Huddersfield Town face a stern test in their first match back after the international break when they head to the Potteries to play Stoke. After the start we’ve had under Carlos Corberán we don’t need to fear any opponent but we will need to be at our best to beat a team with one of the strongest squad’s in the Championship with a canny manager at the helm.
Carlos will have a mostly fit squad to pick from though Pritchard and Pipa are both confirmed as being unavailable. He will also have the luxury of picking nine subs and the potential to make five changes during the game, which gives him more opportunity to tinker with his gameplan.
Here’s how I think Town are going to lineup:
Goalkeeper: Ben Hamer
The stopper celebrated his 33rd birthday yesterday and will hope to keep a clean sheet and contribute to another win on the road as a belated birthday present to himself. His decent form this season has meant there’s little debate about using either Pereira or the fit again Schofield in nets, which is some achievement given how little many fans expected from him.
Defence: Duhaney, Schindler, Sarr, Toffolo
Pipa’s injury opens the door for Duhaney to be given another chance at right back. While he’s not naturally as attack minded as the injured Spaniard, he showed willing when given a chance earlier in the season and I’m not too concerned about him getting some more minutes while Pipa recovers. Aaron Rowe is the alternative option in the B Team but I think the converted winger may struggle defensively against a top side like Stoke.
Stearman was preferred to Schindler against Luton in the final game before the break as I predicted before the game. On that occasion we needed a right-sided defender that was comfortable on the ball and able to carry it up field. I believe Stearman got the nod because he’s seen as a better at the attacking aspects of the game than Schindler. Stoke will be a tougher opponent and there will be more pressure on the back line, so I think Schindler will edge out Stearman on the basis of him being less error prone and a better tackler. I have a feeling Schindler and Stearman will be swapped about in this manner a fair amount this season, with Carlos choosing one over the other based upon the type of opposition we’re going to face.
Naby Sarr didn’t play for his country during the international break despite being called up, so he’s fresh and I feel fairly certain that he will take the left side of central defence. We need him in the team for his height when defending set pieces and his passing when we’re playing out from the back.
Toffolo, inevitably, will carry on his remarkable run of starting games. Jaden Brown might be considering getting a voodoo doll made in Toffolo’s likeness as currently there doesn’t seem to be any other likely way he will be able to displace his rival leftback, who continues to play very well and has incredible fitness levels. Jaden Brown may get his chance later in the season if the vague rumours of Premier League interest in Toffolo come to fruition otherwise he’s going to have to continue to be patient.
Midfield: Hogg, O’Brien, Eiting
Hogg is currently in the middle of a mini-renaissance in his career. Many doubted his ability to adapt to Carlosball, including me, but he’s once again proved himself to be indispensable to another manager and has put in some good performances in recent games. His distribution is still a weakness but is improving and Carlos has packed more confident ball players around Hogg to make it less of a priority for him to play Hollywood passes from deep.
Eiting and O’Brien isn’t the most exciting combination ahead of Hogg but I think it’s the pairing that gives us a better chance of dominating that area of the pitch and creating chances for the forward three in front of them. Pritchard’s injury and Bacuna’s inconsistency make me think that Eiting will be tried again in the more advanced role of the midfield three, with O’Brien given the box-to-box role.
Matty Daly and Juninho Bacuna may be preferred but I’d like to see the pair on the bench so they can be used as impact subs if required to turn the game in the second half. The additional substitutes allowed now will mean that the players on the bench could end up being more important than those that start as they will get the chance to come on when most of the opposition is running out of steam and is less able to deal with fresh legs.
Forwards: Mbenza, Campbell, Koroma
I think we’ll see a lot more rotation of our front three in the next sequence of games up to Christmas than we did before the international break now that a few more players have become available and the subs rule has been changed. But I think we’ll start this game with the three most commonly played forwards this season.
All three have done reasonably well but have areas that they need to improve. Koroma is often our biggest threat and manages to get into good shooting positions but his finishing is nowhere near clinical enough yet and that has meant he’s not scored as many goals as his build up play has deserved. Campbell grafts but isn’t getting himself into goal-scoring positions often enough. Mbenza’s attitude has improved immeasurably and his play is far better too but I’d like to see him be a bit more direct and try to score a few goals himself.
For all their flaws, this front three is our best bet in my eyes and have enough about them to cause Stoke problems if they get good service from the players behind them. It may be that we revert to playing two forwards in favour of playing an extra centreback but I’d rather we use a three-pronged attack and give ourselves the best chance of scoring a few goals.
Danny Ward is more or less fit again but I think he’ll start the game on the bench today. In the long run, I expect him to be our first choice centre forward but for now I suspect Carlos will want to ease him back in gently to avoid overworking him before he’s ready.
Well no bombshells from you then! You’ve not magicked us in a new winger & central striker whilst you’ve been away? No 2-3-5 formation (yes I did mean 2-3-5 which some of us who are old enough were weaned on)?
I’m going to disagree with you on one thing. Eiting is too lightweight for this; he’ll be on the bench and Stearman will play giving 3 central defenders, also providing some extra cover behind Duhaney should he come unstuck.
Whatever & whoever, this is definitely a tough fixture. I’m expecting nothing but hoping for a lot.
You might be right about going three at the back and dropping a midfielder. Or Stearman could be played at right back. It depends on how attacking Carlos wants to be. I’d like to see Eiting because he’s got that bit of class we often lack but he’s still looking a bit too slow for Championship football.
