Thursdays must be the least likely time to play a game of League One football but for whatever reason (bending over backwards for TV money), Huddersfield Town entertain Bolton on Thursday night in front of the Sky cameras. I suppose it means we get a Town game to watch earlier than usual after an international break and, from a pessimistic point of view, playing a few days earlier means that Town aren’t going to ruin another weekend for fans.
Trying to predict what’s going to happen in this game is a fool’s errand because both teams come into it with very erratic form. Town have had some respectable results so far this season but they have also had some punishing defeats, so it’s hard to have any expectations either way. Bolton are in a similar position and have found away games particularly tricky. The best I can say in terms of predictions is that the team that avoids self-destruction the most is likely to find the other team will grant them opportunities to win the game.
Here are my pre-match talking points…
Has the international break helped Town?
There haven’t been many weeks since the season started that haven’t involved a mid-week fixture of some sort, which will have meant Town have not been able to do a lot of in-depth work on the training ground. We’ve also got a few players that were close to returning from injury who will have had extra time to rehabilitate since the Stockport game.
The old cliche is that teams that have been beaten want to play again straight away to take the taste of defeat out of their mouths but I think Town looked like a team that needed time to regroup after a very disappointing result and performance in their last outing.
I expected Town to need a bit of time to bed in their new players and fully implement the system Lee Grant wants to play. So it would have been OK if we’d dropped points early on and then seen performances and results steadily improve as we progressed into the season. If anything, the opposite has happened and Town have regressed from a fairly decent start.
My hope is that having nearly two weeks between games has given the coaching staff and players time to reset and address the issues we’ve been seeing. I’d particularly like to see Town play out from the back with more fluency and accuracy, so stop us getting trapped in our own half and usually making daft errors on the ball. We also need to attack with more purpose and intent, which I would measure based on how well we get the ball to the main striker in advanced positions. I would also like to see our midfield dominate the middle of the park more. So I’m basically saying we need to be better in defence, attack and midfield. But other than that, we’re fine!
Will Town ease Bolton’s away day struggles?
Bolton’s away form is genuinely awful so far this season. They’ve played six, lost three and drawn the other three, so are yet to register a win on the road. This would usually be a good omen but recent history at Huddersfield Town has shown that we’re a good team to play when you’re on a bad run, as we frequently help teams reverse their fortune. So much so that the And He Takes That Chance podcast refer to Town as Charity FC, because we’re so helpful to struggling teams.
Bolton’s difficulties are often a result of them falling behind early in games and giving themselves an uphill battle to get back into a game. So a strong start to this game from Town will be needed to make the most of Bolton’s vulnerability. Which is a shame, as poor first halves have been a feature of Huddersfield Town’s season so far.
Like Huddersfield Town, Bolton are a big fish in the League One pond but like Town they’re also a team that shoots itself in the foot pretty often. The important thing for Town will be to make this a difficult game for them and to not give them any freebies.
Could this be a preview of a playoff game?
Having just talked about how poor both Bolton and Town can be at times, I also wouldn’t be stunned if both teams end up in the playoffs at the end of the season. So tonight could be a preview of a much higher stakes matchup next spring. It’ll be interesting to have a good look at Bolton and see whether they’re a team we should fear.
So far this season, I’ve not been overly impressed by any of the teams we’ve come up against. The bulk of our defeats have been the result of our own implosion rather than anything particularly brilliant we’ve seen from the opposition. If someone was forcing me at gunpoint to say nice things about our opponents so far this season, Doncaster played some nice football despite losing to us and Bradford’s attackers looked pretty decent (though our defending was generous too). Otherwise, I’ve been pretty unimpressed with the teams we’ve played, which makes our bad results hurt even more.
But Bolton could be a genuine threat. They’re a bit like Town in many ways, with their collective efforts not reaching the sum of their parts but the possibility that they can do better if things start to click. Maybe it’s too early to be worrying about potential playoff matchups but I do think that Bolton are one of the teams in this league that could be a real threat when we get to the business end of the season.
Are Town fans on the turn?
Everything was very positive around Town in the early stages of the season but a few bruising defeats and a fall off in form has seen the shine quickly come off this newly assembled team. I get the feeling that, after hoping this year would be different, many fans are starting to worry we’re going back to our usual, self-destructive habits we’ve been plagued by for the last few years. I know I am.
If Town don’t get off to a good start in this game, it’s quite possible that the crowd could get on the players’ backs and our home advantage could quickly flip into a disadvantage. And with Town’s tendency to start slowly in games this season, it’s reasonably likely that we’ll have some tricky moments in the early stages.
I don’t think Town fans are to blame for starting to doubt the ambition they’ve been sold by the club when the evidence on the pitch starts to dry up. We’ve repeatedly been promised big things and been served up something less appetising. It’s hard to keep the faith when recent experience has taught us that expecting the worst is the best way to stop your hopes being dashed again.
On a more positive note, Town fans are actually pretty good at getting behind the team when there is something to get behind. The groans and grumbles come out when we start making silly errors but when there’s evidence of genuine effort and a bit of hope, the mood soon turns. But I think in this game the fans will need the player to give them something to support before they are fully behind the team.
Yes indeed TS : ‘ we need to be better in defence, attack and midfield. ‘
You are very good at trying to see the positives while acknowledging the negatives.
But it is all beginning to feel like a replay of last season – going backwards. If , as you and most commentators seem to think, the squad are individually better than last season’s then the fact they don’t seem to operate well as a team suggests its down to the manager and coaches.
But are they really individually better than last season’s lot? With a quarter of the season gone they’ve had time to show what they can do and it doesn’t look good.
Thanks for your comment Andrew. The only certain answer to whether we’re better than last year’s squad is to see where we end up in the final table. Though that’s a pretty low bar, as tenth was a pretty awful position even accounting for all the reasons/excuses for why we struggled.
I have to agree with you that this arc of optimism dwindling as the season progresses does feel just like last season. The only consolation is that there is time for this season to get better. It’s a mystery whether we’ll take that opportunity. I was hoping to have a bit more certainty about what we’re trying to do. With both Carlos Corberan and David Wagner, they didn’t start brilliantly but there were signs that they were doing something interesting that might come off. I’m not getting that feeling from Lee Grant yet but if he’s given time he might develop into an accomplished manager.
Frank Lampard has talked about the many years it has taken him to be a good manager. Lee Grant doesn’t really look as though he can do it any quicker
Sack Grant . Bring in Bruce , old head , good tactically. Knows how to win.
Grant is clueless under pressure. Never seen a Huddersfield team fold so quickly in the last few minutes. Disappointed, and disgraceful. , shameful even. You work all week to see footballers give 100% plus.
Not this crap . Enough is enough.
Bring in Bruce for now. Old head, tactical good at this level. Come one Nagel stop supporting a dead horse . 🐎
UTT – ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️😉