Huddersfield Town head to Derby riding a wave of euphoria following their unexpected 4-1 dismantling of Swansea at the weekend. The game tonight has huge significance for Town’s season, a positive outcome will help fans to believe our awful recent run ended last Saturday but a defeat could leave us thinking Saturday was just a fever dream, a freak one-off and we’re still deep in trouble.
The last time we played Derby they were in dreadful shape and we won the game despite not being all the great ourselves. Wayne Rooney’s managerial career started recently at Derby and he’s presided over an upturn in form that has pulled the Rams out of the relegation zone and returned them to winning ways (though I’ve got my reservations about Rooney as a manager, which you can read about at the end of this article).
Injury updates ahead of the match
Carlos’ pre-match press conference brought more bad news on the injury front. Schindler had an operation recently and it’s now not clear whether he’ll be fit in time before the season ends, so we could have already seen his last game in a Town shirt given his contract is expiring in the summer. Hogg received a whack on his calf against Swansea so is a doubt and Toffolo has a back problem that’s going to rule him out for many weeks.
On a more positive note, Richard Stearman is getting closer to full fitness and is capable of completing 60 minutes according to Corberán with Rarmani Edmonds-Green being in a similar position. Issac Mbenza also has potential to be involved tonight as he was due to train yesterday and a decision would then be made about whether he would travel with the squad after his recent muscle strain.
Danny Ward, surprise surprise, continues to be injured. While it’s not his fault that his body has let him down this season, it’s becoming a bit of a running joke how he continues to pick up minor injuries that form a daisy chain of unavailability that has spanned the majority of this season.
There weren’t any other players that I remember having injury updates in the press conference but we’re still without: Koroma, Aarons, Schindler, Elphick, Grant (Danny not Karlan) and Eiting. There’s most likely others that are injured that I’ve forgotten about too. It’s probably quicker just to run through the few players that aren’t injured.
Predicted starting Huddersfield Town XI
The injury news relieves Carlos of some tricky selection headaches and means the lineup should be relatively similar to the one we saw on Saturday. Hogg has a tendency to be able to play through the pain, so may start the game despite his calf issue but I’m going to take Corberán at face value and assume he’ll miss out. I also think Mbenza will only be fit enough for the bench if he does get through a late fitness test.
So I’d go with the same lineup as Saturday but with Richard Stearman coming in to replace Jonathan Hogg. If we only had three substitutes available then playing someone only capable of completing an hour would be too risky and limit the options but having the luxury of five possible changes means Stearman can play the first hour and Rarmani Edmonds-Green can continue his return to action by playing the final half an hour.
This change would require Vallejo moving into the defensive midfield position so Stearman can play on the right side of the defensive three. This means we lose Hogg’s bite in midfield but gain Vallejo’s calm presence on the ball and ability to drift accurate passes out to the wingers. While Stearman has made the odd mistake in his time at Town, his experience and height will hopefully make us a bit tougher to beat at the back.
Keeping things relatively stable gives an opportunity for the forward players that looked so good on Saturday to show it wasn’t a one-off and to try and replicate some of the lovely, one-touch movement that created so many nice passages of play against Swansea. It may be hard for them to put in the same kind of shift after such a short turnaround but at least our game was essentially over within an hour and we had the luxury of being able to sub a few players to save their legs.
What tactics will Huddersfield Town have against Derby?
I can’t see Town changing the approach to this game much, at least to start with. The wingbacks system looked effective against Swansea so I hope we play that way again tonight. Rowe and Pipa will play more like wingers than fullbacks while the attacking midfielders will have the freedom to drop into the wide areas to create overloads when we get into the final third.
The switch to playing with three centre backs was a major factor in our improved performance at the weekend in my eyes, as the passing across the backline seemed more purposeful and less risky than when we play with a two-man central defence.
From what I can gather, Derby like to have as much of the ball as possible, so it could be an interesting game of cat and mouse to see who can dominate the possession stats and whether that can be converted into actual chances.
This season Town only really have one way of playing, regardless of the formation or players selected. We will look to play out from the back, build attacks from wide areas and try to create opportunities by pushing midfielders into the box. It doesn’t always work but we’ll keep doing it anyway.
TerrierSpirit.com prediction – 2-1 to Huddersfield Town
Prior to Saturday’s game I would have expected Town to lose this game but that performance and result have given me a newfound sense of optimism that is dangerous given how consistently I’ve been let down by Town over the years. Beating one of the best teams in the league so handsomely has to have improved the confidence of the players though and I hope the momentum from Saturday carries over into this game.