Good job you don’t pick the team. Eiting was excellent and Stearman his usual donkey self, ready to self destruct as any given time
Well, Ian, I’m not going to argue with you. That was by far and away Eiting’s best match in a Town shirt. If you score 3 at Stoke and lose, that tells you where the main problems were today. Pereira was at fault for 2 of the goals; Duhaney had a generally poor afternoon; and Stearman was Stearman with some good challenges but his ball distribution was woeful. Why Stearman before Schindler is a bit of a mystery to me.
I wasn’t disappointed by Koroma because I think he’s a poor player so I expect him to be rubbish. The biggest disappointment for me today was Campbell. He never looks quick but today he was slower than slow. Today, as in previous matches, he had opportunities if he’d been first to the ball at the near post but he’s always sliding in too late.
Town definitely did enough to earn a point today and would have done but for defensive blunders.
Eiting can come off the bench as and when required; and he almost certainly will be required.
The only other significant talking point from the team you’ve picked or I’ve picked is no Danny Ward. I’m absolutely no lover of Koroma – Mr NoLeftFoot NoPassing NoShot – but he does run around and give it 100%. Danny Ward is Danny Ward. In many ways I’d like to see him start on the left side of a front three and let’s see what he can do, but I don’t think he’ll be risked other than on the bench. He’s a man who has a lot to prove. Arrives on a free, promptly gets injured, not exactly pushed to get into the side, looked way off the pace in the few minutes he’s had on the pitch. So even I, (did I say I was no Koroma lover?) would start with Koroma today.
One name conspicuous by his absence in your team and mine – Diakhaby. Doubtless his name will still appear on the team sheet as an ‘impact sub’. Well if I live long enough, one day it might happen.
Just to cleanse myself having mentioned Diakhaby, could I move the goalposts (appropriate if you talk about Diakhaby – they need to be 15ft high and 30ft wide) and mention a conversation I had with my postman yesterday?
I live in Suffolk. There’s only 2 teams of any note out here – Norwich and Ipswich – and I live midway between them so you never know if you’re going to be talking to a Norwich fan or an Ipswich fan. My ‘posty’ is Ipswich. Yesterday we somehow got talking about the year 2000. Memorable not just because of the start of a new millennium but also because Town, nicely poised to make a promotion push under Steve Bruce, on the run-in at around Easter, sold one of their best players of all time, Marcus Stewart, to Ipswich Town. Please tell me you remember it?! Town fans were left scratching their heads. The inevitable happened. Stewart scored some priceless goals for Ipswich who were promoted via the playoffs; Town missed out. Marcus Stewart was then second top scorer in the Premier League the following season. As I told my postman yesterday, Huddersfield Town is a generous club; we seem to enjoy giving other clubs a leg up when they need it.
What would Marcus Stewart in his prime do in the current Town set-up? He’d be fabulous! We wouldn’t be having conversations about Campbell, Eiting, Ward or Koroma. Marcus Stewart could have played in any of their positions and been first name on the team sheet every week. And he’d score 20+ goals in the season.
My postman just smiled sympathetically.
Simon
And to underline your point about our generosity, we arranged the deal so as to allow him to make his debut for Ipswich against us! You really could not make this up. And, of course, the inevitable happened – Stewart’s goals ensured and Ipswich win in what was a six-pointer.
Did Rubery really want us to get promoted do you think? The season culminated in Bruce shrugging his shoulders at the most abysmal Town display at Fulham when a win would have seen us in the play-offs.
Neither Bruce nor Rubery showed even a spark of interest in our club after the sale of Stewart.
In the words of the song…. Ah, I remember it well.
Koroma was a headless chicken today, but at least I noticed him on the pitch. Ward was a vacuum.
I have the same team and like you I still think we need a bit of creativity in the middle with eiting, with the new substitute rules starting today we have chances to change things if needed, stearman can come in as a three & Daley, baccuna & ward can mix things up front, the break I think came at the right time for town the rest would of been good & the manager will have had some quality time with them, we couldn’t have asked for a tougher restart but a point would be good come on Town
Mmm. Creativity in midfield to me should convert to assists. How many assists has Eiting got to his name? Zero. If you are wanting greater creativity in midfield, statistically Bacuna with 3 assists is your man. I’d be very surprised if he started today.
What a roller coaster, but also an absolute shambles. Pereira was on a hiding to nothing as Duhaney was up against an excellent Tyrese Campbell and Stearman was his usual donkey-self. Koroma kept making the wrong decisions, Cambell needs to stop trying to hurt players who have cleared the ball, Ward a waste of a shirt, and Bacuna added nothing. Diakhaby didnt’t have time to do anything wrong, but Mbenza and Eiting did look tricky.
ian take a rest yes we made individual mistakesw but we also played some good football and created two excellent goals and sarrs header wasn’t bad either. id rather watch us now better than we were before and I’m a cowley fan.i remember some saying we coudnt and woudnt score goals so calm down and don’t go overboard about individuals
I’m with you insofar as I prefer watching us now than how we played under the Cowleys. Sadly the game today was decided on individual errors, glaring errors, so you can’t help but focus on certain individual performances. On a positive note, talking about individuals, I’m sure everyone will agree that Eiting was MotM today. Toffolo again did well and another assist to his name. Just a few signs that O’Brien is slowly getting back to where he was; and Mbenza at times looked dangerous and took his goal well. So not all doom & gloom.
yes simon but a lot of this today was collective and we are not far of but we do need better decision making but going foreward we look dangerous and I hope we carry on with our style of play.
I think Tyrese Campbell was MoTM by a mile. Made us look stupid at times, but would agree Eiting was best player for Town. Duhaney looked poor. but only because Tyrese Campbell was on fire.
Far too many individual mistakes Simon, which bsically cost us again.