Huddersfield Town take on Bristol City this afternoon and will be hoping to extend their three-game unbeaten run. Today should be a good test for Town, as we’re up against a team that are decent enough (they’re above Town in the table after all) but are far from world beaters. It feels like we have had to think a lot about the opposition in our recent games and account for their strengths and counteract them but this may be a game where we have an opportunity to assert ourselves a bit more and potentially even dominate possession for spells, which would be a novelty after three games of possession stats in the low twenties.
Games in the Championship never go how you expect though, and it’s often the games you earmark as easier that prove the hardest. I mentioned in my article yesterday that Town’s current squad seem better set up to play negative, counter-attacking football, so it may be that we struggle against a team that is less keen to dominate possession.
Anyway, in this preview I’ll speculate on which players Darren Moore might choose for his team this afternoon, take a look at Bristol City’s team and predict what might happen in the game. Enjoy!
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Bristol City
It seems that Lee Nicholls is back in contention, so we’ll see Maxwell step aside if our first choice is fully fit. In previous seasons, Nicholls getting injured has been a near disaster but thankfully Neil Warnock had the foresight to sign experienced cover. We’re now reaping the rewards of that bit of foresight. While it’s nice to have young, up-and-coming players in our ranks, we’ve really benefitted from Maxwell being Championship-ready from the moment he came in and I’ve been very impressed with him so far. Sadly for Maxwell, despite his fine performances, he’ll still most likely have to settle for a place on the bench if Nicholls is fit but that’s the lot of a second-choice keeper.
Unless there are any injuries, I don’t think there’s any doubt about the back three. Pearson, Lees and Helik all go straight in and the rest of the team gets built around them. None are blessed with pace but they do have the experience to avoid getting caught out the majority of the time by making sure they get in the right positions. It’s also worth acknowledging that Helik is currently one of our biggest goal threats, I love his desire to get his head on the ball when he attacks a set piece. In fact, there’s very little I don’t love about Helik when he’s playing for Town, he’s just a joy to watch even if he isn’t the polished thing of beauty Christopher Schindler was. It’s a shame their Town careers didn’t overlap, as a Helik-Schindler partnership at the back could have been very effective.
Ben Jackson limped off last weekend, so there is some doubt about his fitness. Tom Edwards is the obvious replacement but given his poor form and apparent ĺack of physical conditioning, he seems to be right down the pecking order. Last weekend Edmonds-Green replaced Jackson when he was injured so I would expect a similar swap today. On the other side, I can see Nakayama dropping to the bench and Jaheim Headley being pulled back to the left wingback role to free up an attacking slot further forward.
In central midfield it depends who is fit but I suspect Hogg and Kasumu are the most likely pairing as they have both been pretty good lately. Hogg’s minutes will need to be carefully managed over the next few weeks with the number of games close together. While he’s in great shape for his age, he tends to get injured if he plays two games a week for extended periods.
On the wings, Sorba Thomas is an obvious choice as he’s enjoying a pretty good patch at the moment. Not everything is coming off for him on the pitch but his head seems to be in the right place and his effort levels are spot on, so I can see him returning to the peak form he experienced under Carlos Corberan if he keeps this up. Darren Moore has a reputation as a good man manager, nursing Sorba Thomas back to his absolute best and keeping him happy could be his most significant achievement, if he pulls it of.
Ignore my comments about Sorba Thomas, Phil has helpfully pointed out in the comments that he’s suspended for today’s game. Somehow I completely missed that. The options in his position are extremely limited, so I think Diarra is the only viable option to step in to replace him. My feelings about him have cooled lately though as his early promise and exciting dribbling ability are still not resulting in much meaningful end product. It’s possible it might all come together and he could become a key player but as it stands he’s a bit ineffective. Also, his contract situation means we’re unlikely to see him reach his true potential in a Town shirt as he’s set to leave in the summer when his contract ends unless he signs a new deal.
I think Josh Koroma would be a good choice as the other wideman, as he provides a bit of ball carrying ability and goal-threat. He’s having a bit of a hot and cold season so far and probably will be disappointed with himself at this stage despite making the odd contribution here and there. It would be nice to see him return to the performance levels he showed in that Sheffield United game at the end of last season where he was literally unplayable at times, and carved through their defence at will.
Up front it seems to be a choice of which of Bergzog or Ward is least damaged. My preference would be Danny Ward because he can actually hold the ball up and involve the rest of the team. However, Bergzorg does have an X factor about him that means he might do something spectacular at any moment. The frustrating thing about him is that in those moments where he doesn’t do something amazing, he comes across as a greedy and irritating player that isn’t helping the team. Flair players are lovely to watch and if we were safely midtable, I’d be all for someone like Bergzorg but I think we need slightly more reliable returns than something special every four or five games, so I’d consider sending him back in January if I was the person making the decisions at Town.