With Schofield looking a bit dodgy in goals lately and our central defenders always having a mistake in them it seems unlikely we’ll keep a clean sheet but I think we’ve got enough creativity and fire power in our attacking players to outscore Derby tonight and take away three points. It won’t be easy but after weeks of doom and gloom I’m starting to feel my optimism about Town returning!
A sidenote about Wayne Rooney as a manager
There wasn’t really an obvious place to put this observation but I wanted to say before the game that I’m really not a fan of high-profile players being parachuted into decent managerial posts despite never having managed before. Everyone has to start somewhere but the Championship is too high a level to start your career in management if you’re serious about making a long-term impact.
I’m not saying Wayne Rooney is a bad manager, nobody knows whether he is or not, including Rooney himself. I just don’t completely see the logic behind top players naturally becoming top managers. While his experience of winning Premier League titles and Champions League finals is likely to give him an insight into the game few others have, I’m not sure those insights help you fight a relegation battle. His career has involved him competing at the top-end of the league with superstar players alongside him, so I’m not sure he’ll have much experience of what to do with a team low on morale and struggling to overcome their demons.
Any Derby fans reading this are welcome to come back and give me some stick in the comments section if we get hammered by Wayne Rooney’s Derby County tonight but it still won’t change my opinion. I’ve heard a few Derby fans talking about what he’s done right so far at Derby and it seems to broadly invovle undoing some of the mistakes of the last head coach, keeping it simple and trusting the players to get on with their job. Hardly revolutionary stuff.
All the right players not necessarily in the right order – except one. I still think Keogh will start for Stearman. I also think that tonight will be a clean sheet whatever happens at the other end.
If “ifs” and “ands” were pots and pans, there would be no need for tinkers., but if “ifs” and “buts” were candies and nuts, we would all have a damned good Christmas. There are far too many “ifs”, “ands” and “buts” to even try and predict tonights line up, but I certainly have views on it. Three at the back with wingbacks seems to be a good shout but I really cant see Stearman starting, and he still managed to get mugged whilst dithering on Saturday in a match that effectively ended before he started. It is disappointing to see Toffolo joining the sick, lame and lazy list, but it does explain why he was unable to retain his level of performances in the weeks pre red-card. Let us all hope that Rowe can maintain his levels of performance in the last game and a half, and it would have been tough on him if he had lost his place – I do wonder, however, if Toffolo would have been restored to the starting lineup had Rowe not shone. I did say my preference for a left back against Swansea would have been Brown ower Rowe, but Brown was embarrasing to be fair. I am hoping that Hogg and Mbenza are fit – Hogg maintains that solidity in the middle of the park, and Mbenza offers attacking options. Vallejo has shown what a valuable member of the team he is but my preference would be start him in a back three alongside Keogh and Sarr. You can’t drop Holmes after Saturday as he was truly magnificent against Swansea and (like Keogh) will have a point to prove tonight, but I doubt that he will be given the freedom to roam like he had at the weekend. So there remains a lot more “ifs”, “ands” and “buts” than answers right now, but after the BoJo announcement yesterday we will all have a damned good Christmas without them.
It’s going to be difficult to get a positive result tonight, without a fully fit Jonathan Hogg in the side.
Come on lads prove me wrong.
Agree with your 11 other than REG to add some pace and calm instead to Stearman.
Been really impressed with Vallejo, but hope he can play just as well as Hogg’s replacement tonight.
Who knows which Town will turn up… can never predict our score. Just wish we could go as it’s only up the road from me.
Duhaney in the starting 11??? With decisions like that it makes predicting the team almost impossible!!!!
From zero to hero and back again in the blink of an eye. It was a truly awful performance from 16 players who looked like they had never met before. Town lost their battles all over the pitch, and from front to back looked shambolic. To make matters worse, both goals were totally avoidable. Schofield looks worse with every game he plays and that is a shame because I was mightily impressed when he first broke into the team and thought we had a good keeper in the making if he continued to grow in stature – I would throw a pair of goalkeeping gloves in the air pre Preston and see if either of the other guys can catch them, and failing that, see which one reacts fastest to pick them up off the floor. The midfield was unrecognisable from the one that played on Saturday, but as I alluded to in an earlier post, Holmes was never going to be afforded all the space that Swansea gave him, and so it proved. O’Brien and Bacuna should also hang their heads in shame and between them they had Campbell and Phillips feeding off scraps. Goodness knows how badly injured Campbell is and I feel sorry for Phillips who had to try and make an impact in a lost cause. Thomas looks like he has nothing to offer either. And should I be surprised by any of this? Not in the least.