Terrier Spirit

Dec212020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

“I’m hoping we extend his contract to fend off potential suitors” – Huddersfield Town player ratings for Watford victory

Matches

Huddersfield Town beat Watford 2-0 on Saturday to nudge themselves into the top half of the table just in time for Christmas. The result came after some good fortune with both of our goals but it's hard to say it wasn't deserved after such a lot of work went into keeping Watford at bay. There still feels to be plenty of room for improvement with the team but there were signs of further progress in this game. We cut out costly defensive errors and forced a few out of the opposition. Here are my ratings for each player. Ryan Schofield - 8 out of 10 Made some excellent close range saves which he made look easy because of his good positioning. The young keeper was a key part of winning this game and looks like he may be ready for a longer run in the team. His distribution was mostly very g...

Dec202020 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

The dark arts, hard graft, the table & an Mbenza masterclass – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s 2-0 win over Watford

Matches, Opinion

If I told you that Huddersfield Town featured in a game were a goalkeeper mistake and a spectacular own goal decided the game you would be forgiven for thinking Town had another error-riddled outing. Thankfully it was Watford who made these mistakes and we had the tenacity and team-spirit to cling onto a two-goal lead that was so generously gifted to us in our final game before Christmas. There was a lot more than just good fortune that contributed to Huddersfield Town running out victors over a team that clearly had superior individuals but couldn’t quite come together to produce a convincing attacking display. In no particular order, here are a few of my thoughts on the game... A hard grafting performance The Carlos Corberán era has seen Town trying to play attacking and attractive f...

Dec192020 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Watford

Matches

Huddersfield Town host Watford this afternoon in their final game of an intense period of double-game weeks. The squad will have the luxury of a full week before they next return to action against Barnsley on Boxing Day. The need to rotate players should be reduced because we've not got a midweek game to consider so I'd expect to see close to our best available starting eleven. Goalkeeper: Schofield Hamer's injury niggle is clearly worse than it originally sounded as he's going to miss today's game too. I can't say I'm bothered as it's nice to see Schofield getting more first team experience. I was surprised by some of Carlos' comments in the pre-match press conference about his goalkeepers playing out from the back. He said he would prefer Schofield to play long more often but it is t...

Dec172020 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Danny Grant confirms he’s leaving Bohemians and rumours suggest he’s heading to Huddersfield Town

News, Transfers

Danny Grant, the talented 20-year-old winger, had confirmed on Twitter that he will be leaving Ireland to continue his career overseas. This tweet suggests a deal has been done and the youngster will be officially announced soon. There have been significant rumours that Huddersfield Town have wanted to sign him, including reports that a bid from Town was rejected earlier this week. While Hull have also allegedly been sniffing around the player, it's possible that the allure of Championship football with Huddersfield Town will prove to be too tempting. Not to mention the undoubted splendour of Huddersfield that must help draw players to our club like moths to a light bulb. A fond farewell to his old club There is a touch of class to the way that Danny Grant has s...

Dec172020 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

“My patience is wearing thin with him” Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s bore draw with Coventry

Matches

Last night saw Huddersfield Town draw against Coventry in a hard fought but unspectacular game which isn't likely to be a highlight of either side's season. I have very few strong feelings about this game. The point is useful but it could have been all three if we'd have taken our chances but we may have lost if it wasn't for some goal-line heroics from Edmonds-Green. Here's what I made of each player. Ryan Schofield - 7 out of 10 Some of the pot shots coming from Coventry suggested they wanted to test our young keeper and their analysts may have identified him as a weak link. If so, Schofield proved them wrong with every goal bound effort easily saved. His distribution was good too, with common sense used to decide whether to go short or not. Given the potato field of a pitch it made ...

Dec162020 by Terrier Spirit23 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Coventry – Back to the best team?

Matches

Last Saturday was a new low for this blog's attempts at predicting the lineup as Carlos defied expectations and played a weakened side against one of the league's best teams. Today's lineup will hopefully be a return of familiar faces after the replacements that came in on Saturday were almost universally poor in the 5-0 defeat to the Cherries. Here's how I think we'll lineup tonight. Goalkeeper: Schofield Hamer came off as a precaution at half time at the weekend but it seems he's likely to need at least this game to recover too after picking up a slight muscle strain. Schofield should therefore get a chance to impress his coach tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him as he's now reaching the kind of age where he should be pushing himself into contention for the nu...

Dec122020 by Terrier Spirit28 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town team to take on Bournemouth – Who will fill the gaps left by injuries to key players?

Matches

It might not be a full blown injury crisis but you could definitely call it an “injury pickle” that we face currently with Hogg, Schindler, Koroma and Stearman all recently succumbing to injuries. I’ve spoken many times before about how thin our squad is this season, so losing key players hits us harder than many other teams as the amount of experience and quality in our backup players is often not great. Carlos is going to be forced to put his faith in some of his fringe players today. How well these players perform is likely to be key to whether we can sustain our recent good form or if we struggle against a strong Bournemouth team. Here’s who I think Carlos should pick today: Goalkeeper: Ben Hamer Town had developed a nasty habit of messing around too much with the ball at the back ...

Dec62020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

“Playing with a swagger” Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s 2-0 victory over QPR

Matches

Huddersfield Town put in one of their best performances of the season in their win over QPR yesterday. It was almost like watching an exhibition of pass and move football for long spells of the game where Town completely dominated an unconvincing QPR side. Unsurprisingly, such a good team performance was a result of several individual players having excellent games and combining well together. Here’s what I thought of each player: Ben Hamer - 7 out of 10 Only had two saves to make and neither tested him but he made up for that lack of activity by playing some excellent passes out from the back. Rather than pass short every single time, he mixed up his passing by booting it long under pressure and when he had time to think about it he chipped some intelligent balls out to the fullback ar...

Dec52020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on QPR

Matches

After a disappointing defeat to Cardiff on Tuesday night, Town have an opportunity to get back to winning ways against QPR this afternoon. We are up against a team that share many of Huddersfield Town's characteristics such as playing out from the back, trying to play attractive football and often getting it all a bit wrong. Like Town, QPR have both underperformed in some games and over-achieved in others, so the game is particularly hard to predict, much like Carlos Corberán's team selections. Carlos made five changes on Tuesday night in a bit to rest some tired legs and to give some fringe players an opportunity. Unfortunately the new additions to the lineup didn't cover themselves in glory and I suspect the bulk of the changes today will be an effort to get the best available eleven on ...

Dec22020 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Lucky chinos, playing out from the back, team changes and miserable Tuesday nights – Notes on Cardiff away

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost 3-0 to Cardiff last night in a game where the Terriers regularly shot themselves in the foot by making silly defensive errors. The attacking side of our game was almost as bad, as wave after wave of attack harmlessly came to nothing and Cardiff managed to dominate the game despite having very little possession. Despite there being five changes to the starting lineup, there was a familiar feel to this game. As we messed around with the ball in our own defensive third, struggled to find openings in the final third and lost too many battles in the middle of the park. Here are a few of my thoughts on the game. Too many changes to the starting eleven Trying to second guess Carlos Corberán's team selection is a fool's errand, as I've found with my predicted lineups thi...