Birmingham comparisons, Grant’s honesty, tactical conundrums and new pressure – 4 talking points ahead of Reading v Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield Town head to Reading tomorrow (Saturday) for their first away game of the season against Reading, in an early kickoff in front of the Sky cameras. After last weekend’s 3-0 win over Leyton Orient, Town find themselves top of the table on goal difference. While some naysayers may question the validity of the league table after one game, I think those people should shut up. 

Reading were an oddity last season, as they had a remarkably good end to the season on the field while having all sorts of turmoil off it. Usually when a club is in financial strife or being emperilled by a dodgy owner we see results tail off but Reading defied that narrative and narrowly missed out on the playoffs with a seventh placed finish. They’re under new, seemingly stable, ownership now and will be hoping that foundation will help them on to an even better season this time out. 

As we’re still learning about the new version of Huddersfield Town and how League One is going to shake out in general, there are plenty of questions to ponder ahead of this game. Here are four talking points that I can see…

To press or not to press? 

I’ll be interested to see how Town approach this game from a tactical point of view. Reading are a team that like to have lots of the ball and pass it around a lot. Last weekend’s opening defeat to Lincoln saw them have 65% of possession despite losing 2-0. 

How will Town respond to playing a team that wants to keep the ball? They had a similar challenge against Leyton Orient last weekend and mostly pressed up high and made life uncomfortable for them. Though there was also a 20 minute spell before half time when we sat a lot deeper and allowed Orient to dominate with (most harmless) possession. 

The choice for Lee Grant will be whether to instruct his team to press high up the pitch to try to win the ball back early and get attacking opportunities when play breaks down or tell them to sit in and hit them on the counter. Last weekend, it would have sent the wrong message about this new-look team if we’d have sat deep at a season opening home game, but a slightly negative tactic is more palatable when we’re going away to a possession loving team. 

If Town play the way Lee Grant has said he wants them to play, then we should expect an aggressive high press from Town and an attempt to upset Reading’s rhythm early in their possession. However, if he’s more of a pragmatist that he’s let on, we might see a more negative approach where we sit deep and try to launch counters when we get the ball back. 

It’s still early days in the Lee Grant era, so this game represents an interesting test of his philosophy. Watch out for where Town’s players are positioned on the pitch for Reading’s goal kicks. If our forwards and midfielders are tight up to Reading’s defences then we’re setting up to press them, if we drop back and give them their half to build up in, we’re most likely going to aim to soak up pressure. 

Are we the new Birmingham? 

I don’t know much about Noel Hunt as a manager but I recall vaguely quite liking him as a player. I’m less keen on him now, after listening to him repeatedly comparing Huddersfield Town this season to Birmingham last season in his pre-match comments. In a short interview, the Reading manager twice mentions how similar Town are to Birmingham because of our transfer business. 

I suspect there’s an element of mind games and expectation management going on with this statement and we’ll probably hear it from other (bitter) managers this season but is it fair to compare us to Birmingham? I don’t think it is. 

Undisclosed fees make it hard to make a direct comparison, but Birmingham’s NET summer spending last year was estimated to be in the region of £21m. With Town bringing in fees described as “significant” for both Sorba Thomas and Brodie Spencer and Alfie May being the only transfer in to have cost over a million, this feels like an apples and oranges comparison. 

While Town have brought in a lot of players and many of them have Championship experience, we’ve really not spent a lot of money in transfer fees and are most likely either breaking even or slightly in profit from player trading. Even the wages we’ll be paying to our host of new signings will be mostly offset by the number of high earners we cleared out at the end of last season, so there’s not even an argument that we’re going crazy on wages to buy success. 

On reflection, I suppose it’s better to see these Birmingham comparisons as a complement, as it shows that teams fear us and other managers are envious of our transfer dealings. It also hints that Noel Hunt perhaps expects to drop points to us in this match and has got his excuses in early. Regardless, if people are still comparing us to Birmingham next spring then we’ll be in a very good position. 

How much can we trust Lee Grant’s updates?

Lee Grant speaks very well when he’s interviewed by the press and performing for the club’s in-house media team but we’ve not yet seen whether we can trust him with the information he provides. Past Town managers have had different approaches to injury updates, with Worthington pretty much stone walling any questions about player availability to the other extreme where Neil Warnock would happily lie through his teeth about who was fit for any given game. What is Grant’s approach? We’ll get a clue at 11.30am on Saturday when the teams are announced. 

Both Marcus Harness and Sean Roughan were subbed off against Leyton Orient due to knocks they received. According to Grant, Roughan is back in full training but Harness’ injury is going to need some investigation and he’s unavailable. 

This is the opposite of what I expected from those two injuries, as Roughan’s looked nasty and Harness’ looked more like the sort of thing that leaves a bruise but clears up in a few days. While pre-match interviews are mostly for the fans to find out about their club through local media, they are also scrutinised by the opposition for hints about what to expect. Harness was one of our better players last weekend, so it’ll be a real shame if we’re going to miss him for a while but I also wonder if his issue may be exaggerated and he might make an appearance in spite of Grant’s remarks. 

UPDATE: Since publishing this article I watched Town’s training video, which quite clearly shows Harness training in the gym, involved in the warm up and playing in the possession/pressing drill. Not proof that he’s fit but reason to suspect he’s closer to being available than Grant suggested. 

How will Huddersfield Town’s players cope with new expectations?

I talked before last weekend’s opener about how Town were fancied by the bookies to do well this season, with only Luton seen as more likely to win the league. Unsurprisingly, our odds have shortened after a convincing win over one of last season’s playoff contenders. How will our players cope with the increased expectations this season? 

Michael Duff talked a lot last season about how Huddersfield Town are a big club at this level but the players often seemed to freeze up under the expectation that brought, particularly in home games when our fans expected more from them. The mentality among the squad collectively was weak and it often cost us points.

Comparing this season’s Town with last season’s is a bit pointless though, as so much has changed. Hopefully the mentality will be one of the aspects we see a significant change in this season. There are plenty of players among the ones we’ve brought in that have experience of winning. Alfie May was in a team that was promoted with a record points total last season, Marcus Harness was part of Ipswich’s back-to-back promotions, Joe Low was part of a successful Wycombe side last season, Owen Goodman experienced promotion with MK Dons and obviously Lee Grant has been part of a winning culture at Ipswich as a coach and Manchester United as a player (even if Manchester United’s winning culture is questionable, the high expectation would still be there). 

Hopefully, these new faces in the team will create the kind of group spirit that you need to perform well. The best players thrive on expectation and use it to fuel even better performances. Too many recent Town teams have crumbled when pressure has been applied and failed to live up to expectations. I have a feeling that this season might be a bit different.