Mark Sykes says his Bristol City team-mates have acknowledged the club's recent issues scoring from open play as he sets about putting that right on Tuesday night.
Following Saturday's 2-0 home defeat against Cardiff City, the Robins have scored four in their last six matches, although one of those games came against Manchester City. Two of those goals came from the penalty spot, while Rob Atkinson found the target following a short free-kick routine against Wigan. Prior to that, Sykes scored from open play in the 1-0 victory over Norwich.
Although it's worth noting it hasn't particularly been an ongoing problem throughout the season. City have scored 25 goals from open play, the joint-11th most in the Championship alongside five other sides. In comparison, Tuesday's opponents in Huddersfield only have 15.
Sykes was one of City's biggest goal threats following the turn of the year and switch in formation to a 4-3-3. After being pushed forward in a favoured attacking right-wing position, the Republic of Ireland international repaid Nigel Pearson's faith with five goals inside a seven-game span during the club's 12-game unbeaten run.
He's now gone five games without a goal, and has been dropped into a right-back position during games, but it's a statistic he is looking to improve starting against Neil Warnock's Huddersfield. The Terriers are bottom of the Championship and come into the game following back-to-back 4-0 defeats against Burnley and Coventry.
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, Sykes said: "I've only recently started my so-called Championship career but I feel like I'm doing well and I'm enjoying my position I'm playing at the minute, I just hope I can get back among the goals.
"A lot of the boys have documented that we haven't scored many from open play so for me personally I want to be able to recognise that and sort that problem out and hopefully I can do that tomorrow."
One of the main aspects of City's play that they will need to improve if they want to progress is their difficulty to break teams down who are happy to sit out of possession. Pearson's biggest strength is playing on the counter-attack but as seen on Saturday, his side can struggle to create openings when opponents are happy to sit back.
The Robins had 61.6 per cent of possession against Cardiff but without the lack of penetration against their towering central defenders. Tuesday's match could pan out in a similar vein with Huddersfield averaging 37.2 per cent possession in Warnock's three games in charge with a season average of 44.4. "It's disappointing to lose a game in that manner but there's no time to dwell on it," Sykes added.
"(We need) to have an understanding about when we have more possession with the ball and movements on and off the ball because we've probably been used to the opposition having more of the ball this season.
"It's well-documented we've been good on the counter but we have to get used to being more possession-based in some games. I'm sure there are games we will win and lose both when we do have the ball and don't have it, and unfortunately, Saturday went against us but we'll see how Tuesday goes now.
"Everyone looks at it in different ways but for me personally, I'd rather be playing a team bottom of the league rather than the top. People can dress that up in any way they want but that's my preference.
"I don't think I've played against a Neil Warnock side before so for me it will be something new. We'll be looking at this game thinking we want to be winning this if we want to push on in the table and finish in a good position this season.
"That's always on us, no matter who we play, our performances have to be good and it showed on Saturday when our performances aren't so good we can get turned over and we did."
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