Huddersfield Town take on the Cobblers this afternoon in a game where they’re widely tipped to win but anyone who remembers the Shrewsbury and Stevenage games will know that easy wins on paper can be hard work in reality. So despite Huddersfield Town being the odds-on favourites to win today, they are unlikely to have it all their own way and will need to have a gameplan to overcome a team that will set up to stifle and frustrate them.
Part of getting the gameplan right will be to pick the correct team for this game. Here’s how I think Town might line up today…
Goalkeeper: Lee Nicholls
Chris Maxwell continues to be out with his heart issue, so Nicholls will start with Chapman his deputy on the bench, with young Francis Hurl most likely the third choice keeper who will help out with the warm-up. If Northampton set up defensively against Town, then Nicholls distribution may become quite important, with the keeper needing to take a few more risks to start off attacks and build up play from the back but obviously not the kind of risks we saw Bolton’s keeper taking last week, where he gifted the ball to us over and over again.
Defence: Lees, Helik, Lonwijk
Brodie Spencer has been back in training this week and Matty Pearson scored a couple of goals for the B Team in midweek, so there are alternative options available in defence but after keeping a clean sheet last weekend and playing well, this back three should be kept together. In fact, this back three should be kept together for a good while in my view, unless injury or suspension gets in the way.
All three defenders made telling contributions last weekend too. Lees assisted Wiles goal, Helik made a crucial last-man tackle that stopped a potential goal-scoring opportunity and Lonwijk had a hand in the build-up to Koroma’s opener amongst some other decent work on the ball. Not to mention the clean sheet that shows they have collectively done their most important job of keeping the opposition out all afternoon.
Midfield: Sorensen, Evans, Hogg, Wiles, Headley
Lasse Sorensen lifted his game against Bolton after a mini dip in form. Although his performance levels don’t really matter for the purposes of predicting the lineup, as he’s untroubled by anyone competing for his position at the moment. Maybe Brodie Spencer may be expected to deputise for him more now we’ve other options in central defence and David Kasumu’s imminent return from injury gives another option. But for now, it’s Sorensen or nothing at right wingback.
Michel Duff was quite open about how the midfield three had been poor in recent games prior to Bolton last weekend and all of them needed to put in a performance. As all of them did exactly that, it seems likely we’ll see the same trio start this game. Though Duff pointed out that Hogg, Evans and Wiles all know that their places are under threat because of players coming back from injury, with Kasumu and Kane both back in contention.
With Town playing Blackpool on Tuesday night, it’s possible that Hogg could be rested for this game to have him fully fit for a game that looks trickier on paper. However, I have repeatedly suggested Hogg will lose his place in previous prediction articles this season and repeatedly been wrong. So I’m going to accept that selecting Jonathan Hogg is a habit that Michael Duff can’t quit. Something about seeing that man in a Huddersfield Town shirt with the captain’s armbands on feels too good to him and he just can’t get enough of that feeling. That’s fine. Tell Joe Hodge he’s just going to have to wait to get his chance to start a game.
One player that will sadly be missing out today is Mickel Miller, who pinged his hamstring in the first half of last weekend’s game and is set to miss the next few games. Jaheim Headley is an oven-ready replacement but perhaps not quite as polished as Miller in some aspects of his game. This opportunity could be good for Headley though, as he’s been excellent at times this season (Morecambe at home in the cup) and awful at others (Walsall away in the cup) so maybe a run of games in the first team while Miller is out will help him find some much-needed consistency. Those good games show he has the talent but the poor showings suggest he needs help and support to keep his performance levels at the same standards all the time.
Attackers: Marshall & Koroma
Callum Marshall was relatively quiet for long periods against Bolton last weekend but I think the thing he was doing was often dropping off and doing the lung-busting donkey work that doesn’t grab the headlines, closing down and harassing multiple players. Michael Duff said that he’s got lots of energy but he’s not just chasing crisp packets after his first outing, but if you weren’t paying attention you could easily mistake his all-action approach to crisp packets chasing. Thankfully, he’s also got a bit of quality to match his grafting abilities, which he showed when he provided a beauty of a cross for Koroma’s headed goal last weekend.
