Huddersfield Town put another point on the board in the Sky Bet Championship last night, drawing 1-1 with Birmingham City at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Fraizer Campbell fired Huddersfield into a 1-0 lead on 63 minutes with a fine volley after Harlee Dean made a mess of clearing Naby Sarr’s deep cross.

However, that lead would last only four minutes, with Marc Roberts smashing Birmingham level after he reacted first to a loose ball following Ivan Sanchez’s corner.

 

 

Scott Hogan had good chances to complete the turnaround late on and Huddersfield applied pressure from set-pieces.

There was to be no winner, though, with two of the Championship’s struggling sides sharing the points on offer in West Yorkshire.

We begin breaking down the action by focusing on one winner and one loser at Huddersfield.

Winner: Richard Stearman

 

Stearman had been given late minutes in the win over Swansea and defeat to Preston, but this was the centre-back’s first start since November’s clash with Middlesbrough.

A hamstring injury had kept him sidelined, slowly coinciding with Huddersfield's drop off in form.

From the first whistle, Stearman was in the thick of things, barking instructions from the heart of a three-man defence.

An early clash with Harlee Dean’s elbow left Stearman needing lengthy treatment, but the bruised 33-year-old dusted himself down and produced a battling display on his return.

Stearman headed clear shots from Sanchez and Jeremie Bela, whilst also completing a sound passing display.

As per whoscored.com, Stearman blocked two shots, made five clearances and collected three interceptions. His pass success was up around 72% too, despite the fact Corberan wanted to see more of his side playing direct.

It is true that Stearman could have reacted quicker to prevent Roberts equalising, but his performance was resolute and Huddersfield looked more assured with his presence in defence than they have since Richard Keogh signed.

Corberan discussed his centre-back after the game: “It’s important to have him ready and have him fit. It’s also important that we have three centre-backs we have right now: Stearman, Sarr and Keogh.  

“We have the option to play with three together or we can rotate one of them (as we did tonight) because we need to remember the number of games we have in the legs.”

Battered and bruised, Stearman manned Huddersfield through the final 20 minutes with little but a scratch on their goal. Now he’s back in the side, it’s hard to imagine Corberan will think about rotating Stearman whilst points are so precious.

Loser: Carlosball

 

Corberan has arrived at Huddersfield with a clear philosophy and, heading into the New Year, the side were taking big strides towards resembling the outfit the head coach would want.

However, form has dipped and, as things stand, Huddersfield have just one victory to their name in 2021.

Injuries haven’t helped that and Huddersfield have slipped from a comfortable position in the table into a relegation fight.

Now isn’t the time for high-risk football, as Corberan explained post-match: “Playing out from the back, you need one profile of player. We have the option to do it, which is positive. But we don’t want to be a predictable team and invite teams to come here, press and create problems.

“I think it’s important for us to use other possibilities we have like Fraizer Campbell or Isaac Mbenza making runs in-behind, or with (Yaya) Sanogo or (Kieran) Phillips.

“We need to find the level that makes us a more competitive team.”

Corberan laughed off the suggestion that Huddersfield’s easy-on-the-eye football would just evaporate now, but his quotes suggest that now is the time to go direct, play the percentages and pick up valuable points.

Keeping things tight with a three-man defence and five in midfield, Corberan’s side looked more compact last night against Birmingham.

That came at a cost, though, with Huddersfield not as expansive as they had been earlier in the season.

However, the fact is that points mean more to them now than performance. That might just mean the evolution of Carlosball is shelved until the end of the season.