We had 8 shots to their 15 and just 26% possession, but Huddersfield fan Joe Turner believes Benitez got his tactics ‘spot on’ – feeling his side never looked like scoring despite some stats suggesting they dominated.
The game was a funny one, with it looking like there may only be one winner if we didn’t improve upon our first half performance, however we played the second half perfectly – grabbing a goal and defending admirably to preserve our clean sheet.
After speaking to us a few days ago for our weekly ‘opposition opinion‘ piece, here’s what Terries fan Joe Turner said when reflecting on the game last night:
“Benitez got tactics spot on – allow us possession, wait for us to make a mistake & pounce. We were pedestrian & predictable in our build up play, too many sideways & backwards passes, constantly funnelled passes out wide to wing backs who only provided aimless crosses to an isolated striker whose movement & hold up play was shocking.
“Zero penetration by us, totally forgot that quickest route to goal is through middle. No pace in attack to try and turn defence. Failure to commit players into box, lack of creativity & imagination in final third. Need I go on ? We never looked like scoring.
“We seemed scared to play through middle for fear of losing ball & being hit on counter so we constantly just tried to keep the ball and move it out wide to wing backs who couldn’t cross.
“No NUFC players particularly impressed me, they didn’t have to, you had a game plan & they all stuck to it well. It just showed yet again that your biggest asset to stay in Premier League is Benitez. I’m not sure his tactics are in the finest traditions of the free flowing, attack minded Newcastle managers of yesteryear but they are effective.
“Kenedy looked poor for you, playing out of position as a wing back. Never a defender and had very little chance to attack us because your tactics were so passive.”
It’s hard to disagree with any of that in fairness.
Before the game, Joe told us that Huddersfield’s toothless attack could be the key difference between them staying up or heading down (as he fears this season), and yesterday’s game was probably proof of that.
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