Huddersfield 1-0 Fulham: Five things learned from Terriers’ first PL win this season

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Huddersfield Town moved off the bottom of the Premier League table, beating Fulham 1-0 for their first win of the season.

After a tense 30 minutes, Huddersfield took the lead through a Timothy Fosu-Mensah own goal as he was adjudged to have got a vital touch on Christopher Schindler’s header.

And that would be all it required for the Terriers to grab all three points as Fulham could not find a way through.

Here are five things we learned from the tight affair.

1. Reality kicks in for Jokanovic

Things had looked so promising for Slavisa Jokanovic in the summer. Leading Fulham back to the Premier League via the play-offs there had actually been doubts as to whether he would continue as manager having been linked with the Chelsea job before the Blues snapped up Maurizio Sarri.

Fulham had a promising time in the transfer window too, bringing in the likes of Jean-Michel Seri, Sergio Rico and Andre Schurrle among a host of others.

But now, Jokanovic’s future at Fulham is in doubt once again, though for a completely different reason.

After losing to Huddersfield on Monday night, Fulham are now bottom of the Premier League albeit only behind Cardiff City on goal difference. But things don’t look likely to get better any time soon for the London club.

Jokanovic should be respected for trying to play the positive football which saw Fulham promoted in the summer, but the Serbian’s lack of attention to the defensive side of the game is what’s likely to see the Cottagers back down in the Championship unless something changes.

Against Huddersfield, Fulham’s defence was virtually non-existent as a team previously lacking in goals were allowed to test their luck with little resistance – eventually resulting in Schindler beating Timothy Fosu-Mensah to score from a corner.

It’s never nice to see someone lose their job, but it looks almost certain Jokanovic will become the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season.

2. John Smith’s Stadium finally sees a home goal

At long, long last, a moment of happiness for Huddersfield’s home fans.

The Terriers have been poor this season, without a win in the Premier League and scoring just four goals prior to Monday night’s game – all of which had been scored away from home.

But finally, Huddersfield have scored at home as Schindler rose highest from a corner to head the Terriers in front against Fulham. Though the effort officially went down as a Fosu-Mensah own goal.

Fosu-Mensah’s unfortunate own goal was the first time Huddersfield had scored at home since April 14, when Thomas Ince scored in a 1-0 win over Watford. Since that time, seven games 658 minutes have passed without a goal for the Terriers despite 81 attempts.

The goal was also meant Huddersfield avoided become the second team in English Football League history to fail to score in their first six home games of a season, while going ahead in the Premier League for the first time this season.

3. Fulham’s over-reliance on Mitrovic proves their downfall

Aleksandar Mitrovic is a terrifying striker and a menace to many a defence on his day, but when he is not on form, Fulham are in trouble. And, unfortunately for Fulham, Monday night was one of the days Mitrovic was not on form.

The Serbian striker has scored five of Fulham’s 11 Premier League goals this season (45.45%), the third-highest percentage of any team in the division. Only Southampton with Danny Ings (57.14%) and Brighton with Glenn Murray (50%) rely on their top scorers more for goals.

And against Huddersfield, far too much was expected of Mitrovic from his Fulham team-mates with the striker often having to do all the hard work himself as the Cottagers pushed for a goal.

Mitrovic had four of Fulham’s seven shots on goal on Monday night, but the Serbian failed to hit the target seeing one shot wide and three blocked before they could trouble Jonas Lossl in the Huddersfield goal.

But it wasn’t just the shooting which Mitrovic struggled in. The striker was also dispossessed twice, but that came as a result of Mitrovic trying more than all of his Fulham team-mates to try to get something out of the match for the fans.

4. Fulham stand alone with Europe’s worst defence

As previously mentioned, Fulham have paid very little attention to their defending this season conceding 28 goals in their opening 10 Premier League games this season.

But in conceding to Schindler in the first half, the Cottagers now have the unwanted record of having the worst defence in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

Fulham had previously been tied with Serie A side Chievo, whose 28 goals conceded in 11 games sees them winless at the bottom of the league in Italy. And it all comes down to Jokanovic’s team selections.

Despite playing there regularly last season, Ryan Sessegnon is not a left-back and he was exposed by Huddersfield’s wing-backs on Monday, as others have got at him in the past.

The Cottagers have also played seven different centre-back combinations in the Premier League this season, robbing the defenders of the chance to create chemistry with a partner which could be so significant for Fulham.

Even second-half substitutions to try to tighten up the defence, with Cyrus Christie replacing Fosu-Mensah, came too late for Fulham as Huddersfield were happy to slowly chip away at the Cottagers waiting to expose gaps on the counter attack.

5. Huddersfield join the rest of the English Football League

After Newcastle United beat Watford on Saturday only one team remained without a win in the English Football League this season: Huddersfield.

But the Terriers would only have to wait two days to join the rest of the division, beating Fulham to move up to 18th in the table.

It wasn’t the best game in reality, fitting for the first meeting of two sides in the relegation zone this season, but Huddersfield were deserving of their win having the better chances and getting at Fulham’s clear weak point – their defence.

The Terriers were even able to soak up the pressure Fulham put on them in the final 10 minutes of the game, remaining strong in their own defence, playing as if Premier League safety were on the line already.

The post Huddersfield 1-0 Fulham: Five things learned from Terriers’ first PL win this season appeared first on Squawka News.



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