Matches – Page 42 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Aug102018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

Have David Wagner’s signings solved Town’s biggest problem?

Matches

Huddersfield Town have invested heavily in three new wingers this close season. This has been a wise move from David Wagner, as our lack of goals last season seemed to stem from a lack of creativity in the final third, rather than a lack of goal-scoring talent. The hope is that these new boys (and VLP) are able cause problems to opposition defences in a way we didn’t often manage last season. While there was no lack of effort from our wingers in our first year in the Premier League, they didn’t contribute enough in terms of goals or assists, so it’s understandable that we’ll be seeing three new faces in this area. This article will look at whether Town's wingers will be able to add some creativity and attacking dynamism to the final third... Adama Diakhaby I’m very excited about th...

Aug52018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

SQUAD REPORT 18/19: Defence – Can Wagner keep everyone happy?

Matches

Following Friday’s squad report about our goalkeeping talent, here’s a summary of how Town’s defence is looking ahead of the upcoming Premier League season. Terence Kongolo and Erik Durm are notable additions to a back line that was already pretty decent. Here’s the case for the defence… Right back - Flo set to keep Tommy Smith out of the starting XI Florent Hadergjonaj I’ve been really impressed with the 23-year-old Swiss right back since his arrival at Town last season. He had to be patient while he waited for his chance in the team, but when he’s been called upon he’s always done a good job. Flo’s most obvious asset is his speed, as he can motor up and down the touchline all game. This means he’s able to take up good positions and support attacks but will still bust a gut to get back ...

Aug42018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Five thoughts about Town’s 3-0 victory over RB Leipzig

Matches

Town turned in an impressive performance in their final friendly of preseason, beating RB Leipzig 3-0. Admittedly, our opposition had played a Europa League qualifier the night before and fielded a somewhat weakened team.But they still had Germany and Denmark’s first choice strikers from the World Cup up front, and a few multimillion Euro signings in their starting line up. Here are a few of my thoughts about the game… The 3-5-2 system worked well in its first outing of preseason This was the first time I’ve seen Town play with three central defenders for any length of time this preseason. It was a similar shape to the way we lined up towards the end of last season, and the system worked well. Everyone stuck to their task and there was no space for RB Leipzig to exploit. Zanka, Sch...

Aug32018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

2018/19 SQUAD REPORT – Goalkeepers at Huddersfield Town

Matches

In advance of the Premier League season starting next week, I thought I'd do a series of blogposts taking a look at Huddersfield Town's squad. This first post will look at the goalkeeping options in the club. Then it'll be defenders, midfielders, and finally attackers. Jonas Lössl When you consider Danny Ward went to Leicester for £12m it's stunning that we managed to buy Lössl for around £2.5m, given most Town fans wouldn't be willing to swap Lössl for Ward. The big Dane arrived at Huddersfield Town last summer with a reputation of being a liability, with the Examiner podcast saying he'd been descibed as "the worst goalkeeper in the Bundesliga", yet he had a fine first year at Town. There were a few occasions were errors led to conceding goals, but these moments were far outweighed b...

Aug12018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Five things I noticed in Town’s 2-1 win over Bologna

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town scored in the last second of their friendly with Bologna to win the game 2-1. It was a fairly tepid encounter but there were some glimpses of decent football and I think the team look close to being ready for the start of the season. Here are a few things I noticed from the game... Sobhi showed his strength Ramadan Sobhi is incredibly strong on the ball for a winger. There were a few occasions where a Bologna defender tried to musle him off the ball and he just swatted them away. His close control looked very good, and he looked surprisingly speedy when chasing down balls. I wasn’t all that impressed with Ramadan in the Lyon friendly, but saw plenty to like about him in this game. The real test will obviously come in the Premier League, but the signs are there tha...

Jul262018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Huddersfield Town 3-1 Lyon – Second half player ratings

Matches

Huddersfield Town fielded two almost completely different lineups in their 3-1 victory against Lyon, so I’ve broken the player ratings up into two articles. Here’s my run down of the player ratings for the team that played in the second half. It's trickier to give an accurate assessment of the second half performances, as Lyon made a sequence of substitutions that completely unsettled the game. Town were actually fairly poor for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the half, but after the substitutions we enjoyed our most dominant spell of the game. Was this because Town improved or Lyon got worse? It's hard to say. Ben Hamer - 8 out of 10 Deserved his man of the match award for his performance. In the second half he pulled off an incredible save, low down in the bottom corner. It l...

Jul262018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Huddersfield Town 3-1 Lyon – First half player ratings

Matches

Huddersfield Town beat Lyon 3-1 in an encouraging performance at the John Smith’s Stadium. Ben Hamer was the only player to play for all 90 minutes, so I’ve decided to break the player ratings articles into two. This one looks at the players that featured in the first half. Ben Hamer - 8 out of 10 Looked very good in the first half and kept Town in the game with a couple of excellent saves. Came off his line well when Lyon had broken through our defensive line. His distribution looked good to me too, trying to pick out players rather than just launch it down the field. Florent Hadergjonaj - 7 out of 10 Was busy up and down the right flank, and linked up well with Diakhaby a couple of times. His crossing was mixed, a couple of loose ones but at least two excellent crosses nearly lead to...

Jul252018 by Terrier Spirit1 Comment

5 things Town fans can find out in tonight’s game against Lyon

Matches

Huddersfield Town play their only home friendly of this preseason tonight, when they play Olympique Lyonnais at the John Smith’s Stadium. It’s a chance to watch Town take on Champions League quality opposition, which should be an interesting test, but means it may be tricky for Town to turn around the poor form we’ve experienced this preseason. Here are a few questions fans can hope to have answered after today’s game. Are we going to see our best XI start the game? The friendlies in the early stages of preseason are mostly aimed at raising fitness levels and the team selections are based around getting all the squad’s players to get a chance to play. It’s a bit like the way an under-8s football team is picked. Now the majority of the squad have played 90 minutes it may be the focu...

Jul152018 by Terrier SpiritNo Comments

Don’t panic! 5 reasons to not worry about defeat to Accrington Stanley

Matches

If you’d have told me 30 years ago that Town would lose 3-0 to Accrington Stanley one day, I’d assume you were either lying or Town had gone bust and were playing in an amateur league. Thankfully it was just a friendly game which lead to this defeat, and it’s not worth getting too upset about it. Reaction from Town fans after game was mixed. Many accept it’s just another opportunity for the players to get fit, others were behaving like the sky was falling in. While losing 3-0 to a side that are associated as being a punchline to a joke isn’t a great feeling, it really doesn’t matter much either. Here are five reasons to not be too concerned by this defeat... It’s only a friendly It’s our second game of preseason and the players have only been back a couple of weeks. These games a...

Jul112018 by Terrier Spirit3 Comments

Bury 0-4 Huddersfield Town – Analysis of all Town’s goals

Matches

Town travelled to Bury for their opening preseason game last night. Here’s a breakdown of all the goals Town scored, with tweets from the club showing clips of each goal. For some reason the quality of the clips in the tweets isn’t great for me. If you’d like to see the highlights in better quality, I’d suggest checking out the Sky Sports highlights of Huddersfield Town’s 4-0 victory. Alex Pritchard opens the scoring https://twitter.com/htafcdotcom/status/1016762173350141953 Philip Billing makes a driving run through central midfield, lays the ball off to Pritchard in the left channel and he drills the ball in from an acute angle. Billing did well to get forward and find an attacking player in a dangerous position, but there wasn’t nearly enough pressure on the ball from Bury. Prit...