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Post by ball on Mar 29, 2022 22:25:29 GMT 1
Looking on Twitter and there was an article from The Athletic on Nicholls, got about a paragraph down it and it wanted me to subscribe just to finish the article 🤬 if ever on your phone and clicking paywall links quickly put your phone in to flight mode and you can usually read the full article
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Post by Porrohman on Mar 30, 2022 6:19:55 GMT 1
Looking on Twitter and there was an article from The Athletic on Nicholls, got about a paragraph down it and it wanted me to subscribe just to finish the article 🤬 if ever on your phone and clicking paywall links quickly put your phone in to flight mode and you can usually read the full article Cheers 👍👍👍
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Post by Orinoco on Mar 30, 2022 8:44:49 GMT 1
Looking on Twitter and there was an article from The Athletic on Nicholls, got about a paragraph down it and it wanted me to subscribe just to finish the article 🤬 if ever on your phone and clicking paywall links quickly put your phone in to flight mode and you can usually read the full article Good tip, will try that.
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Post by terryya on Mar 30, 2022 9:51:05 GMT 1
Anyone with an Athletic subscription able to copy and paste the article?
I know it's a bit cheeky.
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Tinpot
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Post by Tinpot on Mar 30, 2022 9:59:30 GMT 1
Anyone with an Athletic subscription able to copy and paste the article? I know it's a bit cheeky. Look on the previous page.
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Post by 28901 on Mar 31, 2022 11:24:59 GMT 1
I was talking to a Barnsley fan who remembers Nicholls being shocking for Wigan v them. Keepers do seem to peak later than outfield players.
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Post by Orinoco on Mar 31, 2022 12:00:55 GMT 1
I was talking to a Barnsley fan who remembers Nicholls being shocking for Wigan v them. Keepers do seem to peak later than outfield players. Its a well known fact that older keepers seem to peak later in their careers, also seem to carry on playing on until an older age.
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Post by 28901 on Mar 31, 2022 13:31:45 GMT 1
I was talking to a Barnsley fan who remembers Nicholls being shocking for Wigan v them. Keepers do seem to peak later than outfield players. Its a well known fact that older keepers seem to peak later in their careers, also seem to carry on playing on until an older age. Yes, strange how Nicholls has been around for a few years unnoticed. I don't remember seeing or hearing about him until he came here.
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Post by Orinoco on Mar 31, 2022 13:56:15 GMT 1
Its a well known fact that older keepers seem to peak later in their careers, also seem to carry on playing on until an older age. Yes, strange how Nicholls has been around for a few years unnoticed. I don't remember seeing or hearing about him until he came here. Same here, never heard of him either!!
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Post by dewsburyborn on Mar 31, 2022 14:34:56 GMT 1
Huddersfield Town’s Lee Nicholls has kept more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the Championship.
The 29-year-old, signed on a free transfer last summer from MK Dons of League One, also boasts the highest tally of saves among those plying their trade in this season’s second tier.
It isn’t only clean sheets and saves, however.
Nicholls also leads the way with his six yellow cards, the highest among the goalkeepers. All but one of those has been for time-wasting — again, a season-high for those whose job is keeping the ball out of their team’s net.
Opposition fans may have made clear their frustration at Nicholls’ antics via a cacophony of whistles and jeers. But Carlos Corberan’s promotion chasers have been laughing all the way to the (points) bank with every one of his cautions for time-wasting having come in games Huddersfield went on to win.
An impressive record, and one that gets the approval of a predecessor between the posts at the Yorkshire club who has seen every Huddersfield game this season in his role as expert summariser for BBC Radio Leeds.
“Probably the best word for it is shithousery,” Matt Glennon laughs when speaking to The Athletic. “And Lee Nicholls is very good at that. Sometimes, he will push the boundaries. Most goalkeepers do.
“But what I like about Nicholls is how totally in control he is, almost as if he has shut out all the noise.
“That isn’t always easy. A lot of it comes with experience. Later in my career, I used to love stretching things out at goal kicks, when the opposition fans behind the net were doing that extended shout that ends in ‘You’re shit… Aaaaaah!’
“I’d deliberately wait until they were almost running out of breath. You could hear it in their voices, they suddenly went very high pitched. Only then would I kick the ball. I’d look round and they’d all be coughing with the effort, having turned blue in the process!”
Nicholls might not have gone quite that far just yet. But his tricks of the trade to fritter away a few potentially vital seconds have been impressively varied.
His repertoire includes the “Take the goal kick from the opposite side to where it went out” routine. Or, if he’s really in the mood, immediately retrace that stroll across the six-yard box before finally placing the ball down on the turf.
Failing that, he might rile the opposition further by using his defenders as decoys.
