Hogg switch did not work, admits Carlos
CARLOS Corberan acknowledged that a change of position for Jonathan Hogg did not have the intended effect against Cardiff City.
The Huddersfield Town stalwart has occasionally played at centreback before this season but against Cardiff he was in a deeper-lying sweeper role behind Christopher Schindler and Naby Sarr when Town had the ball.
The idea was presumably to ensure the Terriers had cover if they lost the ball in their own half after they were exposed by both Stoke City and Middlesbrough in exactly those circumstances over the last few games.
But in practice it left Town looking disjointed without a clear link between defence and attack, making chance creation difficult, and a whole different set of costly errors ended up gifting Cardiff three goals anyway.
When asked about that tweak, Corberan said: “They were playing with two strikers and we wanted to be more prepared with three centre-backs. The type of strikers they had demanded we have one extra player at the back.
“We wanted to have more control of the ball at the back and have Eiting closer to Hogg to try to start to attack more in the middle but little by little we started to play out to the side.
“Maybe with Hogg we didn’t find the right solution with his position because we started to play more to the sides with Sarr and Schindler. If we have the advantage in these moments of the game we didn’t find the advantage in the higher part of the pitch.
“In the first half we started the game well but after we started to lose the connection from our centre-backs to the striker we started to lose the ball in the middle and they started to have counter-attacks.
“But more than the position of Hogg is the mobility we need to offer to the player with the ball, because that’s the connection we need to give to play with the higher part of the team.
“And of course the moment you don’t connect with the higher part of the team we’re going to find it harder to make chances and they’re going to be closer to creating chances against us.”
DANNY Cowley has revealed his interest in the vacant managerial post at Sunderland.
The former Town boss is among the favourites to replace Phil Parkinson, who was sacked on Sunday night.
The former Lincoln and Town manager has been out of work since leaving the Terriers, but told the Southend Echo that he is an admirer of Sunderland, adding:. “Sure. Sunderland are a huge football club with a wonderful history.”
Gust Poyet and Paul Cook lead the bookmakers’ odds, with Cowley as third favourite.