Huddersfield Town take on Preston North End tonight in the Carabao Cup tonight in a match that may previously have seemed fairly meaningless but now has increased importance after Danny Schofield lost his opening two games in the Championship. Away from the glare of the league campaign he’s likely to rotate his squad and give the fringe players a run out but he will also be hoping to record his first win as Head Coach.
Predicting the team for these games can be very tricky when wholesale changes are likely but it’s also quite fun to try and guess which of the players on the first team will be given a chance. Here’s how I think we’ll line up.
Goalkeeper: Chapman
If you go off the official club website, Lee Nicholls and Ryan Schofield are the first team goalkeepers so it should be Schofield who steps in tonight but Chapman has been named on the bench in our recent games so I think it will be him despite him technically being a B Team player. He’s an Aussie youth international and is highly rated by the club. Whether he’s ready for the first team or not is unknown but a game like this one is a good test and I think it’s better to try one of our unproven youngsters than to keep persisting with Schofield, who’s confidence looked completely shot in his last outing in a Town shirt.
Defence: Spencer, Boyle, Nakayama, Jackson
Brodie Spencer has the unusual achievement of being a full international before even making his senior debut for his club. I think it’s completely bizarre that Northern Ireland called him up for their full men’s team for their summer friendlies at the end of last season but it goes to show how highly rated he is too. I’m excited to see more of him and curious to see how close he is to taking Turton’s place in the starting eleven. He only turned 18 in May but, as the old saying goes, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
The central defensive options that need minutes are annoyingly both left footed, in Nakayama and Boyle. Ideally you want a lefty and a righty in your back two but I’d rather play one on their less natural side and get them the game time they need. I’d have thought Boyle would be the obvious one to move to the right side as he doesn’t look that natural with the ball on either foot anyway so what’s the difference?
Another option would be to play Nakayama at left back but I think that would be unfair on Ben Jackson who was a standout player in preseason and deserves minutes in the cup to show what he can do. Based on Ruffels first couple of games we need to make sure we keep all our options open at left back in my opinion, so getting both Nakayama and Jackson on the pitch and playing 90 minutes of a competitive game would be a good idea.
Midfield: Camara, Mahoney, Holmes
We have problems in our midfield at the moment. Hogg and Russell look slow and negative when played together. If one is going to be dropped for Stoke at the weekend then they may play tonight instead but I’m going to assume they won’t. Instead I think we’ll see a bit of a makeshift lineup of Camara in the deep-lying role with Mahoney and/or Holmes playing ahead of him. Camara is probably the player I’m most excited to get a good look at tonight. With Kasumu injured for a few weeks he has a chance to nail down a place in the first team squad and tonight is his big chance to step up. I hope he takes it.
One of Holmes or Mahoney will play box to box and the other will be more like a number ten I guess but I’m not sure which will play which role. If I’m honest, I’d rather see Brahima Diarra from the B Team than either of these two but it seems unlikely that we’d play a youngster over experienced pros that need minutes to get them up to speed.
Mahoney strikes me as an odd signing. He didn’t get a new deal at Millwall because he didn’t play enough games for them and we’ve given him a contract. Why would a player not good enough for Millwall be good enough for us? And now we’ve got him, he can’t even make it onto our bench. It feels like he’s bloating the wage bill and blocking the pathways for the promising youth players we have in the squad but that’s maybe a bit harsh given I’ve only seen him put in a fairly unimpressive performance on a stream in a friendly game.
Holmes may be decent tonight as he’s often at his best when he’s been dropped and feels aggrieved. I think he’s one of those slightly mopey characters that needs to feel like they’ve been the victims of an injustice to perform at their best. So being dropped often leads to him lifting his performance levels and putting in more of a shift. But then when he wins his place back in the side, complacency will eventually slip back in and his yo-yoing form continues to go up and down.
Forwards: Grant, Rhodes, Koroma
The forward line is a bit like the midfield, Schofield has to choose between rusty first teamers or promising youngsters. Josh Koroma probably doesn’t deserve to start tonight and someone like Pat Jones might be a more interesting choice but it helps the long term interests of the team more to give Koroma a bit of time to try and play himself into form. If he can get a goal or two in the cup it could give him the confidence boost he needs to get back on track.
