Huddersfield Town make the short trip to Valley Parade to take on Bradford City on Saturday lunchtime to renew their local rivalry. These two teams haven’t played against each other in 12 years and it’s 17 years since we played in the same league as them. Bradford City have spent a long time in the doldrums and as a result there are a generation of Huddersfield Town fans that haven’t seen these two rivals on the pitch together.
Both teams find themselves at the upper end of the table after each has had a decent start to the season. Town are a point ahead of Bradford as it stands, so whoever wins this game will be above the other in the table as well as having local bragging rights.
Here are a few of the talking points ahead of this game…
Will it be a feisty encounter?
It’s no surprise that the broadcasters selected this game to be televised but in doing so, they also condemned it to the early kickoff slot. I don’t know if there’s any data to back this up, but my impression of lunchtime kickoffs is that they can be quite tepid affairs and usually need something to spark them into life.
It’ll be interesting to see if this game follows that formula or if the rivalry and packed stadium mean that it’s a lively game from the start. With talk that the stadium will be sold out, it’s likely to be a hostile atmosphere and hopefully that will be enough to see the game played at full tempo.
After Town have underperformed in their two Yorkshire derbies so far this season, I think Lee Grant will be instructing his team to really make a good showing of this game. I don’t know whether that means setting things up the usual way but asking for more intensity from his players or if he’ll play this game a bit differently. There would be some sense in picking our toughest tackling, hardest working players for this game in the hope that they can make it a battle and then win that battle but so far Lee Grant has tended towards a similar system regardless of opposition or game state. This can feel frustrating if we’re chasing a game and making like-for-like substitutions but I suppose the players are all drilled to play one way, so making changes on the fly can disrupt the system they’re coached to play.
Whatever the tactics, I just hope that Town come out of this game without feeling like they’ve been outfought. I don’t mean any disrespect to Bradford’s players but it looks to me like their success so far has been mostly through hard work and desire rather than having a great deal of quality. If Town can match their intensity and fight then I think it’s likely the superior individual qualities of our players should get us over the line. But that will only happen if we first win our battles.
Can Town perform in the first half?
The story of Town’s season so far can be summarised briefly as being shaky in the first half of games before coming good in the second. Sometimes this has meant grinding out a stalemate in the first half before using our bench to swing games in our favour. Other times we’ve gone in behind and struggled to get back into the game. How will we approach the first half in this game?
Lee Grant spoke before the game about how his analysts are watching the game from high up in the stands and are clipping up video segments of the first half that are then used at half time to show potential openings for us to exploit. It could be that these little half time clip shows are making the difference between the first half and second half for Town. More likely, it’s the fact we’ve usually got a very strong bench to call upon. Either way, it would be nice for our first half performances to get closer to the second half levels, otherwise we risk giving ourselves too much work to do late on in games.
Will Lee Grant shake up his selection?
I’ll publish my detailed team prediction later but the decision for Lee Grant in several areas of the pitch will be whether to stick with the players that he’s relied on so far but have recently tailed off or whether to risk players that have played well in the cups and off the bench but haven’t started many league games.
Rotation is at the heart of Lee Grant’s approach this season but for a big game against local rivals it might be a risk to make a host of changes. Though it could be just as risky to stick with players that are off the boil.
Here are where I think the key decisions lay:
- May or Taylor – May has the proven track record and is a predator in the box but Taylor has recently had a good scoring run and looks dangerous.
- Roosken or Alves – Ruben Roosken’s conversion from a fullback to a winger is still a work in progress and that’s been showing more and more lately. While Will Alves is a lot younger, he’s clearly a natural attacking player who doesn’t need to overthink about what he’s doing in the final third.
- Ledson/Kane for Kasumu – Both Herbie Kane and Ryan Ledson have been patchy in recent outings whereas David Kasumu has looked hungry and adds energy to the midfield that the other two don’t. However, Kasumu still has a tendency to throw in basic errors at unexpected moments, so I’m not sure Grant trusts him in big games.
- Wallace or Feeney – Jack Whatmough has been ruled out for a couple of weeks after picking up an injury last week. That leaves Josh Feeney or Murray Wallace as likely candidates to partner Joe Low. Wallace came on at half time and looked decent last weekend but Feeney has played more in that role this season. For this specific game, Wallace’s experience could help in terms of having a cool head at the back but his lack of pace could be exposed if Bradford can get in behind him.
Will Bradford regret their social media campaign for this game?
Our “Northern Football” talk this season looks to have riled up Bradford’s social media team as they’ve promoted this game as a battle of “Yorkshire Football”. While I find our Northern Football talk a bit cringey, this response from Bradford is just as bad.
Dubbing our type of play as “Northern Football” may be annoying to other teams that play north of the Watford gap but trying to bill this game a contest for the bragging rights of Yorkshire Football forgets that another West Yorkshire football team is currently operating two leagues above both of us. And both Sheffield Teams, Hull and Middlesbrough (if you count them as Yorkshire) in the Championship.
I find it quite funny that fans of both teams will often try and play down this rivalry by suggesting it’s a cup final for the other team’s fans but they’re not really bothered yet the clubs are both trying to hype the game up as much as possible. The truth is that local bragging rights are on the line and that makes the game spicier than a typical League One game for both clubs, and both sets of fans are really up for this game. I just hope that we get a game that lives up to the billing. And, of course, I hope Huddersfield Town will come away with three points and an imaginary cup that crowns us the champions of Yorkshire Football.
One more key decision to add to your list surely has to be Wiles or Castledine. But we’ll see what you say when you send out your predicted team sheet.
Their respective league positions undoubtedly adds that extra spice. We know that playing at home is an advantage but it can be negated if the away side has a lot of early possession and makes it count. Suddenly the tables are turned and the pressure builds. In a spicy match played before a full house, I hope Town are right on it for the first 20 minutes.
Good point about Castledine. I think he’ll start tomorrow. At least I hope he does, as Wiles has been off the boil lately.
I think a lot will depend on which Huddersfield Town team turn up on the day. We’ve not yet found consistency in our performances but tend to play well enough in spells to get ourselves over the line. If we can play to our potential then we should be OK but Bradford will take advantage if we put in another sloppy first half.
Bradford have had relatively easy run of opponents up to now and they only win by the odd goal. They also don’t exceed 35% possession. Their team is experienced but in football terms pretty old and not very mobile defensively. If the likes of Taylor gets some good service they won’t have an answer to his speed. In other words, crisp attacking football should open them up fairly easily. Town can do this but it’s been a bit sporadic so far and as you say mostly second half. Apart from the derby hype, I expect Town to handle this well and add another 3 points to the total.
I wish I had your confidence!
I noticed how low their possession stats tend to be, which shows that you don’t need to play like Man City to win games at this level. I think we play better against possession teams, as it gives us something to press high up the pitch. Teams that don’t build slowly from the back are harder to press in those areas. Taylor’s speed is enough to cause problems for most teams at our level, but we need to provide him with decent service.
Defence defence defence! Please get back to clean sheets, and take it from there! ‘Cool head but lack of pace’ – tricky choice, but if you haven’t got there because you’re outpaced a cool head is sort of irrelevant?
Your caution as to the result seems well merited.