Huddersfield Town play Nottingham Forest tonight in a game they hope will lead to their first goal and points of the season. Forest haven’t had a great start to the season either but have some quality players in their squad that could hurt Town if we let them.
The team selection tonight presents Carlos Corberán with some tricky choices. In previous weeks he’s only had twelve or thirteen senior players available to pick from and then made the squad up with youngsters. With new arrivals becoming available and existing players returning from injury there is a bit more to choose from tonight.
Goalkeeper: Hamer
I saw a poll during the week that showed most fans would prefer to see Pereira start tonight instead of Hamer. I personally disagree. For all his flaws, Hamer has been given the role of first-choice keeper and should only have that taken away if he has been playing badly enough to justify a change. Hamer wasn’t too bad in either of the last two league games and I suspect Pereira is just as error prone, so I want Hamer to carry on as number one.
Defence: Pipa, Stearman, Crichlow, Toffolo
I was surprised to see Pipa receive the HTSA Man of the Match award against Brentford as I thought his poor positioning was a factor in two of their goals. However, he’s still learning about the role he’s expected to play and may take time to adjust to English football, so he’s most likely going to get better as time goes on.
Stearman got caught out on a couple of occasions last weekend too but at other times was a commanding presence at the back and used his experience to support Crichlow when he came on to replace Schindler. It must be obvious to Stearman that he is not likely to start when Schindler and Sarr are both available so he’s going to want to put in some good performances to make himself harder to drop.
I gave Crichlow my highest rating last weekend (7/10) as I thought he did a good job to come off the bench and slot into defence in a game that was already underway. Schindler and Edmonds-Green’s injuries make him the obvious choice to carry on in the left-hand slot of central defence. Naby Sarr, our other left-footed central defender, is out of his hotel confinement now but hasn’t trained enough to play in my opinion.
The way Toffolo went down last week and the way he limped off the field made me think he wouldn’t be playing for a while but Carlos confirmed he is fit and back in training so should start this game. Brown didn’t do much wrong when he replaced Toffolo last weekend but he didn’t look as assured as Toffolo either in defence or with possession.
Midfield: Hogg, Eiting, Pritchard
Eiting is different to Sarr in terms of his availability for this match because he came straight to Town from training with Ajax’s first team and is therefore in good physical shape. He’s also trained with the squad for the full week so will be relatively up to speed with how we play. Not to mention we are desperately in need of a natural ballplayer in the middle of the park.
I mentioned in my article earlier today that I think Eiting may be a bit lightweight to go straight into defensive midfield and may be better deployed further up the field as a more attacking midfielder. This means that Jonathan Hogg can do the dirty work in midfield and Eiting can look to find space and move the ball up the field with more freedom.
Regular readers of the blog will be aware that I’ve been harsh about both Bacuna and Pritchard this season so far but I’d still most likely persevere with Pritchard in midfield because it may unsettle things too much to make multiple changes in this area of the pitch all at once.
Ben Jackson, Josh Austerfield and Matty Daly are all potential starters in midfield but I would hold them back for now and continue with more experienced players until we’ve got some points on the board and the pressure is less intense.
Attack: Koroma, Campbell, Bacuna
Koroma, Diakhaby and Mbenza didn’t cover themselves in glory against Brentford so I’d drop two of the three. I opted to keep Koroma because he seems to have a bit more trickery and intelligence with the ball than the other two, as they tend to rely on raw pace more than skill.
It sounds like Frazier Campbell isn’t fit enough for a full 90 minutes but Corberán confirmed yesterday that he’s been told by the physios that Campbell is ready to play more than the 30 minutes he was cleared for last weekend.
We’re so short of a focal point up front that he has to start in my eyes. Playing wingers as strikers is really hurting us because they aren’t able to hold the ball up and bring others into play. Campbell is pretty good at that side of the game and he puts a lot of pressure on the opposition defence. I know he gets stick because he hasn’t been banging them in but he always works hard for the team and gets in the right areas to poach goals if the chances come his way.
Before the season started I talked about how Bacuna needs to be given a settled position on the pitch and not be used as a utility man but now I’m advocating for him to be moved back to the wing after playing in central midfield last week. He’s not responsible enough with the ball to be in the middle of the action. I’d rather see him out wide where he can try to produce a moment of genius to break open the opposition because more than half the time he messes it up. It costs us less when he’s positioned higher up the pitch and is trying fancy flicks and skills.
