Is being around
as an increasingly important attacking player. Now, Sinani could be at the beginning of a little purple patch of his own.
Three factors make it possible for even those little upturns in form to make a big difference. One is that in Danny Ward and Lewis O’Brien, Town have two increasingly reliable players in the last two thirds of the pitch who do an awful lot of dirty work and crucial link-up play to enable the wider players a bit more freedom.
The second is that Town have a steady flow of goals coming from different sources. Excluding the own goal they got against Preston, their 21 Championship goals this season have come from 13 different players.
There are just seven Town outfielders who are yet to score a league goal this season, and that number includes the handfuls of minutes played by Mipo Odubeko, Jordan Rhodes, Josh Ruffels and Jon Russel. Fraizer Campbell, Scott High and Ollie Turton are the others.
That is a far cry from the last two seasons. Having 13 different scorers means Town have already matched the number of goalscorers from 2019/20 and are just one shy of last year’s number, despite having played less than half the season and fielded around two-thirds as many players.
The most significant thing, though, is that Town’s defence is so much more reliable. That is about more than just the goalkeeper and the back three/back five, of course, but the overall strength of that rearguard means that in around half their games, Town only need one to pay off, or to find one special moment from one player, to take the full three points.
That’s not to let the attack off the hook – the Terriers have scored more than once in just five of their 18 games this season. But they have enough capable players in their squad now that they can bear to ride out the inevitable ups and downs of individual player form, knowing that as one player is winding down a bit, another will likely be gearing up to their best.