“Opposition fans find it totally infuriating,” says Glennon, who made 122 appearances in three and a half years at Huddersfield from 2006-10. “I’m sure if I was commentating for the opposition BBC station, I’d be fuming and saying to the listeners, ‘Why is this referee allowing this to go on?’
“But when Nicholls does it for Huddersfield Town, I can’t help but smile to myself.”
Huddersfield fans got an early taster of the time-wasting antics that have so far set their summer signing apart.
Nicholls was booked in each of his first two Championship outings — victories over Preston North End and Sheffield United.
At home to Preston on August 17, Corberan’s side going ahead thanks to a 74th-minute own goal from Liverpool loanee Sepp van den Berg was the cue for Nicholls and his team-mates to get to work.
Twice in as many minutes, Preston were caught offside deep in home territory. On the first occasion, defender Tom Lees shaped to take the resulting free kick only to then beckon his goalkeeper forward, a move that meant it took 29 seconds to restart play.
Twenty seconds later, the assistant’s flag went up again. Huddersfield then repeated the above manoeuvre, albeit with one slight tweak.
The moment Lees placed the ball (above), as if ready to take the free kick, midfielder Alex Vallejo suddenly dropped deep, dragging his marker, Daniel Johnson, forward in the process.
This left Lees with a simple pass on into midfield. Instead, the defender’s next move was to step over the ball and beckon Nicholls forward to take it.
Referee James Linington, however, had seen enough and immediately whipped out the yellow card.
Play eventually restarted… after a 46-second delay.
With more than 10 minutes still to play, plus stoppage time, Nicholls was, in theory, walking something of a disciplinary tightrope, but he continued to push his luck, taking a further 25 seconds to restart play after claiming a bouncing ball and then, deep into added time, a colossal 48 ticks of the watch over a goal kick after deciding he wanted to take it from the opposite side of his area to where the ball had run dead.
“It is a brave referee who sends a goalkeeper off for time-wasting,” says Glennon. “There will always be a couple more warnings if you’re on a yellow card, and goalkeepers know that.
“There are a few tricks you can do, just to be on the safe side in terms of a second yellow card. Such as, at the next goal kick after you’ve been booked, jog over to the ball. It looks like you are speeding up when really you’re doing nothing of the sort.
“I’d usually take three or four strides for a goal kick. But, if we were winning and it was late on, suddenly that becomes 10 or 11. Nicholls is very good at this, knowing just how far he can push things.”
Four days after that caution on his home debut, Huddersfield travelled to Bramall Lane for a Yorkshire derby.
And once again, Nicholls got to work once his side went ahead with 15 minutes remaining.
He took 24 seconds to restart play after catching a Chris Basham cross, then another 46 seconds over a free kick. Much to the satisfaction of the whistling home fans, this latter effort subsequently sailed straight out of play.
Sheffield United again tried to get the ball forward but an overhit pass ran dead, around 15 yards to the left of the Huddersfield goal. An eager ball-boy quickly retrieved it but Nicholls refused to be rushed, simply allowing it to run straight past him out towards the edge of the area.
Referee Michael Salisbury’s response was to move towards the edge of the D, where he ordered Nicholls to get a wiggle on.
Having ambled back towards the left-hand side of his six-yard box, Nicholls suddenly decided its right edge was actually the preferable option.
With the whistles getting louder, Salisbury had seen enough and out came the yellow card.
The following month’s 3-2 home win over Blackburn Rovers was another masterclass in slowing things down at the price of a booking.
With Huddersfield 3-2 ahead and the game into the 86th minute, Nicholls came to collect a routine cross and then immediately fell to the turf.
Then, after getting back to his feet with all the speed of an arthritic pensioner carrying some heavy shopping, he idled away another few seconds facing up to Ben Brereton Diaz before finally launching the ball downfield. This game’s referee, Jeremy Simpson, took no action despite the appeals of Brereton Diaz and his fuming team-mates.
Instead, the official waited until the 93rd minute to put Nicholls’ name in the book.
Even then, though, it was difficult not to admire the goalkeeper’s chutzpah after throwing himself across the goal to cover a Lewis Travis shot that was always going wide — a point underlined by Nicholls only making his exaggerated dive after the ball had sailed past him.
After eventually getting back to his feet and reclaiming the ball, Nicholls proceeded to stroll from the left side of his six-yard box to the right. And then back again.
Simpson finally moved in to book Nicholls, but it was a price worth paying, as Huddersfield held on thanks, in part, to eating up those 38 extra seconds. Championship Goalkeeper Yellow Cards Lee Nicholls (Huddersfield Town) 6 Brice Samba (Nottingham Forest) 5 Thomas Kaminski (Blackburn Rovers) 4 Bradley Collins (Barnsley) 4 Adam Davies (Stoke City/Sheffield United) 3 Sam Johnstone (West Bromwich Albion) 3 Joe Lumley (Middlesbrough) 3
Nicholls’ other two cautions for time-wasting came away to Nottingham Forest and Reading (he was also yellow-carded for a confrontation with Tyrese Campbell in January after Stoke City equalised with 12 minutes to go). Both bookings came at goal kicks with Huddersfield leading on hostile territory inside the final quarter, though they owed more to a build-up of offences than pure shithousery.
