Identity crisis sapping Huddersfield’s attacking potency

With their high-pressing style compromised by the quality of their Premier League opponents, Huddersfield struggled to create chances last season.

It was, you’d think, one of the hardest things Huddersfield boss David Wagner has ever had to do.

Keeping tiny, newly-promoted Huddersfield from being sent straight back down to the Championship after an odds-defying promotion campaign? No, being tasked with giving the best man speech at the ultra-charming Jurgen Klopp’s wedding. Despite the alcohol clouding his memory of the speech, it’s likely Wagner did just fine. And he also managed to do all right with the whole consolidating-the-Terriers’-place-in-the-Premier League business, too.

The charisma Wagner must have exhibited to entertain the always-entertaining Klopp was likely on display during his Huddersfield team talks last season, because “inspired” is probably the best way to describe the manner in which Wagner’s team defended.

In the 2017-18 season, no Premier League team completed more tackles per match than Huddersfield’s 19.6, per WhoScored (Crystal Palace came closest, and they were still 1.6 tackles behind). And aside from Watford, no other team outside the Premier League’s top six allowed for fewer passes to be completed within 20 yards of their own goal (per Understat). Huddersfield were a chore to break down, and they needed to be.

In their 2016-17 promotion campaign, Huddersfield won admirers with their frenetic gegenpressing. They suffocated opponents high up the pitch and didn’t allow them to progress beyond the halfway line often. Along with Derby and Fulham, the Terriers spent the least amount of match time (a paltry 25 percent) in their own half in the Championship that season.  Like most pressing teams, Huddersfield used their energetic press to generate scoring chances, and since few teams in England’s second division possessed the personnel required to break that press, generate chances the Terriers did. Last season in the Premier League, however, a different (and predictable) story unfolded.

It’s fair to say Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham present an altogether different challenge for their opposition than the teams that ply their trade in the Championship. Last September, Wagner and Huddersfield found out just how different. Huddersfield started their home match against Tottenham last season looking to impose their trademark high press on Spurs.

For the match’s first few minutes, this looked to be a viable strategy. The John Smith’s Stadium was suitably raucous and a couple of early Tottenham mistakes suggested Spurs were going to be rattled by a turbocharged Huddersfield. There’s a reason “few” is italicized a sentence ago, though. By the 23rd minute, Harry Kane had scored his second goal of the match to put Huddersfield down 3-0. Early optimism vanquished, the Terriers’ press had been utterly ripped apart.

Huddersfield would go on to lose the match 4-0, and if Wagner needed proof that what works in the Championship doesn’t always work in the Premier League, he certainly got it that day.  Perhaps aware that a change in approach was necessary for Huddersfield’s Premier League survival, when Manchester United came to town the following month, Wagner ensured his team were set up in a way to give the match a much different dynamic.

Many of the teams that reside in the lower reaches of the Premier League sit deep and cede possession. That style is antithetical to the soccer Wagner’s Huddersfield played in the Championship and that he coached at Borussia Dortmund’s reserve team, but it proved a successful blueprint for the Terriers against United.

Huddersfield had the ball for just 22 percent of the match, but still managed to walk away 2-1 winners. This rearguard, defend-as-though-your-lives-depend-on-it approach also earned Huddersfield vital away draws against both Manchester City and Chelsea toward the end of the campaign, results that helped guarantee their Premier League safety. Looking ahead to the 2018-19 season, it’s hard not to think Huddersfield have an identity crisis to address.

To be blunt: Huddersfield were awful at creating chances last season. The Terriers average possession percentage fell from 55.6 percent in the Championship to just 46.4 percent in the Premier League, per WhoScored. With this, the number of shot totals plummeted. Huddersfield averaged a respectable 4.3 shots on target per match in the Championship, but could only manage 2.9 per match in the top flight (only relegated Swansea were worse).

That they would see less of the ball against better opposition isn’t surprising. But the way Huddersfield’s attack has been constructed under Wagner (and they haven’t done much to change their attack since Wagner’s settled in at the John Smith’s Stadium) is particularly ill-suited for a dearth of possession.

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Huddersfield generally play with a fluid band of four attackers in a 4-2-3-1 formation and lack a classic, goalscoring number 9.  Tom Ince, an attacking midfielder, led the team in shots per 90 minutes last season, per Understat, and has since left for Stoke.  Without the space that their gegenpressing was able to open up in the Championship, Huddersfield lacked the incisiveness to consistently worry Premier League defenses.

One of the defining characteristics of Wagner’s Huddersfield in the Championship was the attacking width they generated through their full-backs, and there’s hope the signing of the oft-injured, currently-fit full-back Erik Durm from Borussia Dortmund (a member of Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad) could help bring some of that magic to the Premier League. A converted striker, Durm is capable of playing down either flank, and Huddersfield will be hoping he’ll be able to get forward and trouble opposing teams down the left side of the pitch, opposite right-back and club captain Tommy Smith.

However they choose to do it, Huddersfield will need to find some way to produce more going forward this season if they’re to extend their stay in the Premier League. With the wings from their high-flying press clipped, questions about the quality of the attack have only grown more significant. Wagner is a captivating and inspiring figure, but great public speaking skills haven’t proven to prevent relegation.