One win? That’s a fluke… Two? That’s a trend!
One fan-boy’s extremely biased reactions to the first two week’s of his club’s life in the Premier League.
Now, usually I’m not one for premature hottakes after ridiculously small sample sizes but for one team (and one man in particular) I’ll make an exception.
Hottake #1 of many: Huddersfield Town of Yorkshire, a club who managed promotion to the top flight of English football with a negative goal difference in their last Championship campaign are… a proper Premier League Club.
Now before you start trying to school in me in statistical relevancies and the “random” nature of football outcomes, let me say this: “I don’t have faith in my club to ‘stay up’ because we won our first two matches. I have faith because of how we won our first two matches.”
WEEK 1: Crystal Palace (0) def. by Huddersfield Town (3)
Huddersfield learns to score
As I alluded to before, the Terriers haven’t come into this Premier League campaign with a reputation for punishing the back of the net. In fact throughout our glorious Promotion Play-Off run, we didn’t score in regular time (the goal against Sheffield Wednesday was an own goal) and as such, I’ll forgive most pundits so saying we didn’t have much hope of making a dent on arrival to the ‘Big League.’
But pundits don’t have crystal balls and sometimes historical data clouds your vision… and sometimes you finish the first ‘Super Saturday’ of the season ON TOP OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE!!!
Now in the cold light of day, a week on for the euphoria of an Opening Day rout it was safe to say that Crystal Palace didn’t have their best day.
Our opening goal, (eventually ruled an own goal conceded by Palace’s Joel Ward) would not have been out of place in an episode of Benny Hill, as it set the tone for a weekend dominated by porous ‘zonal defences’ leaking goals on set pieces.
Our third goal was almost a ‘gimme’ as the lackadaisical defensive triangle of Palace defenders, despondent from falling 0–2 down to a former Championship side, neglected to even attempt to close down either the ball carrier Colin Quaner or a prancing Steve Mounie, who happily tapped in his second Premier League goal.
It also wasn’t like Crystal Palace didn’t have their own opportunities — as the home side had the better of both the time in possession and the total number (and value) of quality shots created.
In the 37th minute, Wilfred Zaha managed to go one-on-one with Jonas Lossl and beat the Dane but not find the inside of the left post.
In the 55th minute, the goal scoring behemoth Christian Beneteke thundered a header again towards the bottom left corner of the net only to be denied by the steely hands of Lossl. (seeing a trend?)
In the 77th minute, Palace’s Scott Dann found himself reliving his primary school taunts (“Scott-No-Friends”) at the back of the penalty box but managed to prove that the taunts were valid when he skied his open shot over the middle of the crossbar.
FiveThirtyEight’s Soccer Power Index Ratings for the match indicated that Palace had attempted the better shots and had the better offensive passing, which is a concerning metric to see after a 3–0 win but one thing that this ‘quant’ stuff doesn’t take into account is one simple fact: in a game of football, you need to put the ball in the goal to win.
Amid this cloud of statistical negativity however, was a shining moment of things that could be on the horizon. A wonderful duo synchronising and harmonising far better than even The Veronicas could manage in their heyday.
Let’s take a look at our second goal again…
Defender Chris Lowe, cuts inside before bamboozling Palace’s midfielders by passing left for the only time in the match. The well weighted through ball bifurcates Milivojevic and Ward and arrives safely at Aaron Mooy’s feet. Mooy, (now with more space in front of him than his former club Melbourne City own in Bundoora, Victoria) takes a moment to lock eyes with his partner in football Steve Mounie before dobbing the perfect cross to the top of Mounie’s Silver Laced Polish Cockerel inspired quaff. Mounie soaring higher than the aforementioned bird meets Mooy’s gift as if suspended in air (if not time and space) before snapping that ball into the middle left pocket of the goal at warp speed.
It was truely a thing of beauty.
Steve Mounie was Huddersfield Town’s record breaking transfer fee summer signee and with him at the head of the Terrier’s attack, (and on the end of a few more of Mooy’s perfect passes) I think we can safely assume that the Terriers might managed to find a few more goals than their previous campaign produced.
