Poor defending is costing Town at both ends of pitch
PERHAPS Iain Dowie’s greatest contribution to football is his introduction of the word bouncebackability to the football lexicon in 2003/04.
It’s as well he did, as we once again have cause to use it when discussing Huddersfield Town. They are yet to put together a run of three straight wins this season, but they are also yet to go more than two games without taking at least a point.
The last time they lost back-to-back games was at the end of October. Since then we’ve seen the defeat to Bristol City followed by a draw against Luton, and the defensive catastrophes against Stoke and Bournemouth responded to with goalless draws against Wycombe and Coventry.
The 2-1 defeat to Birmingham and the 3-0 loss to Cardiff were both also followed by clean sheets as Town beat Millwall 3-0 and QPR 2-0.
There are two sides to that. The more positive way to look at things is that you never feel as though Town are on the precipice of a terrible run that will see them plummet down the league table, and even after a disappointment like the Boxing Day defeat to Barnsley, the next game’s result still never feels like a foregone conclusion.
The downside is that the overall impression is Town’s concentration level has something of an elastic quality – it gets stretched and stretched almost to the point of breaking once every three or so games before snapping back into its rightful taut shape for a few matches.
It could be that there is a degree of correction and tweaking going on, and that the analysis the coaches are doing and imparting back onto the players in between games only lasts a certain amount of time before they need a helpful reminder of their duties.