Huddersfield Town take on Stoke this afternoon at the John Smith’s Stadium and will be hoping to break their five-game losing streak and register their first points of 2021.
Stoke present an intriguing challenge as their recent form isn’t great but they’ve got some quality players in their squad. The previous meeting, earlier this season ended in a 4-3 defeat for Town in an entertaining but infuriating encounter at the Bet 365 Stadium.
Here are five questions that will be answered this afternoon…
Will Carlos play the same starting eleven?
My opinion is that we’ll see an unchanged lineup today. That’s why I’m writing a more general match preview rather than a post dedicated exclusively to predicting the team.
Duane Holmes is likely to make the bench but has only trained one day with the main group of players so far, so isn’t likely to start. Both O’Brien and Bacuna had much improved performances against Bristol City too, so dropping either would feel harsh.
Carlos confirmed that Hogg, Ward and all the other injured players aren’t ready to get back involved yet. So an unchanged team seems likely to me.
Fringe players like Pritchard and Phillips could be considered but neither has done well enough off the bench to justify selection.
Can Town play a full match without making a blunder at the back?
Some scamp on Twitter made a compilation of all Town’s defensive errors this season accompanied by the Benny Hill soundtrack. While it was a funny video, it was also quite shocking to see so many daft mistakes leading to soft goals.
Playing possession-based football inherently involves more mistakes at the back even for the likes of Man City but when you have players like Town have it seems to be inevitable.
Steven Chicken wrote an interesting article in The Examiner this week about how many different variations of centre backs and goalkeepers we’ve had this season. The near constant rotation of players in thesse positions (mostly because of injury) has meant we’ve struggled for consistency.
Another way of viewing this situation would be that we make these stupid mistakes regardless of the players in those positions. Like Trigger’s broom in Only Fools and Horses, the components of the defence keep getting swapped out but also, in terms of the problems, it remains the same.
Whoever put this together. Thank you. 👏😂 #HTAFC pic.twitter.com/toavy8jFAx
— Terrier1987cas (@Terrier1987cas) January 28, 2021
Is Fraizer Campbell going to silence the boo boys?
There was a lot of criticism aimed at Campbell after the Bristol City game but Carlos was very complimentary of him in the prematch press conference. The striker missed some presentable chances on Tuesday but I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll have a good game today and maybe even get on the score sheet.
There’s no debating the fact that Campbell should have scored more but he does add something to the team other than goals. There’s less criticism of his goalscoring when others on the team are finding the back of the net. Early in the season a lot of our goals came from the second wave of attackers that got into good shooting positions because Campbell had pushed back the back line and created the space with his movement off the ball.
Town have been linked with a striker lately, so it’s possible we’ll see someone new to push Campbell in this area of the pitch. Competition for places is always a good thing and even this rumour may be enough to get an extra level of performance our of Campbell.
Can Town get their first points of 2021
The second half performance in midweek has brought some positivity back to many fans as we played lovely football at times and created a glut of decent chances. But that was only 45 minutes and the three previous halves of football Town have played were pretty dire.
So I’m not completely sure which Town will turn up today. If we can play with the fluency and freedom we had in the second half against Bristol City then that’s great. If it’s the ponderous and tepid possession-for-the-sake-of-it football we’ve seen plenty of then defeat seems likely.
Bad runs can create their own negative momentum, as the doubts creep in to players and everything becomes harder and overthinking leads to costly mistakes. I don’t think there’s a chance of Carlos changing his philosophy to try and grind out results but it’s possible the players themselves could start playing within themselves and taking fewer risks. This can’t be allowed to happen though, as we don’t have the players to try and hold out for nil-nils and will invite pressure upon ourselves.
Up until this run started Town had over achieved by following Carlos’ way of playing and this recent slump has coincided with our football looking a lot less like the style we were promised under Corberán. Injuries in key areas and new players bedding in has been a factor. Hopefully we’ll see a return to the free-flowing gung-ho approach that served us well earlier this season.
Is this a good or a bad time to play Stoke?
Like most teams in the Championship this season, Stoke’s form has been up and down. Lately they’ve been going through a rough patch and it may be a good time to play them. It’s equally possible that they may be on their way out of their struggles as key players are returning from injury for them.
I tend to worry more about Town’s self-destructive tendency than the opposition but Stoke have a squad full of experienced players from this level and above. Jon Obi Mikel, Joe Allen, Steven Fletcher and James McLean could all potentially feature for Stoke and have extensive Premier League experience. Obviously having good individuals doesn’t always equate to a good team but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have that kind of experience available.
