Huddersfield Town head to Milton Keynes on Saturday afternoon for their first away trip of the season. The fixture computer has thrown up a strange one-two combination for our opening games, with last weekend featuring AFC Wimbledon and this weekend seeing Town take on the town that bought the old Wimbledon club and moved them up to Milton Keynes. The sort of franchise move is relatively common in the US but it feels wrong in England, even if it did take place decades ago.
After a marvelous opening day victory against Wimbledon last weekend, Town will be looking to build upon that with their first away points of the season. MK Dons are likely to be a tricky opponent though and should provide a stern test for Martin Drury’s Town team.
Rather than only doing a predicted lineup, I’ve written up a more general preview as there’s not loads to say about the predicted team.
Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup
Goalkeeper: Matty Young
Defenders: Bronkhorst, Balker, Whatmough, Bowat, Gooch
Midfielders: Ledson, Harness
Attackers: Fernandes, Fletcher, Taylor
Unless injury forces his hand, I suspect Martin Drury will try to name a team and formation as close to last weekend’s as possible. Bali Muma’s three-match ban starts for this game, so we’ll need to replace him but otherwise I think we’ll be unchanged.
Lynden Gooch has been fairly poor in his last two starts (the Blackburn friendly and the Preston North End league cup game) but did a decent enough job off the bench against Wimbledon. The only realistic alternative would be Jay Sway but I expect us to use youngsters sparingly in league games and mostly in games where they’ll have a better chance of doing well. A rough and tough MK Dons team could target an inexperienced youth player, so Gooch seems like a safer option even if he does seem to have lost a yard (or two) of pace lately.
If Drury was to take a more horses for course approach to team selection, he may look to bring Kasumu into midfield in order to add a bit of bite and energy to that area. I’d prefer he didn’t though as Kasumu’s poor quality on the ball repeatedly lets him down despite his admirable work rate.
Joe Taylor’s place in the starting lineup could be at risk too if Drury prioritises being hard to beat over carrying our own goal threat. With the transfer window still open and previous rumours about other clubs’ interest in him, I think it would be risky to drop him for tactical reasons this weekend despite a fine performance last weekend (when he was subbed for tactical reasons at half time, following Mumba’s red card). Taylor strikes me as a player that needs a bit of love to get the best out of him, so giving him a run of games in a system that emphasises his abilities could help to get him among the goals and enjoying life at Huddersfield more.
Loose lips sink ship
The above predictions have a large asterix over them because Martin Drury has confirmed two players are doubtful for this game after picking up knocks last weekend but he wouldn’t disclose which players these are. Revealing team news in advance of a fixture obviously can help the opposition with their preparation but it’s a bit annoying to be left in the dark. I noticed that Bowat limped off when he was subbed and most likely played more minutes than medically recommended last weekend so could be one of this pair but that’s pure guesswork on my part.
Every manager has a slightly different approach to how they discuss player availability in the press. Some give the full story, many give nothing away and others tell blatant lies to try and throw off their opposite number. It seems that Drury is going to give away the minimum, which is the more common approach these days but it means fans are left in the dark as well as opposing managers.
It’s possible that these injury doubts will pass their late fitness tests and play in this game anyway. My suspicion is that these two players probably won’t and Drury will have to shuffle his pack a bit.
Chaos is a ladder
Martin Drury said something interesting in his pre-match comments. He complimented MK Dons on their ability to take advantage of moments of chaos. He compared them to Lincoln’s team last season, in the way they can physically bully teams and make the most of those key moments in games where things become chaotic.
I’ve felt for a while that Town often struggle to detect and respond to danger in their own box and this leads to sloppy goals being conceded. It’s hard to explain what characteristics lead to being either good or bad at manipulating these situations to your advantage. Maybe it’s character or experience or aggression but either way, Town teams of recent seasons have often failed to cut out crosses, struggled to clear loose balls and stand back when they should step forward.
We’re hoping to see an improved Huddersfield Town this season and this is an obvious area to tighten up on, so we can reduce the number of goals we concede. Teams have been able to get good results against us by putting the ball into dangerous areas and seeing what happens, particularly from set plays. This game will be a test of how well this season’s iteration of Huddersfield Town can cope with chaos.
The return of Wiles-E-Cayote
Ben Wiles left Huddersfield Town for MK Dons in January of this year but I honestly don’t think I’ve thought about him at all since his departure, until I saw him doing the MK Dons press conference for this game. This seems fitting, as I often forgot about him when he was actually on the pitch for Huddersfield Town, given his tendency to drift out of games.
He confidently predicted that our fans will give him some stick in this match but I’m not so sure. While he had some decent moments at Town, he flattered to deceive and rarely produced his best football for us. His departure hasn’t been particularly felt and I suspect many Town fans will be greet him with indifference rather than animosity.
Former players always seem to find an extra gear when they play against us but it would feel galling if he suddenly turned it on against us after spending years rarely getting out of second gear at Town. Hopefully he’ll repeat the tendency he had for us and spend most of the game running away from the ball.
Match prediction: MK Dons 0-1 Huddersfield Town
I expect this match to be a much tighter affair than last weekend and it’s unlikely we’ll be allowed as much space behind MK Dons as we did against Wimbledon. Instead, I think we’ll see a hard fought, scrappy affair and we’ll have to be disciplined and keep our shape for long periods.
I actually believe Martin Drury is trying to make us an attacking, front-footed football team but in some games it is dangerous to be too open and it’s likely our best moments will come from breakaways and set pieces. With players like Fernandes, Fletcher, Taylor and Harness on the pitch we should have enough creativity to get a goal even against a tough opponent but I think we’ll only edge it by a single goal. Given our tendency to struggle to defend narrow leads, it would boost confidence in this team if we can professionally see out a game when we’re leading late on.
Big thumbs down at the prospect of Gooch playing left-sided midfield….or anywhere for that matter.
I’d be disappointed if Town, lining up as you are suggesting, only scored one goal. It has to be 2 goals minimum. If the defence does its job, it really ought to be an away win. I’m more bullish and predict 0-3.
Town MUST sign a left winger!