After picking up a brace following his Trains, Planes and Automobiles-style travel packed international break, Josh Koroma might have expected a few kind words from his manager in the pre-match presser. No such luck. Instead, Duff told the assembled journalists how Koroma’s training had been watched back on the tapes on Monday and judged to be wanting, this resulted in him getting a reminder from Martin Paterson on Tuesday about keeping his levels up. In fairness, Duff wasn’t meaning to single Koroma out for criticism and was making a broader point about how no player can coast and expect to keep their place in the team. But sharing information about who has trained poorly seems a bit indiscreet. I suspect Paterson’s little chat on Tuesday will have done the trick, as Duff wouldn’t have told that story had Koroma continued to have trained poorly.
Both Bojan Radulovic and Freddie Ladapo played for the B Team in the week, so I expect they’ll get minutes in the latter stages of today’s match too. This rotation will keep the starting strikers fresh for Tuesday’s match as well as build up the fitness and sharpness of Radulovic and Ladapo.
Another good line up, TS.
Nicholls and back 3 should remain unchanged. Good point about Brodie been used as a RWB maybe, perhaps in some of our tougher away games where we can’t push up as much or a defensive outlook needed.
Midfield I think there is a good argument for Hodge to be given a go but I agree with you Hogg likely to start and if we put the game to bed Hodge will be introduced to save his hips and legs.
Headley needs a good game today as Evans/Wiles did last week. Miller was excellent last week and a shame he’s picked up a knock.
Marshall and Koroma to start again with subs being used. I agree about Marshall doing the dirty work last week, and the cross was pure quality. I find it worrying about Koroma, its that kind of thing can be his downfall, hopefully he took the comments in good faith or it was a bit lighter than interpreted.
I think a word of caution today, on paper it’s a predicted win, but Northampton will come to do a number on us and will over perform in a top stadium big crowd so it might not go that way or us fans might need to be patient.
3 points first and good play a bonus. UTT.
I think Brodie Spencer one of the players that’s lost out to Duff sticking pretty rigidly to the 3-5-2 system so far, as right back would clearly be his best position but it doesn’t exist in this system. Central defence is the nearest equivalent but isn’t quite right as he’s not the right kind of player to be matched up with the big physical centre forward but the wingback position is so aggressive that he’s probably not got the attacking skills to do that job perfectly either. I think Spencer is good enough to adapt to either role at this level though, so will do a decent job, just like he was able to fill in on the left side despite clearly having difficulties with switching back onto his right foot so often.
I agree that today has the potential to be a banana skin. Last week’s game against Bolton was, in many ways, an easier prospect because we were playing an out of form team that liked to play out from the back. Against teams that set up to defend we’ve struggled more this season. I’d like to see an improvement on the Stevenage and Shrewsbury games, where I think those wins involved a fair bit of luck, it would be nice to see today’s game be a more confident performance from Town. You’re probably right though, the win is more important that the way we get the victory.
Yes good points about Brodie. He’s clearly versatile though and I can see a role for him where he plays RCB but goes wide to cover Sorenson when really pushing up and as mentioned above as a slightly more defensive RWB in toughest games or to see games out. Most importantly for me is giving him game time and bringing him on.
Koroma on paper is the other not perfect tactical fit, but even as not his biggest fan he’s doing well so far as the no9 and if he hits 20 goals this season i’ll be the first to applaud.
I always enjoy my Saturday morning ‘TS line-up’ article; but truth be told, you could have said “Miller injured; Headley in; otherwise if you won 4-0 last week, it’s unchanged.”
Because that’s what Northampton will have assumed, I’d be tempted to throw in a couple of wild cards – Hodge for Hogg and Ladapo for Marshall. Ladapo surely hasn’t been signed to be an ‘impact sub’? So let’s see what he can do. And Hodge must be keen to get involved at a new club, so use that initial enthusiasm.
As you recently pointed out, we’ve got 6 matches in 3 weeks; so let’s show we genuinely have a squad and not a ‘Best XI’ plus a decent bench. And I actually do believe we do have a squad now, particularly with some returning from injury (I’m not going to add “and suspension” as we really are having a bad time if Ward starts again). It wasn’t all that long ago when the Town bench was full of untried youngsters; so we’ve moved forwards.
It’s a fair comment, one change to last Saturday’s lineup makes this article a tad redundant. So far, Duff has tended towards preferring a settled starting lineup over being a tinkerer. I think Hodge’s mobility will trump Hogg’s leadership and organisation and leadership in the longer term but for now Duff seems attached to picking Hogg whenever he’s available.