One piece of Stoke’s misfortune we can profit from is Tyresse Campbell’s unavailability. He tormented Town in the reverse fixture so it’s a relief he won’t feature today due to injury.
Thank you as ever, Terrier Spirit. One thing we never get from you is a hysterical outburst whether prompted by Town at their worst or their best. If you’re married, I’m sure your wife is grateful for such a calm even-tempered husband.
One tip – proof read. Your last point’s heading; fine = time.
I’ve nothing much to add. Same team? Yes. Holmes in the bench? Yes. Cut out the defensive catastrophes? Fingers crossed. Possible new striker coming in? That would be marvellous!
If Hogg was fit for a return, I’d be much more optimistic about the Town we might see today. He provides so much drive and energy; and if we’re going to see a continued upturn in form from O’Brien and Bacuna, for them to play with real freedom requires the knowledge that they have the solidity of Hogg behind them.
I’m not going to have another pop at Campbell. Assuming he starts today, I wish him well, hope he has a blinder and scores a brace. But if Town should happen to be awarded a penalty, unless Campbell has already scored a brace and is going for a hat trick, keep him well away from taking it!
Thanks Simon, I’ve fixed the typo in the header. Believe it or not, I do proofread every post but the odd mistake creeps through anyway.
I agree about Hogg. While Vallejo has other qualities, he’s not Hogg and we need him back.
I’m not sure who would take penalties in the current team. I’d guess Mbenza because he’s taking a lot of set pieces and can strike the ball well. I suspect Naby Sarr could do the kind of penalty where you blast it as hard as you can. As Bacuna and Campbell have both missed then they should not be considered.
Well done terrier not a lot to disagree with there, same team to start, the way they finished last game they all deserve to start again, I do sometimes think CC could give our substitutes a little more time to get into the game not all the time but when we are struggling, the rumours yesterday about the young striker has given me a bit of hope that they can pull this off, it’s the only position we don’t have competition for, all strikers offer different things Campbell has his strengths & has been immense so far with the number of games that have been thrown at him but he needs a rest and competition for his place, I hope we can carry on the momentum from the last game & cut out the silly mistakes then we are a match to any team, but stoke are one of those really annoying championship teams that you don’t know what you are going to get, 3-1 Town
You have to be a pretty good player to play out from the back in Carlos’s style. Many Town players are average to good and in any game they are likely to vary somewhere between the two. Everyone makes mistakes but if you are only average most of the time, the mistakes will come more often. Therefore we will continue to see mistakes. None of this matters if we are banging them in at the other end but if we continue to misfire then recent results could continue, at least until all the injured players return. Having said all that I expect Town to beat Stoke fairly easily today.
Just tried to buy my iFollow match ticket and it transpires that unless we are living abroad, we can’t watch today’s match. Audio only. Very disappointing.
….not disappointed now as I understand it’s on Sky. I’ll buy a day pass via Now TV. Phew!
Well at least the losing streak has been halted and I have no issues with any of the big decisions in the game. Schofield didn’t have a save to make all match which points towards a good defensive performance so it is galling that it was one of many bad balls by Keogh (I really want to like this lowlife, but he doesn’t have any redeeming features) that led to the penalty. Goldenboy Toffolo contines to lose his lustre and the linkup play between him, O’Brien and Aarons promised more than it delivered. Campbell is way past his sell-by date and Phillips shows nothing to make me think he is an immediate replacement. All in all another incredibly predictable frustrating Saturday afternoon.
I’m with you for the most part, Ian. Despite having all the ball, it was hard to find good performances. It could have been so different if Campbell had scored with that first half header – at 2-0 we could have controlled the match.
My biggest disappointment were the 2 wingers. Aarons never got going at all and what the heck was Mbenza doing in the second half? Stoke decided to leave him free so he had every opportunity to give an exhibition of wing play. Instead we got nothing at all; just trapped the ball, slowed everything down and passed backwards!
So with Campbell just being Campbell, that’s not a potent forward line.
Phillips looked like a boy playing with men. Offered nothing.
Sarr will get the blame for giving away the penalty but it was really the fault of Keogh who had made the same mistake 2 minutes earlier that had almost cost a goal.
Pipa was decent; Toffolo wasn’t too bad but their crossing was again poor.
So it’s hard to find bright notes. For me the brightest note was Duane Holmes. He buzzed about, didn’t misplace a pass and put in a couple of dangerous crosses which with a goalscoring centre forward might have produced a goal.
Surprisingly I was more cheerful after the Bristol match which we lost! Today’s display was very very ordinary.