Even on a booking, however, Nicholls continued to embark on what Glennon regards as his “favourite routine” of calling two defenders back at a goal kick to stand almost in line with him. Then, after a few seconds, the pair — invariably Lees and Matty Pearson — will be ordered back upfield. Only then will the kick be taken.
Nicholls did this three times in a five-minute spell immediately after being shown a yellow card in January’s 4-3 win at Reading. The last of those is shown below, with Lees on the left.
Only once Lees had moved away and Pearson had reached the edge of the area did Nicholls, by now being urged by ref Robert Jones to get on with things, take the goal kick. Fifty-four seconds had elapsed.
“It’s a great little routine,” says Glennon. “Sometimes, it is extended by Matty Pearson and Tom Lees not initially heading upfield after being told to by their keeper, meaning he then has to scream at them to get out.
“The impression given is of something happening, especially as the centre-halves are coming from so deep. But the ball is not in play and Town have a bit less time to defend their lead.”
Glennon is at pains to stress just what a fantastic signing Nicholls has been in terms of his day job — keeping the ball out of Huddersfield’s net. “Fifteen clean sheets for a team who conceded 71 league goals last season says it all,” he says. “He’s among three or four who have a case to be (the club’s) player of the year.”
But the 43-year-old also admits to enjoying the hard-nosed professionalism Nicholls, a Liverpudlian who began his pro career at Wigan Athletic before establishing himself as first-choice at MK Dons in 2017, has brought to the club.
“Goalkeepers try all sorts,” he adds. “And Nicholls definitely pushes at the boundaries, including a couple of tricks I did. Such as following the ball into the corner when it runs dead, meaning when the ball-boy throws the ball back it will go past you.
“By then, you’re already in the corner — meaning you have to then go all the way back to the goalmouth. But it’s not your fault, you’d simply been trying to get the game going by retrieving the ball.”
Asked if these delaying tactics are likely to be orders from the bench, Glennon replies: “I can only speak for myself but mine were all off my own bat. I’d recognise situations and know what was needed.
“With experience, you also learn how to read referees and their assistants. I’d make a point of having a little chat in the tunnel, just to size them up. Then, if the cards are coming out in the first few minutes, you think, ‘Not today’. But if they seem lenient, you act accordingly.
“There are big situations when you do have to slow it down. You’re leading but a bit under the cosh. You have to do something to defuse the situation,” Glennon says. “The crowd is on your back, they are trying to hurry you up.”
Huddersfield, sitting fourth in the table, have seven games remaining to cement their place in the play-offs.
A few more clean sheets would undoubtedly help.
As, if Huddersfield can get in front, will Nicholls’ ability to eke out a few precious seconds when the pressure is on.
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Post by Orinoco on Mar 31, 2022 18:48:24 GMT 1
Great long post, wont post the reply on the thread!!
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Post by ilsonterrier on Apr 24, 2022 23:04:29 GMT 1
Goalkeeper in the Championship team of the season. Well done Lee 👍🎉. Well deserved
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Post by Hank Hill on Apr 24, 2022 23:19:19 GMT 1
Completely deserved, personally my player of the season for us this year.
I don't think any of us expected him to play how well he has this year when we signed him, but he's been a rock for us this season and created the foundation we need to build up play from the back with his distribution.
Call him up Southgate! Even if he's 3rd choice, he's earned a look in, imo.
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Post by impact on Apr 24, 2022 23:27:17 GMT 1
Goalkeeper in the Championship team of the season. Well done Lee 👍🎉. Well deserved It is very well deserved. The team is a joke though. So lazy. Nicholls aside pick the 3 best teams (as Forest are the best in the world, obviously) and pick players solely from there. Zero consideration to players who have had seriously good seasons in worse teams.
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Post by hasta el pueblo on Apr 24, 2022 23:40:28 GMT 1
Well deserved, can't think of a single cock up that has led to a goal all season.
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Post by Niggled on Apr 25, 2022 6:31:06 GMT 1
Excellent season for Lee, My player of the season by far. Also note that Peter Clarke is in the league 2 team .
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Post by ruggedivy on Apr 25, 2022 6:58:01 GMT 1
Well done Lee. Very well deserved. Not sure how O’Brien or Carlos didn’t feature though. Forest were shite for the first 3rd of the season and we are 4 points ahead of Luton so the inclusion of Yates and Nathan Jones seems odd
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midlander
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Post by midlander on Apr 25, 2022 8:02:45 GMT 1
Well done Lee. Very well deserved. Not sure how O’Brien or Carlos didn’t feature though. Forest were shite for the first 3rd of the season and we are 4 points ahead of Luton so the inclusion of Yates and Nathan Jones seems odd Yates has been a collosus for Forest. Jones has done every bit as good a job as Carlos.
