Huddersfield Town v Tottenham Hotspur – Match preview

Huddersfield Town host Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday in a lunchtime kickoff. Spurs are the first of the big Premier League teams to try their luck against Town. It’ll be a special occasion regardless of the result, but don’t be fooled into thinking David Wagner won’t try and get something from this game.

Town are in eighth position in the league on nine points, only two points behind Spurs in fourth place. It’s hard to believe that we’re doing so well, having only lost one game out of our initial six Premier League matches. While Town aren’t expected to win the game by the bookies, a victory would see us leapfrog Tottenham and get back into the top four (at least until the 3 pm games finish).

Huddersfield Town v Tottenham Hotspur – Match details

Kickoff: 12:30PM, Saturday 30 September

Coverage: Sky Sports and Talk Sport  (plus Radio Leeds as always)

Referee: Neil Swarbrick, who’s refereed 13 Huddersfield Town before this game. He’s awarded 29 yellow cards, 2 red cards and 4 penalties against us in those games. To put these figures into context, the yellow cards are about average at between two and three a game, but the penalties and red cards are far more common than typical.

On the plus side, Swarbrick was the referee at the Playoff Final last May and we didn’t do too badly that day.

Likely lineup

David Wagner has confirmed that Steve Mounié won’t be available for selection against Spurs, so it’s very likely we’ll see Depoitre up front again. The big Belgian has done well in his two starts in the Premier League, so it’s not too much of a concern that we’re missing our record signing.

The attacking three behind the striker is harder to predict after van La Parra did well off the bench against Burnley until his infamous dive. I hope Wagner keeps faith with Sabiri but he may prefer to move Ince into the number 10 role to make way for VLP.

I’d expect Mooy and Hogg to continue in the middle, with Billing coming on from the bench if we need a bit more creativity towards the end of the match. We need the stability that Hoggy brings to the middle of the park for games against the top sides.

There are fans calling for Malone to come in for Löwe at left-back, which might make sense given the German’s dip in form lately. The rest of the defence and goalkeeper are likely to remain unchanged.

Injuries: Quaner (calf), Williams (foot), Palmer (hamstring), Stankovic (ACL)

Pre-match comments

David Wagner talked about how exciting it is to be playing a team like Tottenham Hotspur. It was reassuring to hear him talking about pulling Spurs down to our level. It makes me think we’ll be aggressive and won’t allow Spurs to play us off the park.

Things to watch for

How will Town play the top teams at home?

This is the first really big side to come and play at the John Smith’s Stadium in the Premier League. It’ll be interesting to see how we set ourselves up against Spurs. While we always play a 4-2-3-1 formation, David Wagner varies the style of play fairly often and may be tempted to change things against Spurs.

I think for away games against the big teams we’ll probably set up more defensively and look to hit the opposition on the break, but at home, I don’t think we will. It’s my prediction that Town will play to win against Spurs, and there’ll be a good chance of a few goals for both teams.

I’d like to see the fullbacks overlapping as much as possible on the wings and have the attackers push forward and try to cause Spurs some problems. A good performance and a few goals for Town will send out a message to the rest of the league.

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Can Schindler and Zanka contain Kane and Alli?

Harry Kane didn’t score a single goal in August. He’s scored nine in five games so far in September. Trying to stop him adding to that total will be the responsibility of Zanka and Schindler. On top of that, they’ve got to watch for the roving forward runs of Dele Alli.

Zanka and Schindler have formed a solid pairing at the back for Town this season, which is helped by the pressing from the rest of the team. If they can get tight to Kane and the rest of the team limit the supply of quality balls in, then we may have a chance.

Town have relied heavily on their strong defence to pick up points so far this season. This game might be one where we need to rely on our attackers to score more goals than Spurs’ forwards.

Will Town start scoring again?

David Wagner has been asked again about Town’s lack of goals in the buildup to this game, and he’s batted the question aside. He makes the valid point that we’re doing pretty well despite not scoring many. However, we’ll need to start getting goals at some point if we’re going to convert decent performances into wins.

There are several players within the Town team that are due a goal. Here’s a quick rundown of our main goal threats:

• Ince – gets closer and closer to scoring every game. It feels inevitable that he’s going to get his breakthrough soon
• Kachunga – he’s got the ability to show up at the right place in the box and score (like we saw at Leicester)
• Depoitre – his goal against Leicester showed how lethal he can be
• Sabiri – he’s direct and takes up dangerous positions around the box
• Billing – can score from long-range if the ball drops kindly for him
• Mooy – he’s often too deep to be a threat, but his goal against Newcastle shows how dangerous he can be

So I’m not worried that we can’t score goals, there are plenty of players in our squad that can get on the scoresheet. It’s also not a problem of playing too negatively; we go out to win every game we play. It’s just a matter of one or two of the players above taking the chances that come their way.

Opposition info: Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs have won 13 consecutive games against newly-promoted opposition. They like to take advantage of inexperience and exploit the vulnerabilities of teams that are fresh-faced and innocent. That’s the kind of monstrous team we’re up against.

They won 3-0 against Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League on Tuesday night this week thanks to a Harry Kane hat-trick. Their last game in the Premier League was a 3-2 victory against West Ham, which was more dominant than the scoreline suggests. They were 3-0 up and coasting until a red card for Aurier meant they wobbled in the last twenty minutes.
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Many to watch: Harry Kane

Kane got some stick for continuing his run of not scoring in the month of August for another year, but he’s banged them in since September arrived. As mentioned above, he’s currently scored nine goals in his last five games.

I must admit that I thought Kane wasn’t a good player when he broke onto the scene. I thought most of his goals seemed a bit lucky and his first touch was sloppy. My initial opinion was completely incorrect, either that or he’s on the longest lucky streak in football as he continues to score regularly at the highest level.

The truth is that he’s an excellent striker and he’ll look to exploit the tiniest weakness in our defence. Luckily our defence has been the strongest area of our play this season, and the whole team work as a unit to protect the goal. Having said that, trying to contain Kane will be the biggest test yet.

Tottenham Hotspur v Town history

Spurs have played Town 40 times in their history. Town have won 16, lost 11 and drawn 13, giving them the edge. Even better, they’ve only won in Huddersfield twice.

The first meeting was in 1920, with a 1-1 draw at the Leeds Road stadium. The most recent game came in September 1972, when Spurs knocked us out of the League Cup. It’s been 45 years in the since Huddersfield Town last played Spurs, one of the longest gaps between playing we’ve had against the top-flight teams. Manchester United (our next home game) is slightly longer, but only by a few months.

Terrier Spirit opinion – 2-2 draw

I think this game will be open and there’ll be plenty of goals for both sides. It’s unlikely we’ll be able to contain Spurs’ free-flowing attacking football but we can exploit any holes they leave at the back.

The bookies are heavily tipping Spurs to win this game, but I can’t see Town making it easy for them. The fans will create a hostile atmosphere, Town’s players will press all over the pitch, and we’ll be ready to pounce on every opportunity.

I’m going to prediect a high-scoring draw. I don’t think we’ll be able to beat Spurs, but we should be able to give them a game and perhaps score a few goals if it opens up a bit.