Huddersfield could do with a finisher like Rondon
For most of his three years in charge at Huddersfield Town, David Wagner has been looking for the solution to a lack of goals. Finding it is now a matter of urgency.
Wagner has achieved minor miracles given that he has never had a prolific striker to count on; his team were promoted from the Championship in 2017 with a negative goal difference and they stayed up last season, despite failing to score in 21 out of 38 Premier League matches.
The head coach had hoped to push on this season, but instead his team have gone backwards. His summer transfer activity has brought little reward; of the five senior players new to the club, only full-back Erik Durm is a regular starter. In addition, Huddersfield’s two senior centre-forwards, Steve Mounie and Laurent Depoitre, have not scored since last spring.
It is a recipe for relegation and wing-back Chris Lowe knows it. “We know what we have to do better,” Lowe said. “The only thing we can do is try to work on all these things to make it better.”
Huddersfield have not been helped by the loss of midfielder Aaron Mooy, their main creative outlet, until February with a knee injury. Lowe is fully aware, though, that his team should not be relying so much on one player.
“Of course we can get goals without Aaron,” Lowe said. “He’s a central midfielder. Usually, you need goals from your offensive players, and Aaron is not a proper offensive player. Him being injured should not be an excuse.”
Huddersfield’s attacking weaknesses were laid bare on Saturday as they fell further into relegation trouble with a fourth successive defeat. Depoitre was never quite in the right place to get on the end of the occasional crosses that did come his way and, when he tried to operate as a target man, supporting runners were nowhere to be seen.
Mounie will be available after suspension for their home match against Southampton and may well replace the Belgian, but Huddersfield will still have to tweak their approach to get better results. That a team created so few clear chances with 74 per cent of possession should be a major cause for alarm.
They could do with Salomon Huddersfield’s strikers have had just 17 shots on target between them this season and no goals. 0 0 0 0 Rondon. The Venezuelan, on a season’s loan at Newcastle United from West Bromwich Albion, is used to playing the thankless role of a lone centre-forward with minimal support. His work ethic has never faded during a testing season in the North-east, and he is getting the rewards.
The striker swept in Javier Manquillo’s low cross, 10 minutes into the second half, to finish off a high-quality counter-attack for his fourth goal in six matches.
Manager Rafael Benitez, who wanted to sign Rondon permanently last summer, still hopes to do so. “It will be fine,” Benitez said. “Hopefully, he can start scoring a lot of goals and then you can ask me this in a few weeks and it can be positive then, too.”
Newcastle’s win, which eased their own relegation concerns, was a handsome payback for the players’ decision to cancel a scheduled Christmas party in London over the weekend, in order to focus on getting away from trouble. “We can have a Christmas party whenever we want,” said Ki Sung-yueng.