funkyrobot

The problem is, there’s no alternative. Cifuentes likes 2 in the centre rather than Enzo’s single pivot. With Ndidi gone there’s no one else. Skipp isn’t as good as Soumare which isn’t saying much and with Ndidi gone there’s nothing else. Even Enzo would struggle to play his system with this team. We are desperately weak in central midfield. Only Winks is good enough at this level but he needs a player with some physicality next to him.

Tbf he had had a very average 1st half.

Tbf Small is having a great game against him, our play is very reliant on wing play and when they get bullied it does highlight our limitations elsewhere. IMO Fatawu needs to cut inside more against Small who has the pace and physicality to block Fatawu running down the outside. Cifuentes’ system relies on a fullback becoming a number 8 instead of inverting the fullback into midfield. This should help the attack. Today it’s the right back in Justin performing that role and it’s clear that neither him or Thomas are particularly capable of offering the threat that Enzo’s system had when he could deploy KDH and Ndidi in those advanced 8 roles. I do think Justin is better at it than Thomas but it’s a very low bar. It might be different when Ricardo is back as he’s much better than the other two in an attacking role. Only problem is he’s only fit for 15 games a season. El Khanouss needs to step it up too.

I don’t remember Thomas ever being an out and out winger. He’s been a fullback for the last 5 years at least and a defensive one at that.

Justin’s better on the left for me than he has ever been on the right, that’s where he was playing when he was capped by England and where he was playing at his peak for us. I know he can’t use his left foot but the left back in this system is expected at times to be inside of the winger and very advanced, his right footedness encourages this cutting in. Don’t get me wrong, he’s far from ideal but from an attacking perspective he is better than Thomas. As we expect to be more on the front foot I’d favour the attacking attributes of JJ over the defensive attributes of Thomas.

But the point is Cifuentes isn’t leaving the creativity to those players. His system currently utilises the left back to create a 5 man attack when in possession. He expects the centre backs, right back and 2 centre mids to be in the 5 more deeper defensive positions.

Only problem with Dennis was that he was made out of balsa wood.

As a defensive fullback Thomas is fine at this level, but as the fifth attacker expected to combine and create opportunities high up the pitch he’s just not got the attributes. He isn’t going to run past someone, isn’t going to dribble past someone, not likely to assist/score. As I’ve said before, his whole body shape, and unusual kicking style is predisposed to hooking the ball backwards to a spare centre back.

I’m saying that Justin would be better at playing the role on the left that Thomas played last night.

I genuinely think he was affected by what looked like a very slow surface last night. The ball got stuck under his feet. He put a couple of passes in that didn’t have enough pace to get to where they needed to go and he wasn’t the only one. It put him and the rest of the team of their game and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a Terriers tactic to over water the pitch. Whatever, he had a poor game but that happens. He looked quality for us last time in The Championship and Oxford fans rated his loan last season so he will come good.

I think this is exactly it with Soumare, he can switch multiple times in one game from looking like he’s finally clicked, winning the ball aggressively and playing with pace and physicality to a lazy, passive, irresponsible liability. That’s exactly what happened last night. I guess that wild inconsistency is why he’s still with us and why we are where we are. It’s increasingly clear that the loss of Ndidi, despite his increasing flaws is a big loss. It means we are reliant on Soumare who in theory has all the attributes but has little of the mentality of a top level midfielder and Skipp who just doesn’t have the ability even at this level. We have one quality midfielder in Winks with little sign that there is going to be any additions.

I actually think Justin might be a better option than him on the left tbh. Obviously with Ricardo out that would potentially force us to play Hamza on the right, who had a shocker tonight. With the left back expected to offer attacking support in this set up, and Justin showing some ability in the past being able to cut in from the left inside the winger, it might be worth the risk.

It’s not so much that he was the problem, it’s that his role is meant to offer an attacking solution and I just don’t see the creativity in his game that will ever see us benefit from his presence in what would’ve been the KDH position when attacking. He’s not a dribbler and his body position/kicking style seems to be innately set up to hook balls inside and backwards.

Just can’t see Thomas working in this attacking fullback role that Cifuentes demands. He’s not got the pace, the skill or the creativity I think it needs. Same with VK tbh.

Cifuentes needs more quality at fullback, central midfield and in the centre forward role. The latter two areas are well discussed. From the fullback perspective, Thomas is not equipped to offer the creativity Cifuentes’ (Cucurella style) left back role requires, nor is VK. Ricardo is our best right back but it’s never fit, JJ might be better on the left but struggles on the right despite being very right footed. Hamza it has to be said was very poor today other than a fabulous goal.

A great goal cannot mask a scruffy, shoddy performance by Hamza. He was the main reason we conceded both goals.

Encroachment, goal should’ve been disallowed. Player was inside the D before the lad had taken the pen.

Best player for us in that 1st half tbh 🤷🏻‍♂️

Been some very slap dash passes in this game. Hamza and Nelson have been particularly guilty but it’s been throughout the team. I do think though that the ball is running very slowly on this pitch. Seems to have been very heavily watered and this isn’t helping the quality of the passes. Maybe it’s a purposeful tactic by Huddersfield but tbh it isn’t helping them much either. Hamza and Nelson have also been particularly vulnerable to the press and need to sharpen up!!

I’m encouraged that Cifuentes sees Alves as more a central player rather than an out and out winger. RVN incorrectly said he was a winger and he was the one that loaned him out.

He wasn’t public enemy with me. He was and is our best creative midfielder. I was one of those who didn’t give a 💩 where he was driving from. It hadn’t been a problem for Enzo and it wasn’t even an issue for Cooper. It’s was RVN and his terrible people management skills that caused the problem. Asking Winks to stay for a day a week was a petty, unnecessary and badly timed flex against a senior pro. It would’ve have no discernible impact as the squad wasn’t good enough to stay up and the manager was even worse.

Winks wasn’t useless last season. He was criminally mismanaged by Cooper (who often benched him alongside Mavididi) and even more so by RVN. Under Enzo he would’ve been fine.

Ricky P is absolutely not an adequate replacement for Winks. Very different skillset not to mention an inability to stay fit. There’s no other player in our squad that can replicate Winks. Maybe Page in the future but that’s some way off.

There’s probably little reality in the Fatawu rumour. Before the season started there were numerous statements saying we had interviewed Dyche for the managers job and he was on the shortlist to get the job. Dyche was interviewed last week and confirmed it was all absolute rubbish and he hadn’t spoken to the club at all.

Surely keeping Winks gives us a better chance of promotion and the significant cash injection that it brings ? Selling him now reduces the likelihood of promotion and won’t stop a points reduction coming. So the only positive is what would be a small fee and taking his wages off the bill 9 months earlier than would be the case when his contract runs out. Don’t forget that we’d need to buy and pay a replacement in the meantime too so that would offset some of the benefits of taking his wages off the books. Just doesn’t make sense to me unless we have 1 or preferably 2 absolute midfield maestros coming in to replace him. A midfield of Skipp and Soumare is definitely ruling out any chance of promotion.