to recover after a very poor start. The win should calm the squad down and ease some of the pressure. It is even more important when you consider the fixtures they have coming up, Sheffield United away, Reading at home and Stoke away. It is the next three fixtures where I think Corberan needs to get the squad up to speed and start to be A, more creative and B, start to take more risks when on the ball rather than just playing the safe ball between the defenders. 3 points and a clean sheet after conceding 5 the game before, the bare minimum for the win, but a win nonetheless.

Is there an argument for over coaching?

Carlos is as animated a head coach as you will see and I think at times this goes against him. He rarely lets the players do their own thing, whether this be shouting at them to push up the field or get into shape. I am beginning to wonder if the players can't take on the amount of information he is giving, or they don't know what he is asking them to do, or the most worrying thing, they can't do anything without Carlos telling them to do it.

Carlos' Subsitutions changed the game

Danny Ward again had a difficult evening and was subbed off at half time for Fraizer Campbell, who added energy into the team. The switch to then bring on Duane Holmes for Lewis O'Brien (who wasn't 100% and looked like he was making sure he didn't get injured) again added much-needed energy into the game. Holmes ran in behind the Preston defence, with Koroma spotting the run and releasing him through. Duane is slightly fortunate that the Preston defenders efforts to tackle him resulted in him scoring an own goal, but for the number of times that Town are on the wrong side of a decision or game where they have been the better team, it was about time they got the rub of the green.
I think Carlos realised the issues Town had in the first half with creating chances, with Town looking more threatening in the second half and probably should have scored one or two more than they did.

Are the metrics that the recruitment team are using correct?

This sort of goes back to the over-coaching argument that the players don't seem to be able to think for themselves, as I would say that on the basis of last night and numerous games prior, the off the ball and mental side of the game isn't there in many of the players. For example from throw-ins, Town take double, even triple that of the opposition to throw it in as there is no movement or players offering for the ball. I wonder if part of it is down to the approach the recruitment department take.
Town are using a data-led approach when signing players. They are creating models so they can be clear about what criteria they want each player to fill. A player can produce very good statistics on paper, but there are some unquantifiable ones. For example, how do you measure a player's off the ball mentality. I think this is proved by the early promotion and persistence with playing Ryan Schofield. His shot-stopping ability is exceptional and if you were to compare his statistics with other championship 'keepers, he ranks highly, but to many people he fails the eye test.
I think what needs looking at is how Town's recruitment team incorporates the mental side of the game, as going back to the example of Schofield, he struggles to command a backline, claim crosses and his thought process when distributing. It is difficult to portray this information into quantitive data, but Town need to try and find a way. Too many times last night the off the ball movement was not there, and on the few occasions it was, the ball wasn't played as I don't think the players have that understanding.

O'Brien's Last Dance.

Town's academy graduate looks set for the Premier League and while most likely it will be to the team that shall not be named down the M62, it will net the club a substantial enough fee that should allow 2 or 3 quality players to be signed. It was a mediocre performance at best from Lewis last night, he didn't really get out of first gear and was subbed off on the hour mark for Duane Holmes. He wasn't anywhere near match fit, but the way he went off and clapped the fans made it look like he was saying goodbye.
Thank you and good luck Lewis.

Town side:

Starting 11: Lee Nicholls, Ollie Turton, Tom Lees (76' Alex Vallejo), Naby Sarr, Levi Colwill, Sorba Thomas, Lewis O'Brien (70' Duane Holmes), Jonathan Hogg, Scott High, Josh Koroma, Danny Ward (45' Fraizer Campbell)
Subs: Ryan Schofield, Rolando Aarons, Alex Vallejo, Danel Sinani, Duane Holmes, Fraizer Campbell, Jordan Rhodes
Formation: 532