‘Carlosball’ is showing it is a real team game at Town
WE had complained a little bit about Carlos Corberan’s lack of rotation going into the international break, but he made four well thought-out changes against Luton, as well as altering the shape of the side once again to all-but match up the Hatters.
That wasn’t so surprising. The head coach had said ahead of the game he expected individual battles to behugely important, with midfielder Lewis O’Brien also acknowledging that a lot of the week’s training sessions had focused on one-vs-one situations.
We’ve talked to death about how Corberan’sability to pick the right gameplans for the right occasions, coupled with his players’ ability to seamlessly shi f t between different shapes, have been an enormous part of Town’s successes this season.
You only need to look at the goal and assist combinations against Luton to see how important that ability to make changes either to shape or personnel have been.
First,Pipa claimed his second assist of the season in just his third league start as his throw-in teed-up Jon Russell for just his second goal of the campaign.
Then,Naby Sarr came on for just his second league appearance of 2022 to repeat Russell’s feat, convertingfrom a Thomas set-piece.
If Thomas had pic k ed o u t Duane Holmes in the 90th minute rather than shooting, we might have seen a second substitute on the scoresheet.
Pipa to Russell was Town’s 29th unique assist-to-goalscorer combination of the season, only seven of which have occurred more than once –Thomas to Sarr being one of them.
Town’s last 13 league goals have now come from eight different goalscorers and five different providers.
From the very earliest days of ‘Carlosball’, wesuspected the whole idea was to get a broad rangeof combinations and contributors.This season, that promise has paid off big time.
HUDDERSFIELD Town got their massive eight days off to the best possible start as they claimed a 2-0 victory over fellow top-six contenders Luton Town to put themselves back to third in the table and take a massive stride towards qualifying for the play-offs.
Second-half goals by Jon
Russell and Naby Sarr either side of a Hatters penalty that Elijah Adebayo put against the post were enough to seal three huge points at the John Smith’s Stadium.
The result puts the Terriers in a strong position going into their final five games of the regular season with their gap to seventh-placed
Blackburn Rovers extended to six points - which may yet get cut down to four should Middlesbrough win their game in hand.
Both sides found it hard to fashion clear-cut chances before Jon Russell’s brilliant 59th-minute opener. The question of whether the midfielder actually meant to shoot from there or not remains unanswered for now, but whether it was a moment of supreme technique and stunning vision adding up to a moment of sheer brilliance or a freak goal resulting from a desire to simply put it in the mixer, is irrelevant really.
Either one thing or the other was going to be necessary to break a deadlock created by two solid sides putting in excellent defensive performances.
Sonny Bradley was particularly immense for the visitors, while at the other end Tom Lees, Jonathan Hogg and Levi Colwill all put in brilliantly composed performances
Nottm Forest Luton
Sheff Utd Blackburn Middlesbrough Millwall Coventry
QPR
West Brom Preston Swansea
Stoke Blackpool Cardiff Birmingham Bristol City Hull
Reading Barnsley Derby Peterborough 39 41 41 41 40 41 41 41 41 41 40 41 40 40 41 41 41 41 40 41 41 19 18 18 17 18 16 16 17 15 14 16 15 14 14 11 12 12 12 6 12 6
Luton’s 10 11 11 12 8 13 11 8 12 15 9 10 11 7 12 9 8 7 11 13 10 10 61 36 67 12 59 47 65 12 53 41 65 12 52 42 63 14 52 42 62 12 45 40 61 14 54 51 59 16 55 53 59 14 45 40 57 12 43 46 57 15 48 53 57 16 53 47 55 15 44 47 53 19 47 61 49 18 43 60 45 20 52 73 45 21 34 45 44 22 48 77 37 23 30 59 29 16 40 47 28 25 34 82 28