Huddersfield Town have made the long journey to Norwich for tonight’s game where they will be hoping to pick up more points after getting their first victory of the season against Stoke on Saturday. Our last competitive game at Carrow Road was a 7-0 drubbing back in April 2021, when Manchester United loanee, Joel Perreira, made a rare appearance in goals and Town put in one of their worst performances of the Carlos Corberan era.
Thankfully, Norwich are nothing like the team they were the last time we visited them, after failing to win any of their first three league games of their return to the Championship they are in poor form, at least in terms of results. Here are a few of my thoughts ahead of the game.
Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on Noriwch
Usually I’d dedicate an entire post to just predicting the lineup but it seems a bit pointless to try and drag out a full article out of: ‘the same eleven as Saturday’. I don’t think Danny Schofield is the kind of head coach that wants to overcomplicate things so I think he’ll just go with the same starting eleven that did a good job for him on Saturday.
The one slight doubt is over Tino Anjorin. He apparently had a bit of a knock on Saturday and struggled in the heat too, so was subbed early not to mention that his replacement, Duane Holmes, came off the bench and turned the game in Town’s favour. So swapping Anjorin out for Holmes could be an option but if Tino is fit it may be better to keep the original starting line up and saving Holmes as an impact sub so he can run at tired legs in the second half when he’s fresh.
Goalkeeper: Nicholls
Defence: Kesler-Heydon, Turton, Lees, Nakayama, Ruffels
Midfield: Anjorin, Hogg, Rudoni, Thomas
Attack: Ward
How does the Coventry uncertainty affect selection?
This, in theory, is the middle game of a triple game week as we had Stoke last Saturday and are due to play Coventry this coming Saturday. However, Coventry’s stadium is a complete mess, with the pitch missing sections of grass and all their home games up to now have been called off.
There has been talk of trying to reverse the fixture so it is played at the John Smith’s this weekend and the reverse fixture is played in March instead. This seems logical at first glance but there are huge logistical issues that would have to be overcome at short notice as well as being hugely inconvenient for many fans who will have already made plans.
So as it stands, just a few days from the game being due to be played, there is no official announcement about whether the game will be played. However, if it’s likely the game will be called off it will mean that Schofield doesn’t need to worry about keeping players fresh for Saturday. He can know that he’s got an 11 day break before the next Town game if the Coventry game is going to be called off and that means he’ll be able to give his players a good rest and then get them on the training pitch and do some more fitness work after the short preseason.
How will Huddersfield Town approach tonight’s game?
I’m quite curious about how Town approach this game. I’m pretty sure that Carlos Corberan would have parked the bus tonight. It’s an away game against a team with some very good players even if they haven’t been in very good form lately. But Danny Schofield isn’t Carlos and he might see an opportunity to do things a little bit differently tonight. I wonder if he might want to try and attack more than his predecessor.
Despite Norwich losing two and drawing the other of their first three games, they have dominated possession in those games and created a lot of chances. They also have plenty of talented players in their ranks and it could be dangerous for us to be too gung ho against them.
Having said that, if we set up defensively it could be a dreary night of Norwich attacking and Town defending with little for Town fans to enjoy. The challenge for Danny Schofield will be to find a way to set up his team to be solid and have a shape that doesn’t allow much space for Norwich to exploit but that also allows them to offer a threat going forward when we do get on the ball.
Having a threat on the break will help, so the likes of Thomas and Anjorin will need to make the most of the chances that come their way when they get possession. Both struggled to get into space against Stoke on Saturday but Norwich are more likely to play aggressively and leave spaces for them to run into and exploit, so it may be a game that’s more suited for them to counter attack.
The bookies do not fancy Town in this game
Town head into this game off the back of a great win and a good performance against Stoke on Saturday; Norwich haven’t won in any of their three games so far and are struggling for form. So obviously the bookies have us as rank outsiders for this game! We’re available currently at odds of five to one to win this game, which is incredibly long odds given the form table.
I don’t know if that’s because the bookies are underestimating Town’s chances or if I’m overestimating our chances but surely we’ve got a better chance than that! I know there’s sayings about how you don’t see many poor bookies and they know their business but I thought I saw signs of improvement in Town against Stoke and while we might not win tonight, I don’t expect the kind of miserable performance we saw in the first three games and hope to see a competitive game where we make life difficult for Norwich.
Please don’t go out and make bets on my recommendation though, I went through an ill-advised phase of making betting recommendations a while ago that yielded zero results. So I’m not making a top tip, just observing that the bookmakers don’t seem to rate Town’s chances very highly tonight.
Will Sinani play against Town tonight?
One interesting sideshow in tonight’s game will be the chance to see Danel Sinani turn out for his parent club after he spent last season on loan at Town. So far this season he’s not started a league game for Norwich but he’s come off the bench twice and played about half an hour of Championship football (and put in a Man of the Match perfomance in the league cup). So he might play but most likely it’ll be as a sub if we see him at all.
After watching Juninho Bacuna absolutely tear us to shreds for Birmingham the other week, I’m kind hoping Sinani keeps his bib on tonight and doesn’t get on the pitch. It feels inevitable if he does play that he will end up scoring against us and showing us that we were wrong to not take up the option-to-buy clause we had on his loan agreement.
While Sinani wasn’t perfect for Town, I do sort of miss him. I think we’ve missed a bit of his quality on the ball at times this season. He was badly lacking in pace and that always held him back but his ability to pick a pass in the final third helped to knit together attacking moves and made the rest of the attacking players look better. He was also a valuable set piece taker too. Arguably we’ve got better option now in Rudoni and Anjorin but he did look good on his day even if he did have too many games where he went missing.
Sinani _has_ started a game for Norwich. He put in a man-of-the-match performance against Birmingham in the cup, scoring twice (incl. in the penalty shootout) and with an assist to boot. So it was pretty surprising that he was left on the bench against Hull. Did they save him for the game against Town? 😉
Good point! I’ll edit that to say league game.
Funny that some people are saying Norwich are bottom and there for the taking (not on here), that was us one game ago. Not going to be easy. Never is.