Terrier Spirit

Jul122020 by Terrier Spirit10 Comments

Should Danny Cowley be sacked as Huddersfield Town manager?

Matches

No. Danny Cowley deserves to keep his job. Here are my reasons why... He inherited a mess It was well documented that Danny Cowley turned down the Town job when he was first approached. Despite a rumour that our offer would increase his salary by a factor of 10 he still said no. Imagine howtoxic Town must have looked to be able to initially walk away from adding an extra zero to your earnings. It's clear Cowley turned down the initial approach because the club was so obviously in a negative spiral and had not yet hit the bottom (despite being bottom end of the league at the time). Cowley is notorious for carrying out detailed opposition research. So he will have discovered, when researching for Lincoln's League Cup trip to Huddersfield, just how crap our team were. He’ll have known tha...

Jul112020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

4 theories about why Town were so poor against Luton

Matches

Last night Huddersfield Town were beaten 2-0 by Luton Town after putting in one of their worst performances of the season. The game was billed as a decisive one for our season yet the players failed to find any fluency or spirit and were deservedly beaten. Fingers were being pointed all over the place on social media, clambering for an answer to why Town have been so poor in big games. I honestly don’t know the reason but I have a few ideas. I suspect we will never truly know what is the biggest factor in Town’s awful performance against Luton but here are a few thoughts of mine... Too many players that won’t be here next year Town's starting eleven against Luton featured four loan players (Lossl, Chalobah, Smith Rowe, Willock), one player that's already signed for another club next season...

Jul102020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Predicted starting XI for Huddersfield Town v Luton

Matches

Huddersfield Town face a huge game against Luton tonight, where victory will see us all but safe from relegation and defeat would plunge Town right into the scrap at the bottom of the table. Getting the team selection right will be tricky for Danny Cowley as he has to balance picking the best players against avoiding injury to those that have played the majority of our recent games. This game, in theory at least, represents the easiest opportunity to notch up a win out of the remaining four. There's an argument that picking the strongest possible team makes sense as rotation will be possible without consequence once we've got to the 50 points. Here's who I would pick for tonight's game: Goalkeeper: Lössl While Grabara had some good games in his loan spell this season, we have looked a...

Jul72020 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Which 7 Huddersfield Town players are at risk of burnout?

Matches

Town have played four games in a short space of time and have another five to go before the end of the season. With all this talk about injuries accumulating because of the short turn around time between games, I thought I would take a look at which members of Town’s squad have played the most minutes so far and are therefore at risk of burning out. Danny Cowley has been careful to rotate his squad wherever possible but there are a few key positions where he has tended to stick with the same personnel. The difficulty will come if any of these key players play too much football and either pick up an injury or are too tired to perform because of their heavy workload. Which players have played every minute so far? Three players have played every minute so far: Lössl Schindler ...

Jul52020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Boring! Some thoughts on an unremarkable goalless draw with Preston

Matches

Huddersfield Town and Preston North End played out a completely unremarkable nil-nil draw on Saturday. It was the kind of game that the NHS could use as a cure for insomnia it was so devoid of noteworthy moments. In recent times Town's performances have always guaranteed either enjoyment of the football or bitter outrage at the lack of performance. This game wasn't good enough to be entertained or bad enough to be outraged. It was a workman like but unspectacular display which is hard to generated any depth of feeling about. We just have to acknowledge it was a good point and move on. Chess While it was far from a thriller, there was a chess-like quality to the little battles being played out on the pitch. Both sides had periods where they dominated the other but never enough to make th...

Jun292020 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Nottingham Forest 3-1 Huddersfield Town – Player ratings

Matches

Huddersfield Town lost 3-1 to Nottingham Forest in a game which saw the Terriers play better football than their defeat to Wigan last week. But silly mistakes and a lack of cutting edge cost them. Here are the ratings for each player that started the game. They range from four to six, which feels about right given the performance - flawed but better. I’m sure most readers will disagree with at least some of the scores, so feel free to spout off in the comments if you have an alternative view. Lössl - 6 I wouldn’t blame him for any of the three goals he let in today and there were a few decent saves that he made that preserved our goal difference. He also looked to move the ball out from the back quickly and made some nice passes. Duhaney - 6 Did OK without being exceptional. I particu...

Jun282020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

6 talking points ahead of Town’s game against Forest

Matches

Huddersfield Town head to Nottingham in desperate need of points to help keep them in the Championship. After a limp non-performance against Wigan, there's also pressure on the team to play better football.Drama off the pitch this week has also led to Town now being without Danny Simpson at right back, after he failed to agree a contract extension with the club.Here's a preview of some of the talking points leading into the game.Who will replace Danny Simpson at rightback?Simpson has struggled for form for a while now and looked poor when pressed aggressively by Wigan last weekend. So a change is probably due anyway.Demeaco Duhaney is the most obvious choice to fill the gap, as he did a reasonable job when he came on as sub last week. He's a bit of an unknown quantity but has plenty of mot...

Jun202020 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Predicted starting XI for Huddersfield Town v Wigan

Matches

It’s been over three months since Town last played. It’s been over six months since I last updated this blog. So expect both Town and this blog to be a bit rusty and make the odd mistake. I thought I’d ease myself back into the blog by having a wild stab at predicting Danny Cowley’s starting eleven for today’s game against Wigan. These predictions are even less likely to be correct than usual given how long it is since Town last played and how little we know about the condition of Town’s squad. Here’s my prediction about how Town will lineup at 3 O’Clock today. Goalkeeper: Lössl Town brought in Jonas Lôssl on loan from Everton because Kamil Grabara picked up a nasty head injury against Hull. Presumably Grabara is fully recovered and is in contention to start between the sticks. Even if...

Nov262019 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

5 talking points from Town’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham

Matches

Huddersfield Town drew 1-1 with Birmingham City in a game that many Town fans will feel disappointed to come away with only a point. The Terriers were the better team on the day despite having to field a makeshift defence after injuries ruled out three of our first-choice back four. Here are a few of my thoughts about the game: Chalobah’s pass for the first goal The highlight of the afternoon was the assist from Trevoh Chalobah for Frazier Campbell’s goal. From inside his own half, Chalobah played an inch-perfect pass into the stride of Campbell. While Chalobah hasn’t been at his best in recent Town games, he showed why Chelsea and England rate him highly with this individual moment of quality. It’s worth pointing out that Campbell did incredibly well to time his run, use his first-tou...

Nov232019 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

What options does Danny Cowley have for his injury-ravaged defence?

Matches

Danny Cowley's prematch press conference for the Birmingham game was dominated by discussion of the plethora of defenders that are unavailable for today's game. Danny Simpson (hip), Jaden Brown (ankle) and Tommy Elphick (season ending knee injury) are all out of contention leaving Danny Cowley a selection headache. Here are a few of the options he might consider: RB: Hadergjonaj CB: Stankovic CB: Schindler LB: Kongolo This back four is the most obvious selection for Cowley, given Hadergjonaj, Stankovic and Kongolo are the three most likely second-choices for the positions that are available due to injury. All three of these defensive additions have question marks over them: Hadergjonaj’s lack of positional awareness and tendency to endlessly back peddle mean he is out of favour w...