Blog – Page 53 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Sep152018 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

Selection headaches facing David Wagner against Crystal Palace

Matches

After a seemingly endless international break, Huddersfield Town return to Premier League action against Crystal Palace later today. Town’s last game was a promising performance against Everton, but we're still waiting for our first victory of the season. A key part of getting a good result against Palace will be to get the team selection right. Here are a few of the tricky decisions David Wagner is facing when he picks his team… How does Kongolo fit into the defence? Terence Kongolo has been one of the standout players for Town so far this season, so it seems unthinkable to drop him. However, it also seems unlikely that the pairing of Zanka and Schindler would be broken up either. The lack of a high-quality left-back allowed the option of playing Kongolo in his less favoured posit...

Sep12018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Everton 1-1 Huddersfield Town: Player ratings – Billing receives the top score

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town fought hard at Goodison Park and made life difficult for Everton, earning a respectable point against a team that probably expected an easy win. This was a huge improvement on recent performances and showed a return of the “Terrier Spirit” that we’ve all been missing. It was a bad day at the office for Everton, but part of that was down to Town not letting them play. This was the best performance from Town I’ve seen this season and fully deserved a point. Here’s what I thought of Town’s individual players today… Jonas Lössl - 6 out of 10 Everton only managed one shot on target all game, so it was a surprisingly quiet afternoon for the Danish keeper. It was a pretty solid return to the starting lineup for Lössl, with some good distribution to start counter-attacks....

Sep12018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Predicted team for Town’s trip to Everton – Will Wagner let the Terriers off the leash?

Matches

Huddersfield Town travel to Goodison Park to take on Everton today. It’s a game that gives Town an opportunity to turn around their recent poor form and get their first win of the season under their belt. Everton won’t be easy to beat though, as they’re enjoying a honeymoon period under new manager, Marco Silva. Here’s how I think Town will line up for the game… Tactics: 4-2-3-1 David Wagner may be tempted to try a more defensive lineup and to look to contain Everton, but I hope he does the opposite. We need to build our confidence, and a tedious 0-0 won’t provide that. We need to go for the throat from the first whistle and not let Everton settle for a moment. That’s why I think we need to play 4-2-3-1, which two proper wingers and a number ten behind the main striker. Everton’s p...

Aug312018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

The problems Huddersfield Town are currently facing

Opinion

Huddersfield Town have had a poor start to their 2018/19 season, with three defeats and one draw from their opening four games. Admittedly, two of those losses came against top-six opposition, but performances in those games was disappointing even when you account for the opposition. Losing is fine, but rolling over and letting them tickle your belly is less acceptable. In this article I’m going to try to pinpoint where the problems currently lie for Town and David Wagner. This isn’t an article that’s moaning about our current situation, rather I’m trying to find what the problems are and then it may be easier to see how we can turn this slump around. Lack of goals Obviously scoring goals is the principle problem facing any football team, but a lack of goals has been an issue for Town...

Aug262018 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Huddersfield Town 0-0 Cardiff City – Player ratings (One player gets 2/10)

Matches

Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City played out a drab goalless draw, where there were few chances and the main talking point was Jonathan Hogg’s red card. Before the game it had been billed as the start of our season, but it felt more like a false start. Here’s my player ratings from the game… Ben Hamer - N/A A defensive mixup early on meant he had to rush out and got tangled up with an onrushing Cardiff played. Had to come off injured too early to give him a score for this game. Terence Kongolo - 8 out of 10 I’ve been critical of Kongolo’s attacking ability when he’s playing as a leftback, but he was great against Cardiff. He made some excellent tackles in defense, but he really shone when going forward and was the only Town player that looked capable of getting through Cardiff’s de...

Aug252018 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI for the Cardiff game

Matches

Huddersfield Town take on Cardiff today in Town’s first game of the season. Or third game. I can’t keep up on whether we’re starting the season again or not. It would be nice if we could start again, as we’ve currently got no points and a minus eight goal difference. After two failed attempts to park the bus so far, the Cardiff game represents the first opportunity to see Town have a proper go at the opposition and get in their faces. Cardiff are a physical team and won’t shy away from a battle, so it should be a proper game of football. Here’s how I think Town will line up at kickoff today... Tactics: 4-2-3-1 with a high defensive line and aggressive press We’ve got to go for it in this game, so I predict we’ll see a return of David Wagner’s preferred formation. There should also ...

Aug242018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

5 things to watch out for in the Huddersfield Town v Cardiff game

Matches

Huddersfield Town face Cardiff tomorrow, in a game that’s already being billed as a relegation six-pointer despite the season being only two games old. I’ve even seen one person on Twitter describe this game as the least appealing game in the history of the Premier League. Regardless of the naysayers, I’m really looking forward to this match. After a punishing couple of games to start our season, we’re now into a run of games which we can expect Town to be much more competitive. That doesn’t mean we’ll win, but it means we’re likely to see Town have more than 20% possession and may even see a goal or two. Here are a few things to look out for in the Cardiff game... A return to attacking football There’s been a lot of debate about David Wagner’s tactics in the first two games, but t...

Aug202018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

What went wrong for Hudersfield Town in their 6-1 drubbing to Man City?

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town fell to their heaviest defeat in their (admittedly short) Premier League history to a sensational Manchester City team. It was a game where little went right for Town, and Manchester City took full advantage of our defensive frailties. Here’s a quick look at some of the reasons this was a bad day at the office for Town... The opposition It’s easy to look at start blaming Town for this result, but it’s important to acknowledge that we were up against an excellent team. Manchester City were by far the best team in last season’s Premier League. Not only that, they’re being frequently compared to the all-time best Premier League teams (and plenty before the Premier League started too). There was an abundance of talent on the pitch for Manchester City yesterday, and wh...

Aug182018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to face Man City

Matches

Huddersfield Town face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon. David Wagner has some tricky problems to resolve when he picks his team to take on Pep Guardiola’s men. How will he deal with replacing Zanka, following his training ground injury this week? Will Hogg be able to shake off a hip problem? Should he stick to a similarly negative gameplan to the one that led to a 3-0 defeat last weekend? Here’s my attempt to answer those questions… Tactics: Town to stick with 3-5-2 Town looked good in the first half against Chelsea last week when they played a three-man central defence. They allowed Chelsea possession in non-threatening areas but pressed hard when the ball game near Ben Hamer’s goal. I expect we'll try the same plan again, and hope for better luck in the key...

Aug132018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Five interesting stats from Huddersfield Town’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea

Matches, Opinion

There are lies, damn lies and statistics, or at least that’s how the saying goes. Regardless, I’ve had a trawl through the stats from Town’s defeat to Chelsea to see if there’s anything interesting to take away from it. Here are the stats that stood out to me... Hazard had six successful dribbles in his brief cameo Hazard was only on the pitch for a 15 minute cameo appearance towards the end, but in that time he ran rings around a tired and demoralised Town defence. A successful dribble means he took on an opposition player with the ball and came away cleanly. His six dribbles were more than any other player on the pitch, even though he only popped on for the last few minutes (and he only returned for preseason training last week). In case you were curious, no Town player manage...