It is that awkward second album for Huddersfield Town. They defied expectations last year by surviving the drop but this year they are in a trickier situation than that of the start of last season. David Wagner really does have his work cut out to keep his side up.
At this point last season they had accumulated 15 points, yet this season they currently have just 6 points to their name. One win in eleven is not good enough and they are currently just one point above the bottom team Fulham; who they managed to beat 1-0 on Monday night.
The 1-0 win, albeit effective, was turgid, dreadful and something you would expect to see in League Two. Huddersfield have not been the exciting free flowing side we saw at the start of last season as they shocked Manchester United with a 2-1 win. It is almost as if they are content with losing 1-0 every week as long as it doesn’t turn into a mauling like they had against Manchester City.
Five goals. Five goals is all they have this season and just one of the goals has come at home. It is hardly confidence filling from a side who only managed 28 goals last season. They do lack a serial goal scorer with an eye for goal. If you look at other recently promoted sides in the past four years you see they do have that man. Glenn Murray of Brighton, Chris Wood of Burnley and to an extent Raul Jimenez of Wolverhampton Wanderers all have the ability of finding the net or help supplying goals.
A 16th place finish last year was a brilliant achievement for The Terriers, especially with the budget they had to work with but you get the sense that they should be pushing on more than they should be now. The aim for Huddersfield is to consolidate themselves as a Premier League club like Bournemouth, Burnley and Crystal Palace but they are still not performing to standards required to be that type of club.
Admittedly, they are likely to scrap it out once again and suffer some losses but the performances that go with it have to be improved. They have suffered defeats when they have played well for example against Liverpool but on the flip side they have played terribly and lost like they did against Watford the following week. The Fulham game was a huge result for them even if they played poorly they still managed to get the result.
If Huddersfield manage to get a run going off their recent victory then it can mask bad performances and too be honest it is what they need. With West Ham their next opponents they may have to grind out another result before they can start playing more free flowing football as the not so pretty football worked for them.
Huddersfield fans, unlike many fans, will want results over performances to stay in the top flight. If they manage this feat then they will want the performances to improve. They have a fantastic manager, a loyal fan base and players who will graft but they have to start getting results now!
