This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more.
The first seven matches of Huddersfield Town's 2022-23 Championship season have not been positive, and apart from Coventry City, who are two games behind them, they are on the least amount of points in the division.
Much has changed for the Terriers since they surprised many by getting all the way to the play-off final last season, where they were downed by Nottingham Forest, only thanks to a Levi Colwill own goal.
Head coach Carlos Corberan resigned from his post earlier in the summer and was replaced by first-team coach Danny Schofield, and that transition hasn't gone so smoothly at all.
Just four points have been won out of a possible 21, with Huddersfield's only league victory coming against Stoke City last month.
It is mainly the same team that finished third in the Championship last season, but it is clear to see the Terriers are woefully underperforming so far under Schofield's management, and FLW's Huddersfield fan pundit Graeme Rayner believes that winger Sorba Thomas in particular has not played to the abilities that he is capable of.
"There is one player that has underwhelmed me so far this season and that would have to be Sorba Thomas," Graeme said.
"That is potentially a side-effect of him having set such a high bar last season or it's also potentially the impact of a different look we've got in our team.
"His main asset last season was his distribution, his ability to put in really incisive crosses from set pieces particularly, we scored a lot of goals from set pieces last year and normally the threats from those set pieces were quite often our central defenders - Tom Lees, Naby Sarr, Matty Pearson, Levi Colwill, all looked really threatening every time we had a free-kick or a corner.
"He hasn't got the same targets to aim at this year, Johnny Russell is a big lad but he doesn't seem to win that many headers in the box, Tom Lees is there but he's on his own and we don't seem to be causing the same mayhem in the box every time we have a corner, but his delivery hasn't been as good either.
"I think that in terms of his play on the ball when it's not a dead-ball situation, I think that he looks a bit burnt out and jaded - we have to remember that in 18 months he's gone from non-league football to a full international with a chance of going to the World Cup, and consequently he may have found it all a lot to deal with."
The Verdict
Thomas certainly had a breakout year with Huddersfield in the 2021-22 season, providing multiple assists for the Terriers on their way to the play-offs.
But it may be a case of suffering from second-season syndrome as he looks to impress just as much as he did last year, which isn't always going to be the case.
With the World Cup possibly on his mind as well, Thomas' club form has suffered in the early stages of the season, but maybe it is a case of just not working as well under a different manager.
What is known though is that Thomas needs to regain last season's form sharpish, or he and his team-mates could be in a season-long relegation battle.
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