Huddersfield Town take on Blackburn later today. While Town have won their last three games, their opponents are also currently on a good run of form and will present a tough test for the Terriers. Town produced arguably their best performance of the season in the reverse fixture back in September when they came away 3-2 winners. It will be interesting to see if Town approach this game in the same manner, going toe-to-toe with Blackburn, or if they’ll play more conservatively and try to play more on the counter.
The biggest factor on today’s selection will be the availability of the many players that have recently picked up knocks or are returning from longer term injuries. At the time of writing the club haven’t put out any updates on injuries following the Forest game, so I’m going to make my best guess at the starting line up knowing I’m even less likely to be right than usual!
Goalkeeper: Lee Nichols
Nichols picked up his fourth booking of the season in his previous game and continued to infuriate opposition fans with his slow play at dead balls. While it’s something I find incredibly annoying when other teams do it, I’m really enjoying his ability to wind up other teams and grind down the time. The Sloth may have many other goalkeeping qualities that mean he’s already being suggested for player of the season, it’s the length of time he can spend taking a goal kick that makes him one of my all-time favourite Town goalkeepers. (others include Lössl for Chelsea away, Ward for the penalty shootouts in the playoffs, Nico Vaesen for being superb and Tim Clarke for his comedy value).
Defence: Pearson, Sarr, Colwill
I’m guessing Tom Lees will still be ruled out for today following his nasty head injury in the Boxing Day game against Blackpool. I think he’s technically past the cut off for the concussion protocol rules but that doesn’t mean he’ll be in a good enough state to play. Naby Sarr’s back injury sounded more of a minor issue so he may be able to come back in. While he’s not covered himself in glory lately, playing in the middle of the three suits him much more as his lack of pace is less likely to be exposed and he’s got more cover around him.
While we won against Forest playing with just two centre backs, we had to ride our luck for long spells, so I think we’ll switch to playing the 3-4-3 system we’ve tended to play for most of this season. Away from home against the form team in the division it makes sense to play with a shape that limits the opposition’s space in the middle of the park and gives us a more solid defensive base from which to build our attacks.
Midfield: Turton, O’Brien, High, Toffolo
Turton had a decent game against Forest as a more traditional rightback so I’d keep him in the team despite Pipa making his first appearance from the bench on Thursday night. Brereton Diaz tends to operate on the left side of attack, so playing a more defensive minded wingback will give Pearson a bit more support than he’d get from Sorba Thomas, who tries his best but isn’t a natural defender.
There’s not a lot to say about central midfield because High and O’Brien have been the only options in that position for a while now, with Hogg and Vallejo both injured. Jon Russell continues to get a place on the bench but Carlos has been reluctant to deploy him despite the fact he looks like he could do a decent job in that area of the pitch. Carlos defended Scott High in his post-match comments on Thursday, explaining how well he is doing to play in defensive midfield at this level when he is more of a box-to-box midfielder. While Hogg will surely go straight back into the starting eleven when he returns to fitness, High is doing a reasonable job even if he can seem a bit lightweight at times.
Toffolo’s recent return to form has seen him register an assist in four consecutive games. While it would seem statistically unlikely for this run to continue, I wouldn’t put it past him doing it again today as he’s now regularly getting into those positions where he can cause problems and is delivering quality balls into the box.
Attack: Koroma, Ward, Holmes
I’m imagining a wonky front three, with Koroma playing more like a second striker, looking to break forward and get in behind Blackburn when we attack and Holmes to tuck in and play more like a midfielder than a forward. This will give us a threat going forward but also mean Holmes can drop into midfield to make it harder for Blackburn to play through us, as Forest regularly overwhelmed O’Brien and High on Thursday and they clearly needed some support.
Danny Ward was withdrawn early on Thursday because he was having difficulty breathing apparently. While this sounds serious it could also be relatively trivial, so I’m hopeful he will return to the starting lineup again. Rhodes worked hard off the bench but I don’t think he’s ready yet to play that many minutes and will not be recovered enough to start today. Fraizer Campbell or Mipo could be considered too but both have dropped down the pecking order since Rhodes came back from injury. In fact, I expect we’ll not see Mipo in a Town shirt again given the lack of time he’s been given. For whatever reason, that loan hasn’t worked out well for anyone involved and West Ham will surely enact their recall option.