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Post by tepidterrier on Apr 25, 2022 8:25:42 GMT 1
For a league that a lot of people have dismissed as being weak compared to previous seasons, there's a lot of very good players who've not been able to fit in there. Would've been a travesty if we didn't have anyone in there and Lee is the obvious choice. Arguably harsh on O'Brien, Carlos, Lees, and Thomas, but I can think of a few players for each position that are unlucky to miss out.
I'm not sure about Jones for manager of the season, Carlos has done better in similar circumstances. But it should really be Cooper looking at where Forest were when he joined and the table since he joined.
I'm also not seeing much point in all the outfielders being from 3 teams. Harsh on good players from other sides like Willock, Gibbs-White, John Swift, and Matt Crooks to name a few. but everyone in there deserves it still.
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Post by Detective Boyle on Apr 25, 2022 8:59:47 GMT 1
Well done Lee. Very well deserved. Not sure how O’Brien or Carlos didn’t feature though. Forest were shite for the first 3rd of the season and we are 4 points ahead of Luton so the inclusion of Yates and Nathan Jones seems odd Yates has been a collosus for Forest. Jones has done every bit as good a job as Carlos. You could probably have tossed a coin between Carlos and Jones. Two squads worth equal amounts of peanuts defying the odds. However town are higher in the table with a better H2H against Luton, so Carlos should have taken it. He would have a right to be disappointed imo.
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Post by overtonterrierspirit on Apr 25, 2022 9:47:03 GMT 1
I’m.a little miffed by this to be honest.
Nicholls of course deserves it.
But there can’t have been a more consistent Central Defender than Lees in the Championship this season and surely Thomas and the impact he’s made this season, including International recognition, deserved a place.
And as for Carlos, £28 million profit on transfers and a team full of free transfers I won’t accept that Jones deserves it over him.
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Post by nicovaesen on Apr 25, 2022 9:56:16 GMT 1
I’m.a little miffed by this to be honest. Nicholls of course deserves it. But there can’t have been a more consistent Central Defender than Lees in the Championship this season and surely Thomas and the impact he’s made this season, including International recognition, deserved a place. And as for Carlos, £28 million profit on transfers and a team full of free transfers I won’t accept that Jones deserves it over him. 100% this! It’s not cool to not be money these days.
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Post by rockwall on Apr 25, 2022 11:04:41 GMT 1
Toffolo should have been in.
Name a better left back all season!
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Post by leroy212 on Apr 25, 2022 11:13:46 GMT 1
Toffolo should have been in. Name a better left back all season! I was surprised toff was not named. Like you said name a better left back really
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Post by Colin the Caterpillar on Apr 25, 2022 11:24:16 GMT 1
Toffolo should have been in. Name a better left back all season! He is certainly statistically better - more goals and assists in a team that scored a lot less than Fulham and involved in more clean sheets too.
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Post by Colin the Caterpillar on Apr 25, 2022 11:26:36 GMT 1
I’m.a little miffed by this to be honest. Nicholls of course deserves it. But there can’t have been a more consistent Central Defender than Lees in the Championship this season and surely Thomas and the impact he’s made this season, including International recognition, deserved a place. And as for Carlos, £28 million profit on transfers and a team full of free transfers I won’t accept that Jones deserves it over him. Agree with most of this. Also, Luton were 12th last season, so their improvement is less than what Carlos has managed…
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ldotm
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Post by ldotm on Apr 25, 2022 11:46:07 GMT 1
Toffolo should have been in. Name a better left back all season! It’s funny because a few of my mates are Fulham fans, they say Robinson is incredibly frustrating and overhyped.
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Post by themanfromatlantis on Apr 25, 2022 11:46:09 GMT 1
Interesting that the Forest keeper has a few bookings as well.
Does that mean he can also resort to shithouse tactics when needed? I would have thought the outfield players would want him to get a move on, so they could score more goals……
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2022 11:57:02 GMT 1
Well done Lee. Very well deserved. Not sure how O’Brien or Carlos didn’t feature though. Forest were shite for the first 3rd of the season and we are 4 points ahead of Luton so the inclusion of Yates and Nathan Jones seems odd Yates has been a collosus for Forest. Jones has done every bit as good a job as Carlos. Agree Yates as been outstanding and so have jones and Carlos whichever was chosen it would have been deserved congrats to all
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Post by Tinpot on Apr 25, 2022 16:17:50 GMT 1
Toffolo should have been in. Name a better left back all season! TBF his form wasn't great at the start of the season. Not bad, but not what he's been in since Xmas.
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