Blog – Page 38 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Oct212020 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Misfiring Town, anti-Carlosball, stropping subs, xG, dark arts and lifting pessimism – Notes on the Derby win

Matches

Huddersfield Town managed to grind out a one-nil victory against a poor Derby side that have now lost five of their opening six games of the season. While it’s obvious that Derby are having a rough time, it’s still impressive that Town managed to get a win against a team packed full of players that are, on paper, better than ours. This win means that Town have earned 10 points out of the last 12 available and are sat comfortably in the top half of the table. It's too early to be getting carried away about Town's prospects but there is unquestionably a good feeling around the team now and Carlos' new approach is already bearing fruit. Winning despite misfiring This wasn't a great performance from Town in my opinion. We struggled to play through Derby's high press for long periods and our...

Oct212020 by Terrier Spirit9 Comments

“A mixed bag” – Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 win against Derby

Matches

Last night, Huddersfield Town beat Derby one-nil in a game that didn’t see Town reach their fluent best but was enough to overcome an opponent that looked badly out of form. In a way, I was quite pleased to see us get a scrappy win over the line as we’re not going to play beautiful football every game this season. It’s quite hard to give scores for this kind of a game because we didn’t look great for long periods but did do enough to win the game. Some players had excellent games and others were nearly anonymous, so it was a mixed bag in terms of performances. Here’s what I made of each player last night. Ben Hamer - 7 out of 10 I felt sorry for Hamer when I saw the way Derby had chosen to target him at set pieces and when he was in possession. It was clear his former teammates from las...

Oct202020 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Derby

Matches

Huddersfield Town take on Derby tonight in a game that looked intimidating at the start of the season but seems less threatening given Derby have lost four of their opening five games and are without their potato shaped talisman, Wayne Rooney. They’re still a good team and will give Town a stern test but our unbeaten run of three games will give our players confidence and Derby won’t be relishing the prospect of playing us after our victory over Swansea at the weekend. Carlos Corberán will have to decide whether he wants to stick with the players that won the game on Saturday or freshen up the lineup after only two recovery days since Saturday’s game. I think he will mostly stick with a similar team but will tweak things in midfield a bit to suit playing with three central defenders. Go...

Oct192020 by Terrier Spirit11 Comments

Carlos’ lucky chinos, imaginative strategies, yapping dogs, a niggly ref & maximum effort – notes on the Swansea win

Matches, Tactics

Huddersfield Town beat Swansea 2-1 in a hard fought encounter in South Wales yesterday. It wasn't the purest form of Carlosball we’ve seen so far but it was the most impressive win under Corberán in my view. Swansea are a good team that have started the season well but we came with a gameplan which, with a bit of luck, paid off. Here are a few of my unassociated ramblings about the game... Getting the tactics right We didn’t start this game particularly well and seemed to invite a lot of pressure onto ourselves which led to several good chances for Swansea in the opening exchanges. Thankfully Jamal Lowe spurned the best of these and injured himself in the process, which diminished his influence for the rest of the game. Town didn’t sparkle in the first half but there was a steady impro...

Oct182020 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Huddersfield Town players post social media updates following Swansea victory

Social media

The spirit within the team was obvious for all to see in the game against Swansea yesterday, with Huddersfield Town's players showing a togetherness that suggests the squad are starting to bond into a team. There was further evidence of this online, as the players took to social media to savour the victory. Frazier Campbell sees the funny side of things https://twitter.com/FraizerCampbell/status/1317498994935955456 One of the team's jokers, Campbell shared a picture someone had made to make fun out of the way he jumped out of the way of Koroma's goal-bound shot (the picture and Hoggy's response can be seen below). The mini-Messi comment, I'm guessing, refers to Toffolo's continual popping up in the penalty area and coming very close to scoring two yesterday. Man of th...

Oct182020 by Terrier Spirit12 Comments

“A joy to watch” Players ratings for Town’s 2-1 victory over Swansea

Matches

Expectations were low going into this game against an inform Swansea team that had not yet lost a match. Town defied the odds and emerged from south Wales with all three points following a great team effort in the pitch. It was a disciplined performance that also required a fair share of luck to see us over the line. On balance, the win felt deserved and there were some excellent individual displays from Town's players. Here are my ratings. Ben Hamer - 7 out of 10 A busy game for Hamer, with him making all the saves you'd expect him to make and notching up another game without a goal-conceding error. I thought he was regularly given the ball in tight areas and pressured by the Swansea attack but kept his cool and got the ball out of danger. Some of his passing was a bit wayward at times...

Oct172020 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Swansea

Matches

After a disappointing end to the transfer window which saw Town fail to add any new players to the squad, Carlos Corberán has the same old faces to choose from for the game against Swansea. On the plus side, a few of the injuries from before the international break have healed and the likes of O'Brien and Schindler should be fit to play. So here's my predicted starting eleven. Goalkeeper: Hamer Now a fairly obvious selection after being given a chance and so far not letting himself down. The news that Ryan Schofield is back in training and able to use his injured thumb again suggests competition for this position could hot up soon. Defence: Pipa, Schindler, Sarr, Toffolo I'm predicting Carlos will play his first choice back four for the first time today. I believe Pipa came back from...

Oct172020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

A Huddersfield Town fan’s opinion on Terence Kongolo’s move to Fulham

Transfers

Terence Kongolo completed his move to Fulham last night following months of speculation linking them and the player. The deal represents a significant loss from the £18m Huddersfield Town spent on the defender a couple of seasons ago but at least gets him off the wage bill. The deal was only confirmed hours after the five pm deadline after many had thought the deal could have fallen through at the last minute. Thankfully it all went through OK in the end and Huddersfield Town have offloaded another one of their expensive signings that didn’t work out. Here are my thoughts on Terence Kongolo and whether this transfer is a good move or not. It’s easiest to break Kongolo’s time down into three periods to properly sum up his time at Town. Kongolo's early day at Huddersfield When Kongolo ca...

Oct162020 by Terrier Spirit14 Comments

Karlan Grant’s transfer to West Brom – who got the best out of the deal?

Transfers

Huddersfield Town finally sold Karlan Grant to West Bromwich Albion last night for an undisclosed fee that is rumoured to be around £15m. It's a transfer saga that has rumbled on for almost the entirety of this window so it's a relief to be able to move on from this story and to talk about something else. Before we do though, I'm going to take a look at who got the best out of this deal. Karlan Grant I'd say the most obvious winner is Grant himself. He's signed a six-year deal at his new club which is a huge commitment from West Brom. Not only that, Grant is almost certainly going to be getting a massive pay rise out of this move. I saw a rumour that he'll be earning £60,000 a week at West Brom, which may not be true but if it's remotely close to the figure he's going to be paid then h...

Oct142020 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Huddersfield Town fan creates beautiful portraits of the squad

Social media

While many Huddersfield Town fans have spent the international break reading endless articles about transfer gossip, one instead chose to use the down time between games to create some amazing works of art. The owner of the East Anglian Terriers Twitter account has put together portraits of the current Huddersfield squad and they're pretty special. Take a look below: Ben Hamer I particularly like how this one captures the haunted look in his eyes. The kind of look you only get after you've accidentally chucked the ball into your own net. (In fairness, he's been good so far this season but it's hard not to make cheap jokes.) Ryan Schofield Despite having thumbs made of polystyrene, Schofield looks pretty happy in this pic. The colours are all mostly within the lines too. Top work. Joel Pe...