Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on Cardiff

Huddersfield Town play Cardiff later today with Narcis Pelach taking the reins as caretaker boss. The Spaniard (somewhat unexpectedly) was spared the chop when Danny Schofield was shown the door earlier this week and will lead the team today. He sounded pretty impressive in his prematch press conference and it may well be that he does a decent job today in what is likely to be his only game in charge, given the international break should be ample time for the board to find a long-term replacement for Schofield to be appointed.

Trying to predict the team for today’s game is going to be trickier due to the change in management but I can’t imagine there will be a huge change in thinking, given that Pelach has been a central figure in both the Corberan and Schofield coaching teams. Because of that, I expect we’ll see a fairly familiar looking lineup and tactical approach for today’s game. Hopefully we’ll see a better outcome from the game though!

Here’s how I think we’ll line up…

Goalkeeper: Nicholls

Lee Nicholls had a poor game on Tuesday night against Wigan. He will be disappointed with his positioning for the second goal that lost us at least a point and there were several occasions where his sloppy passing nearly cost us a goal. After he’s saved the team on so many occasions in the past I think he’s earned enough free passes to have a bad night and for it to be quickly forgotten. I just hope it doesn’t become a habit.

Defence: Kesler-Heyden, Lees, Helik, Nakayama, Ruffels

This will be Pelach’s only game in charge, so I can’t see him wanting to be overly cautious. I expect he’ll go for Kesley-Heyden over Turton at right wingback, so we have a bit more penetration and threat down the right flank. Obviously that leaves us with a bit less defensive protection too but I think that’s a worthwhile risk given we need to go out to win this game. 

Lees and Helik seem like pretty obviou choices based on their experience and quality. Helik wasn’t quite as commanding as I had hoped on his debut on Tuesday night but it wasn’t an easy game and he was up against a bit of a bruiser all night and it was his first game. I expect he’ll get better the more he plays. 

As for the left side of defence, I’m really not sure how to make it work because it’s a bit of a mess whichever options you choose. I like Nakayama even though he can be a bit erratic at times and is probably too short to play as a central defender in the Championship where every other team has a battering ram for a centre forward. But Mbete was pretty dire on Tuesday night and I think it’s asking for trouble to start him again today as he gave away a penalty and struggled to cope with the pace of the game. This is no huge surprise, given he’s not played senior men’s football before but we’re not really in a position where we can afford to let him make lots of mistakes while he goes through his learning curve. For that reason, I’d play Nakayama as the third central defender and bring back Ruffels as the left wingback. While Ruffels’ start to the season has been disappointing, I think he’s more reliable than Mbete is at this early stage of his development.

Midfield: Holmes, Rudoni, Kasumu, Thomas

I can see loads of problems with this midfield but I’m not really sure there are better alternatives. To start with, both Holmes and Thomas showed poor discipline on Tuesday night by having emotional outbursts on the sidelines. Thomas getting booked on his way off the pitch at half time, remonstrating with home fans on his way down the tunnel and then not making it out for the second half because his emotions had clearly got the better of him. Then Holmes banged his hand into the side of the dugout in frustration after he was subbed early in the second half, which was more understandable as he was our best player on the night and it made little sense that he was withdrawn when there were plenty of other candidates that weren’t playing as well as him. 

Then David Kasumu has only just returned from injury and has been injury prone all his career so probably should be handled carefully rather than being played twice in a week straight after returning from injury. But with Hogg out and Russell still struggling for form it’s him or Camara, who still looks a bit too young and inexperienced for Championship football. 

So Rudoni is the only one of the quartet I’m picking for the midfield that I’ve got complete confidence in but even then, I think I’d prefer to see him played as a winger or behind the striker rather than in central midfield. 

Having said all that, these four could all be excellent, so I’d pick them because it’s worth taking a risk to try and get the best possible team on the pitch. Kasumu gives us the snap and bite we’ve been missing in defensive midfield, Holmes was our most creative players on Tuesday, Thomas is an absolute wizard on his day and Rudoni is probably going to be our player of the season.

Forwards: Rhodes

It’s been a given that Ward should start and Rhodes is the support act for a while now but I thought Rhodes looked really sharp on Tuesday night when he came off the bench and Ward, as hard as he works, doesn’t look like creating much from the scraps he has to feed off. I’d be tempted to give Rhodes a run out today, to see if he can make something happen. But if we either fall behind or even if we’re level, it would be worth playing Ward and Rhodes together for a decent amount of time in the second half to see if two strikers might work. I think you’re considered a dinosaur for suggesting any system that uses two up top but I don’t see the harm if having an additional striker on the pitch, especially when the alternative is to watch a lone striker chase after lost causes all afternoon.