Huddersfield Town open their Championship campaign this afternoon against Plymouth Argyle on the south coast. It’s our host’s first game back in the Championship after getting promotion from League One as champions last season.
It’s worth bearing in mind that Town could easily have taken Plymouth’s place in League One this campaign, had it not been for some unlikely results in our run in. Neil Warnock described last season relegstion escape this week as the greatest achievement of his managerial career. So while there may be concerns about the season ahead, it’s worth also relishing the prospect of getting to compete in the Championship for another season when relegation seemed certain in early spring of this year.
Anyway, after the long summer break, it’s nice to have a game to look forward to. Here’s my preview of this afternoon’s game.
Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on Plymouth Argyle
The thinness of Neil Warnock’s squad and the injuries to Hogg, Lees, and Kasumu make it somewhat easier to pick the bulk of this afternoon’s lineup. We’re not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to experienced pros to start the game.
Lee Nicholls will obviously start in goals, with Maxwell now adding a bit of cover on the bench. Helik and Pearson will most likely form a two-man central defensive partnership, with Edwards and Ruffels playing as conventional fullbacks on either side of them. Though either fullback could be adapted to play on the side of a back three or as a wingback, so there’s some flexibility in the system with these two on either side of the central defenders.
Midfield is where the options start to look a bit sparse. With no Hogg or Kasumu, it seems certain that Rarmani Edmonds-Green will be the deep-lying central midfielder, as he did for some of last season and most of preseason. Rudoni can then play in front of him in a more box-to-box sort of role with Diarra completing the midfield trio as the most attacking option.
I don’t have a problem with any of the above individual players but as a midfield unit, it doesn’t seem like a good mix to me. It’s missing an old head and a bit of grit. There aren’t many other viable options though. The alternative would be to put someone like Scott High or Ben Jackson in the middle and I’m not sure either is good enough for our starting eleven until they prove otherwise. Having said that, Jackson was singled out for praise in Warnock’s prematch comments, so that may be a sign he’s going to feature at some stage today.
In the attacking third it again feels fairly obvious who is going to start, with Danny Ward the focal point of an attacking trident with Sorba Thomas and Josh Koroma either side of him. If all three are at their best then I think this is a good attacking lineup. I’m particularly interested to see how Sorba plays after Neil Warnock has been trying to encourage him to get on the scoresheet more often – I’ve always found it strange how he can strike the ball so well when he crosses but he so rarely puts the ball in the net himself.
Huddersfield Town predicted XI: Nicholls, Edwards, Pearson, Helik, Ruffels, Edmonds-Green, Rudoni, Diarra, Koroma, Ward, Thomas
What will Huddersfield Town’s tactics be in this game?
I think this game will be an interesting barometer of how attacking Town are going to be this season. Last season we set up to defend in most games but I’m hoping for a more aggressive approach, particularly against teams that aren’t expected to be competing at the top end of the table. I’d understand a pragmatic approach against Leicester for example, but we should be going into these sorts of games looking to compete as equals at this stage of the season when we’re not desperately fighting for survival.
Neil Warnock has watched Plymouth play a lot with living nearby and has a good relationship with Steven Schumacher, their manager, so I know for a fact he won’t underestimate them. We know too well what it feels like to have clubs roll up to your stadium saying “We shouldn’t be losing to the likes of….”, So we shouldn’t treat them with the disrespect we’ve had from other teams before. They accumulated over a hundred points last season, so have a winning mentality running through their team. It likely we won’t have it all our own way today.
So, I think we shouldn’t shut up shop against them but we equally shouldn’t be too gung-ho either. I’d expect a fairly disciplined defence that doesn’t leave too many gaps in behind but then we’ll look to break with numbers when we win the ball back.
We still don’t have enough of the right kind of players to play possession-based football, so I think aggressive counter-attacking is our most likely way to win games like these. With the likes of Diarra and Rudoni given license to bomb forward to support the forwards when we get in Plymouth’s half.