As for Ladapo, I got the impression a big factor in signing him was to cover the immediate short term striker issue we had with Ward suspended and niggling injuries to Radulovic and Healey. However, last weekend at Bolton I wasn’t convinced of his match fitness. He was neat and tidy with his link up play but there were a couple of times when he had the ball at his feet and could have sprinted into the channels, one-on-one with a defender but chose instead to lay it off to a midfielder. We were 4-0 up and coasting, so hardly a crime but I got the feeling he doesn’t trust his body to be able to go at full tilt at the moment. I could be completely wrong but he seemed a bit off the pace. Radulovic seemed closer to full match sharpness, though I think he might need a bit of a confidence boost after a difficult start at Town.
Yes this is a good line up.and a good bench .
Maybe could give Ladopo
A good 25 mins 2nd half let’s see what he has to offer ?
Hogg’s importance to the team should not be underestimated. He is the one who is always there to receive the ball from his team mates and link up play and until someone else takes up this responsibility of doing the hard yards he stays in the team. Others in the midfield may get the credit for scoring goals but Hoggy’s there organising and protecting.
Town have a history of falling at easier fences after getting in good positions so here’s hoping they can get two wins this week and press on from there.
Good piece as usual TS.
Thanks Stozy. Hogg is one of those players that you notice more when he isn’t there than when he is, suddenly we are less organised and more open. Though we are going to have to have a plan to replace him at some point, or in four years time we’ll be wondering if we’ll be able to give him another one-year deal to take him into his forties.
It is a very Town thing to get a brilliant away win against one of the league’s most fancied teams and then to lose at home to one of the favourites for relegation. It’s also logical in a way too, because we play a lot better against teams that play open football that allow us to press them and struggle when the other team shuts up shop and don’t give us spaces to atttack or hold onto the ball long enough to let us press them. Still, I think Duff has been preparing the team since the day he arrived for these sorts of games and has plans for how to break down subborn teams.
In the past few seasons I have thought we seemed to be the slowest team ever. Now that has changed either due to the manager, new players or dropping down a division. Most of this year I hope we play on the front foot and get the results with pressing attacking football, instead of plodding to the odd decent result. We do have a decent bench now, and I’m fairly optimistic this year instead of the usual pessimism.
I must admit that after the disappointment of relegation, I’m quite enjoying the perspective shift of being a bigger fish in a smaller pond now we’ve dropped down to League One. I hope we’re not down at this level for a long time but after struggling at Championship level most seasons for over a decade, it’s quite nice to suddenly being a big team in the league we’re in. While it doesn’t guarantee success, it is nice to go into games thinking we’ve got a decent chance and watching us being the ones dominate the game.
In terms of pace, sometimes it can be the way we move the ball that’s providing the pace or the way we make sure we get the ball to our quick players in the right areas and protect our slower players from getting caught in the wrong areas. Because we have a mix of fast and slow players. Sorensen, Lonwijk, Koroma, Headley are all pretty fast. Hogg, Evans, Helik, Lees are all slow. Wiles is probably somewhere in the middle and Marshall has that strange quality of being able to move his legs fast so it looks like he’s quick but I’m not sure I’ve seen him run clear of a defender at full speed yet, so I’m not sure he’s as quick as he looks. Going back in time, Chris Brandon used to have the same quality, he could move his little legs very fast when he ran but still wasn’t moving all that quickly. Perhaps it’s something to do with how shorter people run.
I think you have called it perfectly, albeit in reality every one of the starting XI from Bolton deserve to start again. You could have easily abridged the article and asked “Who will replace the injured Miller?”. You make a very good point about rotation and upcomiong matches – for me you play your best XI and only rest them if they become fatigued as we currently have a strong bench of players to come in and replace when required.
With a week to recover between games, I can’t see any reason to change things apart from the injury to Miller. Now we’re entering this intense period of games we’ll most likely need to use the squad more over the next few weeks, if nothing else, it’ll make writing these team prediction articles a bit more fun! Thankfully we’ve got decent quality backups for pretty much every position now.
I guess fatigue will hit players at different rates depending on their levels of fitness and possibly age. I think it will be fairly safe to assume that the cup game againt Barnsley will see wholesale changes, but should any player be tired this early into the season????
“ Perhaps it’s something to do with how shorter people run.” Great sense of humour TS !