Blog – Page 60 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Jan302018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

PREVIEW: Town v Liverpool -What can we expect?

Matches

Town host Liverpool in the Premier League tonight. When the implications of Town’s playoff victory were settling in last May I was thinking about this sort of game, and it still seems unbelievable. While our recent form isn’t much to shout about, the fact we’re playing against Liverpool in a league game in our stadium is something special. I can’t wait to watch it. Time to experiment with three at the back? David Wagner has played a 4-5-1 system against the top-six teams in the games since we lost to Spurs using the more open 4-2-3-1 shape. I think the Liverpool game might be the time to experiment with three centre-backs. Terence Kongolo was one of the few players to emerge from the draw against Birmingham with any credit, so he deserves a chance to play in a back three. Addin...

Jan272018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

MATCH PREVIEW – Huddersfield Town v Birmingham City

Matches

Town are experiencing a tough time in the Premier League, so this weekend’s visit of Birmingham City in the FA Cup is a welcome respite. While managers like to pay lip service to the "magic of the cup", we’re likely to see wholesale changes from David Wagner. Rotation policy This won’t be the first time that Wagner has rotated his players for a game against Birmingham. Last season’s away game in the Championship came shortly before our playoff games, and Wagner changed the bulk of the team to rest his best players. Much to Blackburn fans displeasure, who went down instead of Birmingham, in part because our reserves were soundly beaten by Birmingham. David Wagner, quite frankly, doesn’t care about criticism though. His desire to play a high-pressing game and his background in sports sc...

Jan212018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Town beaten 2-0 by Stoke – THE INQUEST

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town related social media streams are filling up with overreactions and dramatic statements like a music festival toilet that’s not been emptied all weekend. In both cases, the result is unpleasant and creates a stink. It understandable that the most volatile Town fans would take our 2-0 defeat badly. The cataclysmic premonitions rippling through Facebook, Twitter, and Down at the Mac suggest we’re not going to get another point all season and are doomed to relegation already. While it’s not quite THAT bad, things are fairly grim at Town right now. We’ve not won since mid-December and our next two league games are against Liverpool and Manchester United. Town under David Wagner have consistently recovered from bad spells though, so I think we need to keep some perspectiv...

Jan212018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Stoke 2-0 Huddersfield Town – TerrierSpirit.com Player ratings

Matches

Huddersfield Town suffered a humbling defeat at the hands of fellow relegation strugglers, Stoke City. Our third consecutive defeat in the league was as bad or worse than the West Ham and Leicester games. We were comprehensively outplayed and struggled to get a foothold in the game. It’s not going to be pretty, but here are my player ratings from the game... Lössl - 6 out of 10 Following his poor short pass leading to a goal last week, he played it much safer with his kicking. While this was something many fans have been calling for, it meant we struggled to get time on the ball and couldn't build up from the back. He did make a great reflex save against Shaqiri just before half-time. But I think he went down too early for Diouf’s goal, making it easier for the Stoke man to sco...

Jan192018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Stoke away predictions: Tactics, team selection, and scoreline

Matches

Huddersfield Town head to the Potteries to take on Stoke in the Premier League. In a quirk of the fixture scheduling, our second game of the season against Stoke comes three weeks after the first. It’s a big game for both teams, with Stoke welcoming new manager Paul Lambert and Town hoping to bounce back from a recent dip in form. Here are my thoughts about the system Town will play and which players David Wagner will pick for the match. These are my ill-informed opinions, so it’s quite possible we’ll play a completely different team. What formation will Town play against Stoke? The question of formations under David Wagner is generally an easy one to answer. He’s a 4-2-3-1 man, and has built his philosophy around playing in this shape. However, we’ve been consistently caught out ...

Jan142018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Huddersfield Town 1-4 West Ham: Our worst performance of the season so far

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town were beaten 4-1 at the John Smith’s Stadium by West Ham, the first team to take six points from us this season. It was a dispiriting performance from Town, where every player fell short of the standard required and the tactics didn’t work. West Ham deserve credit too. Their game plan worked well, exploiting our habit of playing out from the back and getting their best players one on one against our defenders when they attacked. Joe Lolley: from the ridiculous to the sublime Lolley’s performance was the main talking point at half-time for both good and bad reasons. Lössl played the ball out to him when marked and West Ham hustled him out of possession and Mark Noble scored a gift of a goal. The keeper was at fault for a poor pass but Lolley’s touch let him down an...

Jan122018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Huddersfield Town v West Ham – Everything you need to know before the game

Matches

Town are back in Premier League action against West Ham, after beating Bolton in the FA Cup last weekend. The game at the John Smith’s Stadium is a chance to put right the 2-0 defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium earlier in the season. This is a game that could easily shape the direction of the rest of Town’s season. A win will help us cement our position in mid-table, a defeat will put us closer to the relegation spots with some tough games coming up. West Ham are a team that have underperformed this season and are below Town in the league. However, they’ve got good individual players and will be tough opponents. David Moyes isn’t rated as a manager anymore, but he’s built his career on putting together well-organised teams that are hard to break down. Who will play for Town in...

Jan62018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Bolton away preview: Town set to play second-string in FA Cup

Matches

Town travel to Bolton for the third round of the FA Cup today. I remember when the cup was a relief from the trudge of playing in the league and a chance for glory. This season it’s a distraction. Playing in the Premier League is so entertaining the FA Cup feels a bit like a sideshow. David Wagner has consistently rotated his team for cup games during his time at Town. He argues that he does the same in the league too, but that’s usually two or three players, whereas today it is likely to be somewhere between 9 and 11 players. Goalkeeper: Joel Coleman As I’ve mentioned above, I think there will be wholesale changes for this game. Joel Coleman is confirmed to start in goal, giving Jonas Lössl a day off. From Wagner’s comments, it sounds like he’s chosen Coleman over Rob Green en...

Jan62018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

NEW SIGNING: Terence Kongolo – who is he and how will he fit in at Town?

Player profiles, Transfers

Huddersfield Town have signed Terence Kongolo on loan for the rest of the season from AS Monaco. He moved to Monaco from Feyenoord for £13.5m in the summer but has only played six times so far this season, so is coming to Huddersfield to get regular football. He can play at either centre-back or left-back but has played more games as a central defender in his career. He’s 23 years old and has a handful of caps for Holland. Unfortunately, his loan deal doesn’t include an option to buy at the end. It seems it’s a genuine loan rather than the hire purchase types of deals we’ve done for Lössl and Hadergjonaj where we can buy them at the end. This post will look a bit further into who he is, where he's been and what we can expect from our new loan signing. What does Kongolo bring ...

Jan22018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

PLAYER RATINGS: Leicester 3-0 Huddersfield Town

Matches

Town were beaten 3-0 by Leicester at the King Power Stadium. It was a poor performance from Town, particularly after Mahrez’s opener early in the second-half. Here are my player ratings after another disappointing away day in the Premier League. Lössl - 6 out of 10 I think he could have done better for the second goal, where he committed a bit too early when Slimani was through on goal. Not that it was his fault but he could have made it harder for the opposition by staying on his feet for longer. Löwe - 6 out of 10 Had a tough task in marking Mahrez and mostly did a good job. Sadly wasn’t anywhere near him when he scored his goal though. Wagner said he had a painkilling injection in his foot to play but it now sounds like he could be out for a while. Schindler - 8 out of 10 O...