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI: Nicholls, Pearson, Helik, Leeds, Edmonds-Green, Headley, Hogg, Kasumu, Diarra, Ward, Koroma
Opposition preview: Bristol City
Recent form: Bristol have lost their last two games, last weekend they lost to Norwich 2-1, helping keep David Wagner in a job for a little bit longer and prior to that they lost 1-0 to Southampton. Before that they beat Middlesbrough 3-2, drew 0-0 with QPR and beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0.
So their very recent form isn’t great but both Southampton and Norwich have good squads, so there’s no shame in losing to them. The thing that really stands out from Bristol’s results when you skim down them is that there is very rarely more than one goal in it either way, so they seem to be able to keep themselves in games and competing regardless of the opposition. Though it also means they fail to kill off the games where they are on top too.
The manager: Liam Manning has only been in his post for just over a month, following Nigel Pearson’s sacking. He’s taken charge of four games so far, winning one, drawing one and losing the two others. Before that he was the manager at Oxford United where he did well, MK Dons where he did less well, Lommel SK in the Belgian lower leagues (owned by the City group) and prior to that he was a youth coach at Man City’s City Group, and West Ham.
Player to watch: Bristol City are lacking a stand out player to be wary of but Sam Bell is probably the closest they have. He’s an academy product who’s typically found on the left wing and is currently their joint top scorer with four goals. While hardly prolific, the 21-year-old is a threat from the wing and might be one to keep an eye on.
Ex-Town players: Nahki Wells is a former Town player currently plying his trade for the Robins but we’re not likely to see him this afternoon as he has been injured since early October. He’s apparently back in training but he has been pencilled for a return later this month so don’t expect to see him on the grass this afternoon.
March prediction – Huddersfield Town 2 – 0 Bristol City
We’ve all heard the cliche that there are no easy games in the Championship but this game feels like the first one in a while where Town should be able to go in and worry less about the opposition and think more about what they want to do to hurt their opponents. I hope we take the initiative today and play with more positivity.
I wrote yesterday in my talking points article about how Town are probably better to keep the basic structure that has served them well in the last few games but adapt it so they can be a bit less passive and try to hold more possession. So it may still be quite a defensive approach at times from Town but I don’t think we’ll see another game where we have 22% possession today.
After being very leaky in terms of goals conceded, we’ve suddenly become a fairly tight defensive unit at the back, so I feel like we should be able to contain Bristol City as they don’t score a huge number of goals. The tricky job may be to find the right balance between pushing forward more but not leaving the back door wide open when we do commit ourselves upfield.
Scoring at the other end may be an issue for Town but the likes of Bergzorg, Koroma, Thomas, Diarra and Ward are all probably underachieving in terms of goals scored at this stage of the season, so could do with chipping in. Failing that, Helik seems to be a reliable source of goals for us. I sense Darren Moore wants us to be more attacking and creative in the final third but some of these players need to show they can perform and get goals. Otherwise they may find themselves pushed aside if the much-talked-about January recruitment brings decent quality reinforcements.
It’s good to have you back on a Saturday morning, TS, as ever playing Championship Manager.
There’s not a lot to argue with. The individual I want to focus on is Koroma. What is the REAL Josh Koroma? He first came into the side and I thought he looked like a junior school kid charging down the left flank, no left foot at all, going nowhere. But he could score. The goals dried up, so there was no saving grace. Out he goes to Portsmouth where history seemed to repeat itself – early goals but then relegated to the bench and back to Town. Then the magician Warnock did indeed find there really was a footballer in there and Koroma had some excellent games. Then this season he’s done very little. So is the real Josh Koroma not very good but somehow has the odd gem of a game, or is he really the player that Warnock unlocked and we’d seen on a few occasions previously, and nobody, including DM, can find the right key to wind him up and get him going? If he’s decent, today ought to be a perfect day for him – at home against an average opponent with a brief to run at them and create some pressure.
I quite liked Maxwell in goal, he didn’t muck about at the back and get defenders into trouble against high pressing sides. It seems we end up hoofing the ball up field anyway when we try to play out.We all know that at times there is hardly any goal threat from us, but not necessarily because of the forwards, but because when we get possession we don’t seem capable of keeping it, a panic pass or just a poor one. Is it because players don’t know how to find space or because the ball carrier doesn’t see them, pretty basic stuff really and one should expect more from a championship team.
Sorba is suspended
Oh, I completely missed that. A winger shouldn’t be picking up five bookings at this stage of the season. It’s a shame as he’s been hitting his stride lately. I’ll put an update in the main article. Thanks for pointing that out.
Another dire performance, instigated by our clueless manager and lower division class players who can’t do basic football skills – like pass!
Despite what TS likes to tell you this really is one of the poorest Town squads we’ve had in the last 60 years. DM needs to perform miracles to repeat Warnock’s achievement of last year. And he cat expect much help from his boss. He’ll have even less to work with uf we send Bergzorg back.