Danny Grant is the player many Town fans have been clamouring to be given a chance in the first team for a long time now. My advice would be to keep expectations low and to remember he’s had a long time out of competitive football for various reasons (through no fault of his own). He’s got a lot of talent but he might be a bit raw to begin with and it may take time before he’s up to his full potential. Then again, if he can score a goal like the belter he whacked in for the B Team last week, that would be appreciated.
Jordan Rhodes is better than his record during his second spell at Town suggests. He arrived injured, which limited his chances early on and by the time he was fit Danny Ward was in the form of his life and couldn’t be dropped. There’s also the issue that we don’t play anything like the kind of football that’s suited to Rhodes’ style of play but he gets his head down and tries his best anyway. He’ll do that tonight too because he’s a model pro and a nice guy. It’s just a shame we don’t have an Alan Lee or Lee Novak to play alongside him.
I’ve just realised I forgot Rolando Aarons. He limped off after ten minutes of a preseason friendly and hasn’t been mentioned again. As it’s the final year of his contract it’s genuinely possible that the club could try and never talk about him again and pretend he never existed, like Stalinist Russia. Rolando who? No such player ever existed, you must be mistaken. Or, it could have been a minor niggle, he’s now fully fit and will save our season after a triumphant return to action tonight. However, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Woe is me! PNE will be licking their lips if that’s the team Schofield picks!
From an untried goalkeeper through to a centre back with no good feet to a Millwall reject and a striker who “tries his best”, it’s not inspiring me with confidence.
If Diarra doesn’t start tonight, then you do have to wonder whether the hype about any young player is true. How many seasons has he been with Town; I’m guessing 3 or 4. He’s consistently been described as a ‘boy wonder’. I’ve only ever seen the briefest of glimpses of him in the last few pre-seasons and he does look like he’s got something. He’s no longer a teenager. He must start.
Well at least your keeping other town fans positive with your thoughts. Well done you.
Given that we can have 9 on the bench and 5 substitutes, I would expect most of the peripheral players will get some minutes tonight. I really think that Camara and Diarra should start. Gary Rowett said that Mahoney didn’t play much because he didn’t fit Millwall style, so maybe he might surprise us. Also think that Danny Grant and Pat Jones should get some extensive minutes.
I don’t think that the team played in first 2 games are anywhere near peak fitness so will be interested to see if peripheral players are better. Whatever the result, I will be pleased if one or more of the youngsters make a real statement. Put some pressure on the established players.
Why are you giving a place to Holmes? Anyone with the tiniest football brain would pick their Grannie before him, he is c**p.
Basically that’s too many changes to start. There will be a lot but Lees will probably play for his experience with Nakayama at left back. Thomas also should start with Rhodes in the middle. Hopefully Koroma doesn’t put on a Town shirt again. I never rated him much, even when he was scoring a few goals. Like Karlin Grant before him, cancel his right foot move and his threat is extinguished.
Played 2, lost 2? So early in the season, I would have thought that those that have been playing needed a bit more game time together? They say football is a game of two halves, problem is we only play in the second half.
Those players preforming well In the B team are more likely to come good in the first team and they would get the step up for the game against Preston for me but much more important , what is the game plan . Quick decisive passing forward play and not for heavens sake constantly passing the ball back or the square ball . It needs skill and much awareness alertness to execute quick decisive passing forward play but is most effective if done well . My worry is that we also need four back four hugely effective defenders which we have not it’s not looking good needs addressing
Depending how far you want to go in this competition will reflect on 3 changes or wholesale ones. It would be good to see the future pitting their wits against maybe a much changed PNE side ?, will they take it seriously?. On another subject do we have a sell on clause for Connor Coady, and anything received for his appearance for England. Sometimes these things are written in the transfer details.
Well we’ll!!! There are going to be several changes for tonight. Hasn’t every town manager since time immemorial done the same. We then play crap, lose and whinge about putting a crap team out.Won’t even listen to tonight’s audio, waste of my time!!