Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Nottingham Forest

I used to work with a Forest fan that became inexplicably cross whenever I referred to her team as Notts Forest rather than saying Nottingham Forest. I never understood it but as a tribute to her, I’ll be referring to Town’s opponents today as Notts Forest despite knowing full well that isn’t the correct name. That’s how petty I am. 

Back to Huddersfield Town, and things are going surprisingly well as we sit in fourth place in the table, are picking up decent results regularly and look like a good team all of a sudden. While it seems inconceivable that we’ll be able to sustain our current form over the whole season, Derby’s slide into administration and Notts Forest inability to register a win yet means we’re already pulling well clear of some of the teams towards the bottom of the table. 

Anyway, here’s how I think Town will line up today, with a few of my thoughts about Tuesday night’s win against Blackpool thrown in along the way as I didn’t get time to write about the game earlier in the week.

Predicting today’s team accurately has been made almost impossible as Carlos has confirmed an unspecified number of players had niggles after Tuesday night’s game and were being checked over. He wouldn’t reveal the identities of the injury doubts so there’s a huge question mark hanging over who will be available to play today.

Goalkeeper – Lee Nicholls

Ryan Schofield continues to have a dodgy back, so we’re down to just Nicholls as our sole senior goalkeeper and Niko Bilokopic stepping up from the B Team as the option on the bench. It sounds like it’s a relatively minor injury for Schofield but enough to stop him being available. This injury highlights my concern that we don’t have a proper third choice. I appreciate that third choice keepers can go many years without ever being called upon and may be a bit of a luxury but it feels risky to not have one. For now Nicholls is fit and playing well, so it’s nothing too much to worry about.

Defence – Pearson, Lees, Colwill

Assuming they’re all fit and ready to go, it would seem daft to break up this back three as they all played well against Blackpool. Naby Sarr hasn’t done much wrong this season but will have to be patient. I thought Sarr was good in the middle of the back three but Lees feels like a better choice because of the calm assurance he brings to the middle of the defensive unit. He’s not flashy but Lees quietly gets on with his business and keeps things nice and tidy at the back.

Matty Pearson repaid his manager’s faith in him against Blackpool with another goal from a set piece and as our top scorer he needs to keep playing. While it’s hard to imagine, if he keeps up his current strike rate he’s on track for a twenty-goal season. That seems impossible to imagine but equally, nobody seems to be able to stop him in the box this season, particularly when Thomas and Sinani keep dropping balls in just the right areas of the pitch.

Levi Colwill continues to impress as he plays with a maturity well beyond his young age. He had the most touches of any player on Tuesday night by quite a distance and regularly took responsibility for progressing the ball up the pitch to get attacks started. I think he’s already looking better than when he first arrived, thinking quicker and looking more comfortable on the ball. It’s realistic to think that he could continue to get better and better as the season progresses and he gets more used to the pace of Championship football.

Midfield: Thomas, Vallejo, O’Brien, Toffolo

Sorba Thomas was slightly more quiet than usual against Blackpool but this may be because he was getting special attention whenever he was on the ball, which means just by being on the pitch he can create space for others around him. The other thing to note is that his set piece delivery can’t be stopped by double marking him, so he’s still a threat even when he’s not able to get much joy in open play. 

Seeing Jonathan Hogg score on Tuesday night was the cherry on the cake of an excellent night’s work for Town. We had to battle in the first half before opening our opponent up in the second half after Josh Koroma’s opener and it’s Hogg’s organisation skills and passionate leadership that helped us weather the storm during a fairly unimpressive opening 45 minutes. 

So I’m not suggesting dropping Hogg based on current form but merely resting him for this game as I suspect he could be one of the players with an injury niggle. Given his long-term hip issue needs careful management, this seems like a good game to let Vallejo step in. Notts Forest have had a miserable start to the season, so we should set out to dominate possession and really get after their vulnerable back line. Vallejo is a natural deep-lying ball player and can feed the players ahead of him with quality passes as well as being able to receive the ball in tight spaces and move it up field. 

I’m not convinced we’ve been watching a player worth £13m in Lewis O’Brien this season but his work rate is unquestionable and his tenacity was the reason we won the ball high up the pitch in the build up to Hogg’s goal on Tuesday night. Which illustrates how assist stats can be a bit daft, as O’Brien gets no credit for the excellent work he did to set up Koroma’s saved shot that led to Hogg smashing it in but he did get an assist earlier in the game for a simple pass to Koroma, who curled the ball into the top corner seconds later. 

Toffolo is doing OK this season but it’s interesting to me that he’s rarely the first person we talk about when praising Town. I can’t help but wonder if he’s still not 100% recovered from his brush with Covid earlier in the season. Even slightly off his best, he’s still our best option in the left wingback role, so I expect him to play today. 

Forwards: Sinani, Campbell, Koroma

I really enjoy watching Sinani play, he’s just the thing we’ve been lacking in the final third. He has a left foot that’s like a magic wand and has the vision to pick out the right pass in any given situation. He also links up nicely with Thomas on the right side of the pitch and gives us a goal threat. And he can take great corners and free kicks, so like London buses, we’ve waited a long time for a decent set piece taker and now two have come along at the same time.

Danny Ward continues to struggle up front. The Examiner podcast defended him this week by pointing out, quite rightly, that he doesn’t get much support or service but I still think he should be doing more. Ideally I’d like to see Odubeko come in and start scoring prolifically but Carlos’ prematch comments suggest we’ll have to continue to be patient. Asked a relatively tame question about Mipo’s international preferences (he’s being courted by both Ireland and Nigeria) Carlos ignored the actual question and stated that some players take longer to adapt and he needs to work on his all-round game. So by process of elimination, Campbell would be my choice for today.

Regular blog commenter, Simon, pointed out yesterday that Koroma was pretty poor before his opening goal on Tuesday night and surely he deserved criticism if he only played well for a few moments out of the 90 (or words to that effect). I think that would be valid for a goalkeeper, defender or midfielder but I think it’s OK for forwards to try and fail until something comes off for them. Koroma might not have had much joy for long periods but he provided the spark that turned the game in Town’s favour. So while it’s fair to say Koroma hasn’t found the devastating form he had in spells last season, he is steadily improving. If he can keep scoring his trademark curling shot into the top right corner then I don’t really mind if he’s a bit rubbish for the other 89 minutes – that was often the case with Karlan Grant and he was deemed to be worth £15m.