Opinion – Page 7 – Terrier Spirit – Huddersfield Town FC blog

Sep132020 by Terrier Spirit4 Comments

8 thoughts on Huddersfield Town’s opening day defeat to Norwich – Fashion choices, squad gaps, positives, mistakes and more

Huddersfield Town lost to Norwich in yesterday's opening Championship fixture. As a Town fan I've become something of a connoisseur of defeat this last couple of years. This was definitely one of the more palatable beating we've had. Plenty of positives, bad luck to bemoan and a decent performance. Here are a few of my thoughts about the game, including my thoughts on Carlos Corberán's sartorial choices. Early signs of the new approach This was the first league game under Corberán and I was pleased by how the new system is developing. Managers are excellent at talking about their intention to attack and press the opposition but it often doesn't materialise. This wasn't the case yesterday and it was obvious we were doing things differently. The work rate from the players without the ball ...

Sep132020 by Terrier Spirit16 Comments

“A great performance from a player I’ve spent a lot of time slagging off.” Player ratings for Huddersfield Town’s 1-0 defeat to Norwich

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town lost to Norwich in a game of few chances that was decided by a mistake from Richard Stearman, made shortly after being elbowed in the face by a Norwich player. It was an unfortunate way to lose a game but there were lots of positives to take away. While it’s never nice to lose, this felt like one of the more acceptable losses we’ve had lately. We were up against quality opposition, we were a bit unlucky and there were signs of the new style starting to take effect. Which hopefully explains why these scores may seem high for a defeat. Ben Hamer - 7 out of 10 No blunders! He made a good save in the second half but clumsily spilt the ball into danger but Stearman swept in to save his blushes. Otherwise this was a pretty good Hamer performance, his distribution was pretty ...

Sep122020 by Terrier Spirit8 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Norwich

Matches, Opinion

Carlos Corberán will lead Huddersfield Town for his first Championship game as Head coach later today, when we take on newly-relegated Norwich. Last weekend's Cup defeat to Rochdale and the two friendlies before saw Corberán introduce some of Town's academy players into the first team. Players returning from injury mean that we don't need to rely on the kids but some may have forced their way into the team anyway. Here's how I think Town will line up for the curtain raiser. Goalkeeper: Hamer I think Pereira would have started against Rochdale last week if he was going to be our first choice keeper in the league. Hamer's struggles at Town have been well documented but he's been given a new start under Carlos and will hopefully turn over a new leaf. I'm worried about his confidence bein...

Sep112020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Sunshine and kittens! The happy clapper preview of HTAFC’s chances this season

Matches, Opinion

This is the second part of a two-part season preview. The first looked at all the reasons to be miserable about Town's chances this season. This article will focus on things to make Town fans feel positive about for the forthcoming season. So pop on your blue and white tinted spectacles and let's get try generate some warm fuzzy feelings. There's a chance for the academy lads to shine Matt Busby famously said "If you're good enough, you're old enough." and that will be how Corberán approaches his team selection this season. He was brought in, at least in part, because he's proven at improving young players and getting them playing first team football. There will be opportunities for our academy players to get into the first team this season and it's exciting to see how they do. Just fr...

Sep102020 by Terrier Spirit25 Comments

Announce relegation! A miserable preview of Huddersfield Town’s chances this season

Matches, Opinion

This is the first of a two part series of articles. Rather than produce a balanced preview of Huddersfield Town's chances in the coming season, I've separated the positive and the negative. And because I'm a Town fan, I'm going to start with the negative. This article will look at the reasons why Town fans can feel gloomy about the season ahead. I'll be posting the article with reasons to feel positive soon, so keep your eyes peeled. Corberán is inexperienced The fact Corberán is managing in the Championship for the first time means he’s an unknown quantity. It's possible he'll be brilliant but he could also be rubbish. He has some experience abroad and as a number two in the Championship but neither will have fully prepare him for what lies ahead this season. There are good...

Sep92020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

Championship league predictions – Huddersfield Town to narrowly escape the drop

Matches, Opinion

The Championship season is due to start on Saturday, following one of the shortest ever post-season breaks (despite it feeling like a very long time since Town were beaten by Millwall and the Cowley brothers were sacked less than 48 hours later). As we embark upon a new season, I have decided to put together my predictions for the Championship this season. Any regular readers of the blog will know my predictions are often wayward and I expect this will be no different. Feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it in May to tell me how deluded my opinions were. Automatic spots - Brentford to win it and Watford to finish 2nd It feels like Brentford have been creeping closer to promotion every season for a number of years and I think this could be their time to shine. Despite the li...

Sep72020 by Terrier Spirit5 Comments

What time of day to Huddersfield Town usually announce new signings?

Opinion, Transfers

This is one of those articles that I'm not particularly proud to have put together. I've gone back through the announcement tweets for every player Huddersfield Town have signed since the start of last season and looked at the time these announcements were made. I've used this data to work out when Huddersfield Town usually announce their new signings. I had a hunch that late afternoon or early evening were the most common time for new arrivals to be unveiled but I've now got the data to see if this hunch is correct. What is the average time that signings are announced? The average time of day for an announcement is 4.26pm. This average is dragged later in the day by the couple of deadline signings (Willock and Lössl's loan deals) we made in January late into the evening. Even so, the vast...

Sep62020 by Terrier Spirit7 Comments

6 thoughts about Huddersfield Town getting dumped out of the cup by Rochdale

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town were knocked out of the league Cup by Rochdale in a game that highlighted some of the issues Huddersfield Town currently face. Going out of the cup isn't the worst thing to happen but the manner of the defeat was disappointingly familiar to Town fans. It's too early to write this season off but there were some troubling signs in this match. It now seems obvious that Carlos Corberán has a very difficult job on his hands. Fragile optimism crushed Rather than talk about the football I want to start talking about the impact this defeat has on the fans. After seeing some improvements in the style of football in the two friendly games I was cautiously optimistic that the new coaches had a plan that could make a difference, as were many other supporters. That fragile optimis...

Sep52020 by Terrier Spirit6 Comments

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to face Rochdale in the Carabao Cup – Outcasts, old heroes and new blood.

Matches, Opinion

Huddersfield Town have their first competitive game of the new season today against League One's Rochdale. Town's preseason has been blighted by injury and has only seen them play two friendly games, with many first teamers missing from these games for various reasons. It's very hard to make accurate team predictions but Carlos Corberán dropped a few hints about his plans in his press conference yesterday. Schindler, Hogg, Diakhaby and Mbenza are all going to feature after recovering from injury. Corberán also confirmed the team will be a mix of academy and first team players. Here's how I think Town will lineup: Goalkeeper: Joel Pereria I can't remember the last Town manager that took the league Cup seriously and I don't think Corberán is going to break that streak. This game will be...

Sep12020 by Terrier Spirit2 Comments

What are Huddersfield Town fans expecting this season?

News, Opinion

What are Huddersfield Town fans expecting this season? On Sunday I ran a fairly unscientific Twitter poll to gauge the expectations of Huddersfield Town fans for the forthcoming season. I think it's interesting to see the different levels of optimism, pessimism, realism and delusion among the fan base. Before we get into the details, it's worth stating that 232 people answered the poll and the respondents are likely to be my followers, so not necessarily representative of all Town fans. Here's what the poll shows. Mid-table mediocrity The most popular answer by a significant margin was that Town will finish comfortably in the middle of the table. Nearly half of respondents (48%) think we're not likely to be close to either going up or down this year. It feels like every season contai...