Carlos now needs to find a way to make Harry cross!
HARRY Toffolo will go down as perhaps the best thing to come out of Danny Cowley’s time with Huddersfield Town.
Signed in the January transfer window of 2020 from Lincoln, the left-back immediately made an impression and found a level of consistency in a team that couldn’t.
He also transitioned into Carlos Corberan’s style of play seamlessly and now finds himself as a wingback, a position that perhaps suits his attacking ambition even better than his previous role.
Last season he helped Town with five assists, a number only bettered by Isaac Mbenza’s seven. He also scored twice – the opener in a terrific 2-1 win at Swansea and the second in December’s 2-0 victory over QPR.
So a big contribution to a team that struggled creatively, then. This season the Terriers have evolved and are playing a slightly different way in part thanks to Covid forcing them to early on, but also thanks to Sorba Thomas emerging as the player you most want to get on the ball.
That new and somewhat surprising source of creativity has been vital in Town’s good start to the season. Toffolo missed the opening of the Championship after a positive Covid test but when able was immediately brought back into the side, where he has stayed ever since.
We would argue he’s not quite found his absolute best form yet completely understandable after an interrupted start, a change of position to wing-back, and a shift in the team’s philosophy to look to Thomas on the right much more. But Toffolo is naturally one of Town’s most important players again.
One obvious part of the Terriers’ plan last season was using Toffolo on the left and Pipa on the right on the overlap to cut balls back from the byline. Without a Steve Mounie-type striker to compete centrally, it was deemed the higher value option.
However, Toffolo is yet to produce a cross that has led to a shot this season.
He already has two assists to his name - the pass to Colwill for the late winner against Sheffield United, and the header back to Danny Ward for the goal against Blackburn. However, this shift shows Town are not profiting from an area that brought them some joy in a season starved of it last year.
As we’ve already said, partly this is due to the progression on the right after Town mainly used the Toffolo-O’Brien-Koroma connection on the left flank whenever all three were available last season.
Even after Koroma’s injury, Town’s heat maps all showed they favoured going down that side, and understandably so, Pipa’s role was to come inside as a false 10 several times, and you need width from somewhere.
This season Town have deepened their squad over the summer and there’s been a minor revolution. They have profited from this and it’s clear that despite the greater options available, Ward is
Corberan’s first-choice striker. Fraizer Campbell and Jordan Rhodes have both already been benched mainly and Rhodes’ injury has delayed his second Town stint from starting properly in truth. Mipo Odubeko has joined on loan but has so far yet to be trusted with anything other than cameos.
The Blackburn win was not only Ward’s best game of the season, it was his best since re-signing for the Terriers, and that was aided by two things: a tactical plan to get players closer to him so he had people to work off, and another to get more crosses into the box.
If you build it, they will come, and so Ward benefited from both aspects of that adjustment.
So in a season where Town are basically getting more of everything, is this an area they could improve upon - getting Toffolo into crossing positions and working on those overlaps again?
Definitely, and they will need to as Thomas is no longer a surprise. The more weapons Town can bring to a game the better and here is an area they could make more of.
Consider Toffolo’s back-up now too, Josh Ruffels, a player Town fans have yet to see much of but we think will come to like.
On the right Ollie Turton is more of a full-back and defensively
Thomas is no longer a surprise so the more weapons Town can bring to a game the better