Corberan: ‘Terriers must not loose focus’
CARLOS Corberan has called on his players to keep their wits about them better after seeing them collapse to a 4-3 defeat away to Stoke City.
Carel Eiting had given the Terriers the lead midway through the first half, but within ten minutes they were behind. Town then equalised only for Stoke to restore their lead within five minutes and the visitors ended up on the wrong end of a 4-3 defeat – the third time in six games they have taken the lead and ended up losing.
Two of Stoke’s goals came from set pieces and the other two were the result of Town losing the ball in their own third.
The Town head coach felt his side let themselves down with their poor decision-making.
“I think we performed well, especially some minutes of the game, but we didn’t get a positive result,” Corberan said.
“It means that we performed better than we competed – not in terms of winning challenges or winning duels or concentrating on the game, it had more relation with the reading of the needs of the game in each action.
“We know how well this team [Stoke] can be in set pieces. We defended well the first ball in the set pieces but we didn’t defend well the second ball in the set pieces and they scored two goals in this type of situation.
“They also scored two goals from mistakes playing out [when on the ball], something that has given to us more than taken out, but we need to analyse well the game to know that one thing is to perform well and another that is necessary to take the points is to compete well too.”
Asked if he felt his player were prone to panicking after conceding equalisers, Corberan said: “No, I don’t think so.
“But at the same time it’s true that at the moment we start winning a lot of games and then they [equalise] and score the second goal and it’s hard for us to change the dynamic of the [scoreline] from maybe five minutes before when you have it under control and you are winning in the result.
“But I think it’s more like the management of the football situations.
“Sometimes these things happen but we need to know how to manage those moments of the games and try to compete better because for me football is not only to perform well, it’s to compete well and to compete well is not always running.
“It’s reading the needs of the game too and what the situation demands of you and trying to solve it in the best way and make it so that your positive performance can receive points too.”