Tonight Huddersfield Town take on Birmingham City in the fourth game of this intense period of seven games in between international breaks. Carlos Corberán will have to balance picking his best players against their flagging levels of fitness. The selection is further complicated by Naby Sarr’s suspension following his red cards against Preston.
Birmingham are yet to score from open play so far this season but they are also solid in defence so it could be a low scoring game. Town’s challenge will be to open up their stubborn back line without leaving too many gaps at the back for them to exploit.
Here’s how I think Town will line up.
Goalkeeper: Hamer
The mixup for the second goal against Preston didn’t cover Hamer in glory but if he called for it then you could argue it was Sarr’s fault for not getting out of the way. Regardless, Hamer pulled off some decent saves and has otherwise been in good form this season, so I would keep him in the team.
Defence: Pipa, Stearman, Schindler, Crichlow, Toffolo
The defensive lineup is hard to predict. Stearman and Schindler are the most obvious pairing but both are right footed and not all that quick. Crichlow is a natural left footer and more mobile than the other two, so I think we’ll stick with three at the back and just swap the suspended Sarr for Crichlow. That way Crichlow’s inexperience is covered by having two old hands alongside him and Crichlow’s mobility and ability on the ball will help the team playing the ball out.
Pipa and Toffolo both probably need a rest but there’s such a drop off in quality between them and their understudies that it’s hard to drop either. The wingback role is probably the most important position in Carlos’ system and Toffolo and Pipa have almost been taking turns to win the man of the match award they’ve both been so good this season.
Midfield: Hogg, O’Brien, Eiting
Hogg is another player due a break but Vallejo is still out of contention due to his quarantine (which makes him sound more like a rabid dog than a Spanish defensive midfielder) so won’t feature. In his time at Town Hogg has always been considered one of the fittest so I think he’ll be OK to play today and will be needed for the physical battle in the middle of the park.
I hope that Bacuna’s poor showing last Saturday leads to him being benched so we can see Eiting and O’Brien play together. While both have occupied a similar position so far under Corberán, O’Brien could play the more advanced role Bacuna or Pritchard usually play but will bring a bit more defensive industry to the role.
Attack: Koroma, Mbenza
Campbell played 189 minutes last week and I can’t see him being able to do another 90 minutes against Birmingham. I suspect he’ll be kept on the bench and brought on if we need a goal but otherwise rested.
Koroma looked confident and creative in the brief cameo he had against Preston and could have had a hand in an equaliser if our luck had been slightly better. He’s by far the most dangerous looking option of the three wingers we have available and should play from the start.
Mbenza should be dropped based on recent form but a lack of better options means he’ll most likely start. Diakhaby may be preferred but Mbenza is better at holding up the ball which is important if we don’t start with a recognised striker.
How did I do with my predictions for the Preston game
I seem to be getting worse rather than better at predicting the lineup, as I only got eight out of eleven for the Preston game. I incorrectly predicted Eiting, Koroma and Diakhaby would all start but instead all three come on from the bench instead. Stearman, O’Brien and Mbenza made the team despite me predicting they wouldn’t make it.
The risk of burnout is high among some of the squad right now because of the intensity of the fixture list, so squad rotation is essential and I think Carlos is going to start tinkering even more with his lineups. It’s possible we’ll start to see more of the young players coming into contention too. So I would be very surprised if my prediction today is 100% accurate but hopefully I’m not too far off.
Campbell will start as he looks fitter than a lot of the younger ones. I don’t think Critchlow will start as I believe it will start with 4 not 5 at the back. Pritchard will join the attack.
Those all seem like sensible suggestions. Campbell does look sharp this season but I’m not sure he’s up to three full games. He might start but only play an hour.
I’ve no idea what formation we’ll play. With Birmingham not being particularly good at the moment it would make sense to play a more attacking lineup. I’ve gone with Crichlow because Carlos likes having natural left footers in the defence (why Schindler doesn’t play on that side any more) but he has played Schindler and Stearman as a pair (Norwich I think).
I think Pritchard’s long-term knee issue might be holding him back at the moment but Carlos said he was ready in the press conference so he may play.
Pritchard is quite possibly one of the worst signings Huddersfield have ever made, alongside Diakhaby and Mbenza. Come on, tell me I am wrong as I need a good laugh..
Those three players all represent awful value when you consider their transfer fees. But we’re stuck with them for now and are trying to make the best out of it.
Pritchard is able to operate in tight spaces and move the ball quickly, si he’s not a complete waste of space. He’s also had brilliant spells at Norwich and Brentford (but never replicates it for us). He’s not good enough at scoring or playing the killer final ball but he’s not completely dreadful.
Mbenza I’m still not sure about (but pleased he scored) and Diakhaby was awful tonight and seemed to blame everyone but himself for it.
Pritchard is an attacking midfielder apparently. He has scored 3 goals in something like 67 appearances, and I dont recall him getting many assists. In my book, that makes him a bit of a disgrace. I am also pleased for Mbenza because it was a class strike tonight, but one swallow doesnt make a summer.
A good selection, that would be my choice. I think if Stearman collects another card in the next two games we could be in trouble. Lack of options up front is becoming a problem with so many fixtures.
I think it’s pretty poor of Stearman to have got to four booking so quickly. Hopefully he’ll have been told to be sensible at least until Sarr finishes his ban.
Nobody is surprised we’re looking so thin on the forward positions. It’s just a shame we don’t seem to have any first-team ready academy products waiting to step up. Maybe Kieran Phillips will get a chance after his B Team hat-trick last week.
Just looking around for an out of contract striker and came up with Rudy Gestede, 32. Released by Middlesbrough in July. They bought him for £6.3M in 2017 from Aston Villa. Now worth about £700K. He is 6ft 4in and made 178 Championship appearances and scored 49 goals. 51 Premiership Appearances, 6 goals. For a short term contract, such a player would be a very useful addition.
I can already hear the moaners complaining about is signing a 32 year old but he’s experienced at this level (and above) and we aren’t in a position to be choosy.
The big question makes for me would be whether his wage demands are reasonable and how close is he to being fully match fit. Oh, and on a more practical level, I have vague memory that his strength is in the air and, as we found with Mounié, we don’t tend to play to that kind of striker’s strengths.
I hope that Kieran Philips might be ready to burst into the first team and solve our problems but it currently looks like we’re badly lacking up front.
What a shambles 70+% possession and no idea what to do with it. The only thing keeping us away from a relegation struggle is that the league is also full of shambolic teams!!! Just be glad we are not a Birmingham fan because they are truly appalling playing for corners, free kicks and time wasting. Emily Watson as more up front than we have, good old potless says we have 5 strikers, ones eternally injured, ones on loan, he won’t play the kid. So Campbell and Koroma I’m sorry its just not good enough. I won’t start on Diakahby, Douglas Bader is better on his feet!!!!
Absolute garbage from start to finish. 77% possession with most of it backwards or sideways. We were second best against Swansea and scraped a result, we were awful against Derby and was lucky they were even worse. Those results papered over the craps, er I mean cracks. Four awful performances on the spin now!!!!!