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Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Newcastle United

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Newcastle United

Matches
I’m laughably bad at predicting Huddersfield Town lineups, but that doesn’t stop me giving it a go anyway. With so little Huddersfield Town news for the last couple of weeks due to our early exit from the FA Cup, it’s nice to be able to have a game to look forward to this weekend. In case Town fans have forgotten, we’re still on a disastrous win-less run that goes all the way back to the victory over Wolves last November. I remember coming away from the game in Wolverhampton feeling confident that performance was a turning point for our season. Sadly it would be David Wagner’s last victory as Huddersfield Town manager. New boss Jan Siewert has a few selection decisions to make ahead of the Newcastle game in pursuit of his first victory. Here’s how I think we’ll lineup. Lössl to retu...

Town swept aside by Chelsea in a 5-0 drubbing

Matches
Huddersfield Town continued their miserable run of form with a 5-0 thumping at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The key features of a Huddersfield Town game in the 18/19 season: While the scoreline was heavier than usual, everything about this game felt familiar: an early opportunity spurned by Town (Mooy’s header) a relatively soft opening goal (a good finish, but Lössl left his near post unguarded) Spells of positive play by Town let down by a lack of attacking intent in the final third A controversial refereeing decision goes against Town at the worst possible moment (Kachunga’s clumsy challenge is given as a penalty when it should have been a free kick) A Huddersfield Town penalty appeal is dismissed (Kachunga involved again, this time going down ...
Bristol City dump Huddersfield Town out of the cup and expose how badly things are going wrong for Town

Bristol City dump Huddersfield Town out of the cup and expose how badly things are going wrong for Town

Matches
The FA Cup could have provided Huddersfield Town with a welcome diversion from their troubles in the Premier League. Playing a team in a lower division should have allowed an opportunity to express our footballing philosophy and maybe even score a few goals. The sad truth is that the game at Bristol just highlighted the problems Town have at the moment. Confidence is through the floor, our attacks are predictable and our defence shaky. Despite Jason Puncheon and Jon Stankovic receiving praise from Wagner after the match, I don’t think a single Huddersfield Town player came out of this game with any credit. The fringe players were universally poor David Wagner likes to shake his team up for cup competitions, so it’s a chance for players on the edge of the squad to stake a claim for a p...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to face Bristol City – Wagner set to rotate his team

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to face Bristol City – Wagner set to rotate his team

Matches
Huddersfield Town head into the third round of the FA Cup against Bristol City, hoping that a decent cup run might offer some relief from their torrid league form. David Wagner made it clear in this pre-match comments that he'll field a team he believes is strong enough to win, but he'll also be likely to give some of the fringe players a chance. Here's what I think Wagner will do with the team tomorrow... Goalkeeper - Ben Hamer This isn't in any doubt, as David Wagner confirmed that Hamer will be given a chance in this match. Despite starting the season as first choice, Hamer's opportunities have been limited after a couple of shaky games. Left back - Chris Löwe The German is the most obvious choice in the left flank, as Kongolo is likely to be pushed in field to cover Schi...
Burnley extend Huddersfield Town’s misery – What next for the terriers?

Burnley extend Huddersfield Town’s misery – What next for the terriers?

Matches
Huddersfield Town lost by two goals to one in a match that was spoilt by Christopher Schindler’s red card in the first half. Until that point the Terriers had shown some promise, creating chances and committing players forward when we attacked. The defeat leaves Town eight points from safety and makes relegation feel almost certain, despite there being 17 games left to play. The points gap is big, but the gulf in quality between Town and rest of the league seems even bigger as Town extend their losing streak to eight games. The Schindler red card I don’t have any complaints about the decisions to award yellow cards for the two reckless challenges Schindler committed, but I do have a problem with the way the first card was handed out. From the stands it wasn’t clear whether Mike Dea...
Huddersfield Town stare into the abyss after defeat to Fulham

Huddersfield Town stare into the abyss after defeat to Fulham

Matches
“And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche Huddersfield Town’s defeat to Fulham leaves them planted at the bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety and stretches our losing streak to seven games. It was a cruel, but not unpredictable, blow when Mitrovic scored the 91st-minute winner at Craven Cottage. Of all the defeats Town have suffered this season, and there’s plenty to pick from, this feels like the most sickening. It was a game we could have taken something from if we’d have shown a bit of ambition, but familiar problems led to a tepid display that a relatively poor Fulham team were able to exploit. Negative tactics and selection I my last post I congratulated David Wagner’s bold decisions for our Boxing D...
Defeat at Man United, preview of Fulham, and a transfer rumour roundup

Defeat at Man United, preview of Fulham, and a transfer rumour roundup

Matches, Opinion, Transfers
I’m a bit pushed for time, so this is going to be a lightning quick post about Town’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester United, a brief preview of the Fulham game, and some of the transfer rumours I've heard about that involve Town. Enjoy! Some random thoughts about Manchester United 3-1 Huddersfield Town Normally I’d flesh these ideas out into full, semi-coherent paragraphs, but here are the bullet points: The atmosphere at Old Trafford is abysmal. Town fans did an excellent job of out singing the rest of the stadium. I guess they call it “The Theatre of Dreams” because you can have a nap in peace for 85 minutes of every game. On a similar note, when the board went up to announce the injury time the stadium was half-empty. The people in the home end weren’t really Manchester United “fans...
Huddersfield Town 1-3 Southampton – 7 thoughts on Town’s dismal defeat

Huddersfield Town 1-3 Southampton – 7 thoughts on Town’s dismal defeat

Matches, Opinion
Watching Town lose isn’t a new experience this season but our 3-1 defeat to Southampton was hard to take. It was arguably Town’s worst performance of the season and we allowed a relegation rival to put breathing space between us and them. Here are a few of my thoughts following a bad day at the office for Town. Playing two strikers showed signs of promise but didn’t quite come off Town started the game in a slightly altered formation. We still had three central defenders, with wingbacks providing some width. Billing and Bacuna were paired in defensive midfield, with Pritchard slightly further forward behind a front line of Mounié and Mbenza. The combination of Mbenza’s pace and Mounié’s ability in the air has potential to be a successful partnership, but it didn’t quite work on Sat...
Huddersfield Town’s past three Novembers… and why we need to break the trend

Huddersfield Town’s past three Novembers… and why we need to break the trend

Opinion
It's not true to say Huddersfield Town have a “November curse”, but Town have endured poor results in all three Novembers that David Wagner has taken charge. With Town starting November 2018 at the bottom of the Premier League it’s going to be vital that he overturns this strange record of struggling as the nights start to draw in. As it stands Huddersfield Town have a November record of played ten, won one, drawn one, lost eight in the David Wagner era. Here’s a look at how the last three Novembers have played out for Town... A battling victory followed by three defeats - 2017/18 season Last November Town won their first game of the month against West Brom, in a game where Town dominated until Christopher Schindler was sent off for a second booking. There was then a backs-to-the-wall...

Watford 3-0 Huddersfield – Player ratings after a dismal defeat

Matches, Opinion
After a series of promising performances without a win to show from them, Huddersfield Town hoped something would change against Watford. Sadly it did, rather than playing well and losing we changed to playing poorly and losing. Most of our recent defeats have had a "What if..." feeling to them, where we've blamed our bad luck, bad referees, and too much paint on the goalposts denying Town. Against Watford we just weren't good enough. There were brief flashes of promise, but generally it was a poor performance, and too many players had bad games. Here's exactly what I thought of each of Town's players... Jonas Lössl - 5 out of 10 Couldn’t do much about the first goal, but may feel like he should have saved the second, which was fired in from a tight angle. A last ditch clearance avoid...