We saw how spite can be a great motivator last season when Chris Willock tore West Brom to shreds in the opening half an hour of that game because he felt he had something to prove after an unhappy loan spell in the midlands. Diakhaby became a laughing stock at Nottingham after a clip went viral of his first touch going out for a dead ball (see below). If he has the same fire in his belly as Willock did against West Brom then I’d definitely give him some minutes on the pitch but maybe from the bench to introduce when Forest are starting to tire.
WHAT. A. TOUCH. #nffc pic.twitter.com/ehWtRLW7BR
— Matty⚽️ (@MattyPNFFC) July 7, 2020
How many of my predictions did I get right last week?
I managed to successfully predict nine out of the starting eleven last week, which is an improvement on my previous predictions. As we get more familiar with Carlos’ plans and which players he likes it becomes easier to guess which way he’s likely to go.
For this week’s predictions I think the goalkeeper and defence is fairly likely to be right, midfield is harder because Eiting may come in but it’s not clear who he’ll replace. Up front I’m assuming he’ll drop Diakhaby and Mbenza but it’s possible one or both could start the game. We’ll have to wait until quarter to seven tonight to find out.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Sarr start but you are probably correct with Crichlow. Living in Lincoln I have a lot of friends who are season ticket holders at Forest and the all agree that Diakhaby is the worst player they have seen in a Forest shirt.
I’ve been trying to give Diakhaby a fresh start this season but he’s not doing much to justify this latest chance. Maybe he’ll improve with a run of matches but it’s hard to imagine.
What a coincidence. He could well be the worst in a Town shirt too. Certainly the worst we’ve payed good money for. That transfer and exorbitant fee still has not been adequately explained by the powers that be.
I wonder how many times we actually watched him play. How many people did we speak to about his character? Did anyone think about how he would gel with the tactics we wanted to play?
Transfers are always a gamble and often don’t pan out but it’s hard to imagine any club paying so much money for a player that can’t trap a ball without it bouncing out for a throw in.
He’s got good points as well as bad. If Carlos can coax out his best qualities then he may come good but it’s hard to see.
If you remember when Diakhaby and others came we were wanting wingers. Then Wagner totally changed how Town played and wingers didn’t fit into his system so they were not used properly and it looked like a lot of bad signings – which it was given how we played. It could be that with a bit of confidence there is still hope.
Wagner wanted to play with effective wingers. Everybody was telling him VLP was crap. He took one look at the crap wingers the club signed and decided to try and find another way to win. He wasn’t successful.
He’s not covered himself in glory but I still hope he can turn his reputation around. I doubt it will happen but it would be great to see him play out of his skin tonight.
Hi im Stuart,i have been a supporter since 1956,i am still amazed that Hogg still gets a shirt,he surely isn’t the future for Town,in his position het has too much of the ball and does nothing with it,good tackler maybe,plenty of effort but,he was only effective for Wagner ,goes back and sideways most of the time,we need O’Brien back desperately.
Hi Stuart. I think Corberán agrees with you and would rather have a more positive and effective passer in Hogg’s area of the pitch.
I’m a Hogg fan but I know he’s limited in what he can do. If Eiting is the first choice in defensive midfield and Austerfield can be backup then it makes you wonder what Hogg’s future will be. Maybe at another club or potentially he could play further forward as an attacking midfielder. Or a particularly short central defender. We’ll have to see.
So Wagner is sacked – again!! 18 games without a win sounds familiar. After the promotion year I’m afraid he wasn’t up to the job and we are still suffering from the signings made during his tenure.
My impression from the time was that Wagner produced a list of players he wanted and then the transfer committee came back with cheaper alternatives. Nobody really knows who picked those players but the way Wagner treated them suggested he wasn’t keen on them.
I think he put a lot into those amazingly successful two seasons at time but didn’t have anything left in the season he left. The players weren’t up to it and he couldn’t wring that little bit extra out of them any more either.
I’d have him back at Town in a heartbeat hut I suspect he wouldn’t want to come back unless things were a bit more stable off the pitch.
I’ve heard that Schalke haven’t been all that well run during his tenure, which might explain why it hasn’t worked out.
I hope he fares better in his next job, wherever that is.
Excellent response to that post. Thanks for defending Wagners record at Town and explaining why things didn’t work out for him. I’d still back him to turn found any struggling side given a modicum of support from the club’s board.