But Neil Warnock always seems to have a trick up his sleeve, so there could be a completely left-field tactic we’re not expecting too.
Plymouth player to watch: Adam Randell
Four Four Two magazine did a handy season preview of Plymouth Argyle and asked one of their fans to pick their key player and they went with Adam Randell. Apparently, he’s a midfield playmaker and sets the tempo of their play from the middle of the park, the kind of player Town are crying out for quite frankly. If he plays well we may want to consider getting Brooky the kitman to bundle him into the back of the team bus and we can smuggle him up to West Yorkshire.
He’s 22 years old, played 40 games in the promotion-winning team last season and signed an extended contract this summer. With Town’s midfield looking a bit thin for this game, it may be that Randell is in a position to punish us. If Town play my predicted lineup then it’ll most likely fall on Rarmani Edmonds-Green to stop him from getting their passing game going.
Huddersfield Town player to watch: Sorba Thomas
Neil Warnock described Sorba Thomas as being like a new signing, after having him return from is loan at Blackburn. He also made it clear last season that he wouldn’t have sent the winger out on loan in the first place. On the other hand, in the press conference for this match, he said that Thomas could get into an argument in an empty room and that he’s “Not a complicated lad”, which is a pretty withering assessment of his player (though I’ve seen him attempt some general knowledge question on the club’s YouTube channel last season and Neil’s judgement seems fair).
It will be interesting to see what Neil Warnock’s Sorba Thomas is like. Under Carlos Corberan, Thomas was one of the league’s best wingbacks but under Mark Fotheringham he was absolute garbage. The reports from Blackburn fans suggest he started fairly brightly but his attitude might have got in the way there too and his loan ended with him on the fringes of the squad.
My hope is that Neil Warnock will draw the best out of Sorba Thomas and we may see him find an even better level. I’ve already mentioned that there’s a hope he can add goalscoring to his repetoire this season. I’ll be watching him with interest in this game to see how he performs. Not just in terms of his set piece delivery, crossing from open play and shooting but also his general demeanor too. It’s very obvious when Sorba is happy or unhappy and his mood hugely affects his game. Hopefully he’ll be all smiles and we can see the best of him.
Match prediction – Plymouth Argyle 1 – 2 Huddersfield Town
I can’t see Town keeping a clean sheet in this game, as Plymouth are likely to really go for it in their first game back in the Championship, particularly with them having home advantage. However, I think we’re capable of teaching them that life in the Championship isn’t always easy and I think we can punish any little mistakes they make and now Sorba is back we’ll be a real threat at set pieces.
It’s also going to be interesting to see if Warnock resorts to Plan B if we’re chasing the game late on. Kyle Hudlin has had a good preseason, so he may be given his first minutes in the Championship to try and give us something a bit different and I think he’s capable of creating and finishing off opportunities if we can feed him the right balls. After years of trying the same thing endlessly, even when it’s not working, it’ll be nice to have the option to throw on a big, awkward striker and go direct for ten minutes in games that are going against us. Though, obviously, I’m hoping we won’t be chasing this particular game and won’t need to resort to using our ginormous striker.
I’m generally pretty terrible at predicting goalscorers but I’m going to suggest that Koroma and Rudoni are going to score the two Town goals I’ve predicted. I think both are capable of being prolific but equally they both need a bit of confidence to get them started, so early goals could help them start the season on the right footing and mean there’s more to come too.
You’ve absolutely nailed it with the issues around the team selection.
In preseason against the Dutch opponent – who were a passing type of team, Town did their sitting deep and relying on breakaways. I hope this isn’t the blueprint for how we are planning to play in the Championship. Having said that, the lack of any controlling midfield player, it may leave little alternative.
I can’t help worrying about Pearson. He isn’t convincing in a back three, never mind one of two in the centre. Fingers crossed he puts in a good performance.