Huddersfield Town take a trip to Goodison Park this weekend to play Everton, in a game that would be described as a relegation six pointer. Town and Everton are each on fifteen points in the league, with Everton’s superior goal difference giving them the slight edge.
Here’s a look at how I think Town will approach this game and what the outcome could be.
David Wagner’s tactics to beat Everton
Wagner experimented with a 3-4-2-1 formation on Wednesday night, to match up with Arsenal. Having Cranie come in and play as an extra centre-back made sense but didn’t lead to the water-tight defence we hoped for.
I think we’ll revert back to the usual 4-2-3-1 system for Everton. The lack of goals away from home is an issue, so playing with three attackers behind the main striker should give us some creativity.
It will be interesting to see if Town look to play deep against Everton or if we’ll play on the front foot. Against Bournemouth, we looked great when we attacked them in the first 20 minutes (though we didn’t convert our dominance into goals). In the Man City game we played with a deep defensive block and nearly took something from the game.
It may be that we look to play a counter-attacking game at Goodison, letting Everton dominate possession but breaking forward with pace and numbers when we do get the ball.
Predicted lineup
I have no idea who Wagner will pick for this game. He made six changes for the Arsenal game and could make as many again on Saturday.
Lössl will start in goals. Cranie will probably go back to the bench, with Zanka and Schindler being the two central defenders.
It’s a bit of a toss-up for who’ll play in either fullback slots. I’m predicting the more defensively solid Smith and Löwe will play, but it may be Wagner prefers the attacking intent of Malone and Hadergjonaj.
Mooy and Hogg are our best two deep-lying midfielders and complement each other well. However, Williams didn’t start against Arsenal, so is likely to be fresher and could get picked over Hogg.
With van La Parra still banned I expect Ince and Kachunga to be out on the wings. For number ten I’m genuinely not sure. Palmer may be fit enough to start, but I’d expect him to make a few appearances from the bench first. Sabiri seems to be out of favour. Ince has been tried at number 10, but I’d prefer to see him out wide. So I’m predicting Mounié to be asked to drop a bit deeper and play behind Depoitre.
TerrierSpirit.com score prediction: 2-1 Town win
We’ve had too many poor performances away from home this season, I think this game will be a turning point for us. Everton’s players will want to impress Big Sam, but he’s not been in the club long enough to get across his ideas. If Town attack with pace and intent I think we’ll create chances and maybe even convert a few.
I think Mounié and Ince will score for Town. Ince was dropped for the first time in the midweek game at Arsenal, so he’ll want to prove to Wagner that he should start every game. Mounié also has a point to prove, and if he’s given a chance to play with Depoitre he might get a bit more space to attack. Though he may have to play deeper to get on the pitch.
Odds of a 2-1 win to Town: 18/1
Odds of Tom Ince scoring first: 12/1