Huddersfield Town face Nottingham Forest this evening in their third Championship game of the season. Neither team has scored a point or a goal in their opening two games, so at least one of the teams will see some sort of upturn in their fortunes by the end of the night.
There are plenty of things to watch out for in the game from a Huddersfield Town fan’s perspective. Here are some of the questions I’m looking forward to finding out the answers to tonight.
How will the tactical battle play out?
This game may give us a better look at the tactical system that Carlos Corberán wants to play. The difference in quality between Town and their first two opponents meant we didn’t see proper Carlosball as we struggled to dominate those games.
Town interviewed a Sarah Clapson from the Nottingham Post about what to expect from Forest and she said it was likely Forest will play on the counter, sitting deep and hitting Town on the break.
If this is true then it could be an interesting tactical battle. Nottingham Forest will be hoping to soak up whatever Town throw at them and then exploit gaps left by overly-adventurous Town defenders. Whereas Town should have plenty of possession in the Forest half but will need to find openings against a team that’s set up to defend.
The movement in the final third for Town will have to be much better than their last two games and someone will need to show a bit of creativity. Defensively, we’ll need to avoid individual errors and make sure everyone is drilled on where they need to be on the pitch.
Can Town create chances?
As I mentioned above, creating chances is a real issue for Town so far this season. Carel Eiting could help with this side of things if he’s thrown straight into the action, as would Karlan Grant.
I think it’s more important that the whole team show more attacking intent and look to get forward when we have possession. Against Brentford the ball got stuck in defence and we tapped it around too much. I’m all for possession-based football when there is some intention behind it. There needs to be better movement in attack and midfield when the ball is coming out of defence and we need to show more ambition with our passing.
That’s what needs to happen to get the ball into the opposition’s final third. When we get there it’s going to take some players to step up, take risks and create chances. Nobody looked like doing that last Saturday, let’s hope it’s different against Forest.
Will Corberán stick or twist with his team selection?
I don’t think anyone in Town’s squad from last Saturday played well enough to be sure of being selected for this game. Carlos has the worst kind of selection headache as he’ll have to decide whether to stick with those that were poor last weekend or gamble by putting in players that didn’t feature.
With so few chances created in the opening two league games I hope we’ll see a few midfielders and attackers dropped to the bench to make way for players more likely to get on the scoresheet.
While it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say the whole team should be swapped out and the youngsters given a chance, we don’t get to watch the players in training or know what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s also a huge gamble to throw too many young players into the team at once. I think we’ll see plenty of academy lads this season but it’s most likely going to be brief cameos initially until they prove they can do a job for the team at this level.
Will Grant play?
Karlan Grant has not been available for selection for the first three competitive games because a big-money transfer was expected to go through. The deal appears to have stalled, leaving Grant in a state of limbo.
There have been whispers online that Grant has said he wants to play tonight and has resumed training with the first team. There was no sign of him in the training video the club released this week, so those rumours may be unfounded.
Corberán said nothing had changed with Grant in his press conference yesterday and suggested he would still be left out of the matchday squad. This may have just been mind games, trying to throw Forest off the scent. Corberán doesn’t seem like the type to mess around with opposition managers via the media but we are still getting to know him so it could be possible.
If it’s true that Grant won’t feature then I think we could be making a mistake. If he’s willing to play and isn’t likely to leave in the next few days then why not play him? What better way to convince other teams to meet our valuation than putting him out on the pitch and let him show what he’s best at? I think the risk of injury is worth taking given how little goal threat Town have carried this season without him.
I still expect Grant to leave but we could let him sign-off by giving us a few goals and victory. Or at least show West Brom we are willing to keep him if they won’t agree to the terms we want.
How will Eiting fit into Town’s system?
I’m hoping Town’s new acquisition from Ajax will go straight into the starting lineup tonight. I don’t know if he is fit enough or well-drilled enough on the tactical system he will have to play. Pipa given his first start after just a few days training, so it may be that Eiting is too.
Who makes way for Eiting will be quite revealing. Hogg is the obvious choice as Eiting’s preferred position is the deeper midfield role. The Dutch youngster can also play further forward too, in the positions that Pritchard and Bacuna occupied against Brentford.
It’s widely thought that Eiting is a massive upgrade on our existing midfield options in terms of technical ability and passing skill but he could be a bit lightweight and vulnerable to the physical challenges of Championship football. For this reason it may be better to keep Hogg in to do the dirty work and play Eiting further forward. Mooy and Hogg had this dynamic and it brought the best out of both players, albeit in a different tactical system.
Can the players keep going for 90 minutes?
Huddersfield Town hustled and bustled against Brentford for a good 70 minutes and the pressing was relatively effective and restricting them to only a few quality chances despite Brentford clearly being the more talented team. Then our legs collectively went with 20 minutes to go and it became a bit painful to watch as Brentford stroked the ball around and ran us ragged.
The gruelling nature of Corberán’s training regime is well known among Town fans and it’s likely that the implications in the short term are injuries and worn out players until their base level of fitness rises to meet the demands being asked of them.
It will be interesting to see how well Town do against Forest in terms of fitness. Having to make two substitutions in the first half against Brentford meant several players had to play 90 minute who most likely wouldn’t have otherwise. If we avoid injuries against Forest then we’ll be able to add some fresh legs in the closing stages to help keep up the energy on the pitch.