The manager must carefully balance his long-term playing-style objectives against not overloading the players with too much information – but the basics come first.
If it takes time for us as fans and reporters to adjust to a new manager’s phrasing and way of thinking about the game, imagine what it must be like for a footballer to have to modify their entire style of play whenever a new manager arrives at a club.
Huddersfield Town’s players have had to adjust to this for the previous 18 months or so. Following Carlos Corberan’s unexpected departure last summer, Danny Schofield had a brief and disappointing stint, which was followed by Mark Fotheringham’s longer but marginally more fruitful term.
The Scot was replaced by Neil Warnock in February, to little surprise; and now, perhaps controversially, Darren Moore has taken over, the club believing the former Sheffield Wednesday manager was more in line with their long-term objectives of returning to the Premier League.
Huddersfield Town must grab the focus from Darren Moore’s Hillsborough comeback.
That lofty goal appears to be a long way off at the moment, as Moore has yet to guide Town to win in three games. He’s keen to minimize the obvious storyline surrounding his return to Hillsborough this weekend as he seeks that elusive first win, stating it’s just another game to him – and that includes doing things on the training pitch the same way he always does.
“We will always work off the ball, and we will always work on the ball,” he remarked. Why? Because the game has two components: a game in possession of the ball and a game off the ball. So we’ll keep working at it – and not just because we want to develop as a football club and as a team; there’s a drive and motivation to improve.
“It won’t be like a light switch, where you turn it on and off and see the performances.” There is a continuing of work, and we will continue to work day in and day out, because we want aspects to make us better, and we need to be better.
“In terms of the football club, that’s our desire and temperament here: we want to be better as a team and as a football club moving forward.” Ultimately, that will always be done on the practice field.”
Moore admits that implementing a more possession-based system on a squad that was so effective going on the counter-attack under Warnock – to the point where Town never had more than 50% possession in a competitive game under the experienced manager – will be a special challenge.
The new manager seems hesitant to abandon Warnock’s methods completely; for example, midfielder Ben Wiles stated last week that the team has not yet abandoned Warnock’s unique man-marking approach.
While there were hints of improvement in Town’s approach play in the second half against Coventry and notably against Ipswich, Town regressed poorly against Birmingham City in midweek. The final score was 4-1.
“That’s why I use the phrase ‘it won’t be like a light switch effect’ in terms of seeing that immediately,” Moore says of his team’s problem in learning new behaviors on the field. “It takes time, work, and a lot of information, detail, and learning to produce that.”
“Will we be taking that route?” Yes, we will proceed down that path; however, it is something that has been done over time, and we will be working on it on a constant basis. And, once again, I’ve mentioned working off the ball – and there’s a component of it that involves working on the ball, which we will do.
“It’s where my desire is in terms of how I see the game and how I feel the game should be played, and as I said, we’ll be trying to implement that into the squad.”
But first, Town must ensure that they do not overlook the fundamentals of the game, such as routine saves, basic passes, and remaining alert to runners into the box. After the Birmingham game, centre-back Tom Lees, the only player in this group with prior experience working under Moore, confessed as much.
Moore sat his players down to examine film of the Birmingham game and compare it to better performances in previous matches, highlighting where things had gone wrong. Is it possible, however, to argue that these are topics to which Championship players should not have to devote so much time?
“Yeah, but you can still work on the basics,” Moore says. You can always work on the fundamentals, and the fundamentals can go a long, long way. Any sports professional at the very, very top of their game will have an aspect of performing the basics well.
“So I agree with Leesy in terms of getting those basics right, and even the simple basics can come undone – it certainly felt that way the other night.” We absolutely believe that the goals that we have conceded were avoidable from our standpoint. From Birmingham’s point of view, they played well as well on the night, which contributed to the goals, but we felt they were avoidable.”