Match Day 2: Huddersfield Town (1) def. Newcastle (0)
“Aaron Mooy is magic…
Coming into our first home game of the season, I was quietly confident about our chances against last season’s Championship title winners Newcastle United.
The British football rumour mill had been running overtime about a disgruntled Rafa Benitez who had been robbed of ‘transfer spending money’ and the Toons opening performance had been more lacklustre and timid than most had expected.
However, with Huddersfield Town being a club of ‘no-bodies’ everyone had written us off (or given us only a chance of a draw at best) against a team we lost to 1–3 at home in our last outing against.
I made the ill-advised decision to engage in a ‘second-screen’ experience during this game only to find that both the Optus Sport commentators and a small but loud Twitterati minority admonishing this match up because of it’s so-called lack of ‘quality’ in the first half.
Well, that all changed didn’t it…
And while the snobs and the supporters of the Big 6, who had dismissed this match as a “Championship” clash, eye-rolled and gold clapped this piece of midfield mastery, my reaction was a little more… well, animated.
And as is the appropriate response nowadays, I then headed to Twitter to shout my feelings of joy, validation and relief into the ether.
As this 20-odd second passage of play is as ‘Premier League Quality’ a goal you can get.
The calm passage of preliminary passing and the measured build up to the final attacking denouement showed a level of match awareness, poise, skill execution, calmness and nous that was missing from the first 45 minutes of the match.
The cunning fake by Mooy to eliminate both of the men in front of him was so convincing that it rendered Newcastle’s Mickel Merino momentarily paralysed and left Javier Manquillo auditioning for the yet-to-be-pitched sequel to Chicken Run.
The elimination job Mooy did on his direct opponents was so thorough, he had more than ample time to ‘stutter-step’ and allow himself to adjust to a less than perfect return pass from Elias Kachunga.
But of all that pales in comparison to the exquisite finish.
After a deftly soft touch with his right boot, Mooy pitter-pats three quick steps to steady himself before wrapping the ball around the bracing shoulder of Ciaran Clark, past the grasping, outstretched fingers of Robert Elliot and soaring into the top right corner of the goal.
This piece of Mooy Magic is as close as it gets to ‘flash-dunking’ on your direct opponent in football and like its basketball cousin, it has sent the GIF mad world of professional football into a rightful frenzy.
That finish was the high point of the game and from that moment on, we had the Toons on toast.
Post match, the rumour mill continued to churn about the discontent of Newcastle’s manager and the malpractice of their owner but none of that should diminish from the Terrier’s performance.
Our second half was a mature and sensible performance befitting of a Premier League club, punctuated by a flash of brilliance that often accompanies this level of football.
Heading into Match Day 3 against Southampton, I am again confident about about our chances, despite the pundits and bookies having us (yet again) as home club outsiders.
Yes, Southampton created 29 shots in their opening 0–0 draw to Swansea and managed an outrageous 3–2 win against West Ham after amassing another 14 shots. The cold, hard statistics would suggest that we don’t have the attacking power to run with a club on the cusp of forming a “Big 8” in the top flight of English Football.
However, my confidence comes not from our ability to score goals but our approach to defending them.
Klopp-like manager David Wagner has at his helm a dedicated, hard working and inspired roster that clearly plays for their manager, and our ‘Tenacious-Terrier-Gegenpress” will at the very least make sure that the other clubs in the Premier League will leave Kirklees Stadium feeling like they have played in an intense football match.
Even the newest recruit Steve Mounie, who on big(ish) money could have seen his ego grow and his defensive work effort drop is an absolute Terrier in defence. The most impressive moment of the season so far (in my eyes) from Mounie was his 70 yard chase down in the 73rd minute of the opening fixture against Crystal Palace.
Seeing your marquee striker track back at full clip, not to tackle the player but just to apply pressure, reassures me that this roster is fully locked in on team first football.
An in an era where players are becoming closer to ‘football mercenaries’ than club men, Huddersfield is a pleasure to watch and more importantly a club that is a pleasure to support.
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