Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Norwich

Carlos Corberán will lead Huddersfield Town for his first Championship game as Head coach later today, when we take on newly-relegated Norwich.

Last weekend’s Cup defeat to Rochdale and the two friendlies before saw Corberán introduce some of Town’s academy players into the first team. Players returning from injury mean that we don’t need to rely on the kids but some may have forced their way into the team anyway.

Here’s how I think Town will line up for the curtain raiser.

Goalkeeper: Hamer

I think Pereira would have started against Rochdale last week if he was going to be our first choice keeper in the league. Hamer’s struggles at Town have been well documented but he’s been given a new start under Carlos and will hopefully turn over a new leaf.

I’m worried about his confidence being low and that impacting his decision making. There’s also the tendency to give away goals with silly mistakes. But if he can put a few games together without a major blunder he might grow in confidence and we’ll see the best of him.

If you couldn’t tell, I was trying my hardest to be positive about the prospect of Hamer in goals. Obviously I’m worried about him but I’m open to the possibility he could turn it around. If not we may see Pereira getting a chance to see if he can rehabilitate himself after a difficult season at Hearts last year.

Defence: Pipa, Schindler, Crichlow, Toffolo

Pipa has barely trained with his new teammates and Carlos may not want to throw him straight into the action. However, he’s the only senior right back at the club so he may be risked. He’ll just have to work extra hard at remembering the names of the other players.

Schindler wasn’t at his best last weekend and didn’t look fully fit. I’m hoping that another week of training will have helped him get back some sharpness. Even if he’s only functioning at 80%, that’s still enough to be better than the other options.

Crichlow struggled at times against Rochdale but looked good at others. I’m not sure if it will be him of Stearman that partner or Schindler but I think Crichlow’s speed and ability with the ball will win over Stearman’s experience.

Naby Sarr won’t be considered for this game as his signing was only announced late last night. His signing will mean that the other central defenders will have to up their game as the competition has increased.

Toffolo has played a centre back at times under Corberán so is another one that could be fighting for those two slots but I think he’ll play in his preferred left back position. He’s one of our best sources of balls into the box and should get forward plenty under the new system.

Midfield: Austerfield, Pritchard, Bacuna

I changed my mind several times about the midfield trio. None of the options feel particularly great but these three would be the least problematic to me. Hogg looked badly off the pace last weekend, O’Brien is injured and Matty Daly is only just back in training, so that reduces the options.

Austerfield has impressed me most of all the academy players that were used in preseason. He sits in front of defence and gets the ball moving quickly and brings others into play. Hogg doesn’t have as good a range of passing and it limits our attacking potential, so I’d leave him out of the starting eleven until he’s fully fit.

Pritchard and Bacuna are both quite attack minded so it may leave us light in the middle of the park but that seems to be how we are going to play anyway. Both have natural ability but haven’t consistently produced for Town. Hopefully they can turn that around this season.

Forwards: Mbenza, Ward, Koroma

Enough has been said about Mbenza in the past, so I’ll not go over it all again. He’s been given a clean slate, so has another chance to prove himself. In fairness to him, he looked lively in his substitute appearance last Saturday.

Danny Ward was very quiet in his competitive debut last week. He only got anywhere near the ball when he dropped deep to pick it up, which meant he was in the wrong area of the pitch. His chances are likely to be limited against Norwich, so I hope he takes up better positions and gets on the end of any quality balls that come his way.

I think Koroma is currently our best winger. That says something about how much weaker our options are but also how he’s improved since he first arrived. He seems to have more purpose and looks to produce an end product when he gets on the ball.

How did my predictions work out last week?

Last week I got eight out of the starting eleven right in my prediction for the Rochdale game. I don’t think that’s too bad given it’s the start of a new season and the squad is still taking shape.

My first error came because Hamer was preferred over Pereira, which surprised me as I thought the new boy would get a chance straight away.

I was also misled by Carlos’ comments in the press conference where he said Diakhaby and Mbenza would both feature, not realising that they would only come on from the bench.

The final mistake was picking Austerfield instead of Hogg, something I’ve gone for again in today’s lineup. I’ve predicted that Austerfield will get the nod ahead of Hogg again because I think he’s playing better that Hoggy right now and is more suited to the new approach which relies on having ball players all over the pitch. I could very well be wrong though.