Analysis of Barnsley's 2-0 loss at Huddersfield Town in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night.
ANOTHER NOTHING PERFORMANCE FROM ABJECT REDS
ALTHOUGH the competition was different, and so were many of the players, as well as the atmosphere with just two sparsely-populated stands open – this game was almost a carbon copy of Saturday’s one-sided league loss except, somehow, Barnsley were even worse.
The EFL Trophy is not a priority and has been used to give gametime to fringe players - with Darrell Clarke focusing post-match on it being a ‘good work-out’. But the performance fed into a wider narrative for the Reds this season, especially in recent weeks. They are playing confused, incoherent, error-strewn nothing-ball – unable to keep hold of possession or muster regular attacks while being very easy to get at defensively.
They have won one in seven in competitions, and none of the last four, while they have conceded in the final 15 minutes of each of the last seven games.
Huddersfield had 24 shots to their visitors’ one and 37 touches in the Reds box compared to Barnsley’s five in the Terriers’ area. The hosts also had 65 per cent possession, while missing a series of chances as they should have easily doubled their margin of victory in what often resembled an attack versus defence training session.
Huddersfield took until the hour-mark to take the lead but it felt inevitable. The several hundred in the away end deserved much better.
After Stephen Humphrys, on Saturday, saw a 13th-minute long-range strike saved, the Reds played for three hours, including injury-time, without having another effort on Huddersfield’s goal across these two games.
Clarke said that ‘the gulf is quite big’ between the two squads but, while Huddersfield have spent more money on their side over recent years and certainly have more depth, a large part of the chasm in class this week has been Barnsley’s inept performances against a team that had lost their previous four League One matches.
This cup tie, and Saturday to an extent, resembled the games Barnsley used to be involved in when one of the League One minnows with a tiny budget came to Oakwell and defended nearly constantly in the hope of a point or freak 1-0 win. Have the Reds really fallen so far, so fast?
They have lost eight of their last nine games in Huddersfield – the only win being behind-closed-doors – while their record in the pink third kit reads: three games, three goalless first halves, and a 7-0 aggregate defeat at full-time.
Let us hope that the footballing Gods do not conspire to draw these clubs together in the first round of the FA Cup on Monday.
THAT REDS 11 SHOULD NOT BE SO DOMINATED
Barnsley made nine changes from Saturday’s game – with Georgie Gent and Humphrys the only two to retain their starting place – and Huddersfield seven.
Neither side had a league game the following Saturday due to international call-ups but both used the opportunity to give minutes to first team squad members.
The home bench had four players on it in their 30s, including £2million striker Rhys Healey, while they had made more than 1,000 league appearances between them – compared to zero league games from Barnsley’s seven subs who were six teenagers and 20-year-old goalkeeper Adam Hayton.
But the Reds were already totally outclassed before either sided turned to their bench, and the starting sides should have been far more evenly matched.
The vast majority of Barnsley’s 11 were experienced senior players, regular members of the first team squad. They should not be completely outplayed and dominated by a much-changed side from a club in the same division.
Very few players staked a claim to start in the next league game but, whoever plays at the moment, there seems to be no obvious gameplan and style while they lack quality and consistency in almost every area.
MARSH MISS ONLY REAL ATTACK
Barnsley’s only chance of the game arrived on 49 minutes and it was a big one. Kelechi Nwakali played an impressive pass through the Huddersfield back line to Kyran Lofthouse on the right of the box who crossed low for Aiden Marsh a few yards out. But the striker appeared to mistime his shot and the ball hit him then dribbled out of play.
Other than that, the Reds had no shots and barely any other attacks in an embarrassingly toothless performance – often looking clueless going forward on the rare occasions they had the ball.
Marsh and Humphrys were starved of possession up front but did very little with it when they had it.
PINES RED CARD CAPS TOUGH NIGHT
On a scale of Brek Shea swearing at fans to Daryl Dike scoring an acrobatic winner, Donovan Pines’ evening as an American Barnsley player in Huddersfield was not the worst ever, but still a very harrowing experience.
The centre-back was sent off on 83 minutes for tripping lively Town substitute Tom Iorpenda who was through on goal, after Pines himself had lost the ball – not for the first time that night.
That meant the Reds have had two players dismissed in two trophy games this season, following Corey O’Keeffe’s elbow in the last match.
It also continued a tough season for Pines who has been a substitute in league games recently.
He had played in the middle of a back three in-between Irish duo Connor Barratt - a 20-year-old who made his full senior debut and was the only starter who is not part of what is considered the regular first team squad - and Conor McCarthy. They all did some good work defensively under intense and almost constant pressure, but each gave the ball away in key areas, leading to big chances.
Left wing-back Georgie Gent had a very tough night, especially in the first half, against Lasse Sorensen. Right wing-back Lofthouse should have had an assist but did not track back for the opening goal.
Jon Russell was captain against his former club, for whom he played in the Championship play-off final in 2022, but could not get any kind of control of the game, or the ball most of the time, or Huddersfield’s attacking midfielder Antony Evans who dictated the match.
KELECHI ONLY BRIGHT SPOT
Just five months ago, in May, Nwakali was starting in the Portuguese top flight for Chaves against a Porto team which was full of internationals such as Brazil striker Evanilson who has since gone to Bournemouth for £30million and Francisco Conceição who scored a winner for Juventus in the Champions League last week.
After a prolonged wait to due visa and fitness issues, he finally made his Barnsley debut in this game – and was one of the very few bright spots on a dark evening for the club.
The Nigerian midfielder showed the quality you would expect from someone who was named Player of the Tournament at an Under 17s World Cup, which he won, and is now a full international who has played in the top flight in the Spain and the Netherlands.
Although he did not see much of the ball, when he got it he was brave in possession and tried to open Huddersfield up with positive and ambitious passes - mostly successfully finding the feet of a team-mate. A different player to the other midfielders, he must surely be in contention for a league debut at Blackpool next week.
Another player who impressed was goalkeeper Ben Killip, making several fine saves to keep the score down.
The other positive saw Barnsley bring on teenagers Luke Alker and Ziggy Kozluk - son of former Red Rob - for their professional debuts, having both scored for the under 21s on Friday.
OUT WITH A GAME TO PLAY
For the first time since groups were added to the competition, Barnsley have failed to make the knock-out stage of the EFL Trophy. That is despite having a group game left to play at home to Doncaster Rovers on October 29 which – as a dead rubber for them in a competition few care about – could be one of the most meaningless games in the club’s history.
It will still be an opportunity for fringe players and youngsters, with Bayley McCann – an unused substitute in this match – potentially coming up against his father Grant who manages Donny who still have a good chance of progression from the group.
Pines and O’Keeffe will be suspended while it is unclear if Josh Benson will be back after he came off after 30 minutes with a tight hamstring. Hopefully it is just a precaution for a player who had just started featuring regularly, off the bench, following a series of injuries.
