Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Port Vale

Huddersfield Town take on bottom-of-the-table Port Vale on Boxing Day, in a game that should in theory be an easy victory for Town but when does reality ever match up to theory in football? While Port Vale haven’t won in the league since September, Town also have a track record of unburdening opposition teams of their bad runs of form. The “And He Takes That Chance Podcast” refer to Huddersfield Town as Charity FC because of this tendency to offer hope to seemingly helpless clubs. Will that tendency emerge during the season of goodwill to all men? If we play like we did against Rotherham last weekend then we should easily dispatch Port Vale but if it’s more like our last game (against Wigan, not Wimbledon as I suggested in my last post) then any team would have a chance.

Getting the selection right will be a good starting point and Lee Grant will have to decide whether he wants to stick with a winning formula or to tinker with his starting eleven. Here’s how I think we’ll line up:

Goalkeeper: Lee Nicholls

Town have looked a lot less shaky at the back since Lee Nicholls came back into the starting eleven. Owen Goodman may be better with the ball at his feet but he’s also a bit of a liability, with too many of his passes putting us into trouble. Add to that his weird tendency to push shots into dangerous areas when saving rather than putting them out of play and it’s hard to see a way back for Goodman. If there is a break clause in his loan then I think it might be best for the player, parent club and Town if he gets recalled. Whether we bring in another ball-playing keeper to replace him will depend on how much we trust Jacob Chapman to step up and how wedded we are to the idea of playing it out short from the back.

Defence: Gooch, Balker, Low, Wallace, Roughan

Lynden Gooch put in a wonderful performance against Rotherham, scoring the opener and assisting our other two goals with some top-class crossing. The switch to three at the back makes the wingbacks very important in terms of giving the team width, thankfully Gooch stepped up and will hopefully get a good run in the team in a position that suits his strengths.

Radinio Balker is another player that has a key role in Grant’s recent formation switch, technically being the right side of the back three but frequently playing more like a right-back to fill in the gap when Gooch gets forward. Having two central defenders playing alongside him gives him a bit more licence to carry the ball forward, knowing he’s got cover behind him.

It’s been an up and down season for Joe Low, with an excellent start fading away into a pretty poor patch more recently. The Rotherham game saw him back to his best and I have to wonder if he’s helped by having the pace of Balker on one side and the experience of Wallace on the other. The extra central defender also puts less pressure on him on the ball as he has more options around him and can play a simple pass more often, rather than those attempted Hollywood balls that rarely come off.

I’ve been critical early in the season of Murray Wallace’s lack of pace but he’s actually been very good since coming back into the team. With Jack Whatmough’s recovery from injury suffering another setback, Wallace is the only old-head in central defence and his experience seems to help settle the others when he’s playing.

I wouldn’t say that Sean Roughan’s start to life at Huddersfield Town has been mixed, he’s just been pretty poor compared to the player I thought we’d signed. He’s turned that around lately though with a string of decent outings, where he’s been solid in defence and looked OK going forward too. His long-range passing and crossing from deep are decent and help to get us up the pitch quickly and there have been a few long-range shots that have gone close. I don’t think it’s going to be long before he smashes one in from 25 yards.

Midfield: Harness, Ledson, Wiles

Leo Castledine looked like he took a whack on the foot during the Rotherham game and Lee Grant was questioned about his fitness in the prematch press conference. Grant hinted towards Castledine being available but, quite frankly, his injury updates are frequently a web of lies intended to confuse opposition analysts rather than truthful accounts of the fitness of his squad. So my gut tells me that Castledine won’t play but I hope I’m wrong, as he’s really blossomed over the last few weeks. With rumours of Chelsea ending his loan in January to facilitate a Championship move, I’m concerned we may have seen his last appearance in a Town shirt. Hopefully I’m wrong both about the injury and the loan recall.

Ben Wiles isn’t exactly a like-for-like replacement for Castledine, not just because he’s not as good but because he plays in a different way too. With two strikers, and one tending to drop deep, the attacking midfielder needs to drop into the channels more and support the wingbacks. Castledine played almost like he had a free role against Rotherham and it caused a few problems for them. Hopefully Wiles will be able to do something similar if he comes in for him.

Marcus Harness was caught on camera during the incident in Leeds city centre, which ended in Herbie Kane trying to punch someone. It’s conceivable that he’s been disciplined by the club for his involvement but I doubt it would be deemed serious enough to drop him from the team. Instead of hobbling ourselves by dropping a useful player, I think it would be smarter management to keep him in the team and tell him to repay that faith with a good performance.

Another player that has picked up their game recently is Ryan Ledson. During our bad patch, he was one of the worst culprits for dropping standards and making basic errors but lately he’s looked a lot more solid. My feeling is that having a natural ball-player like Harness alongside him frees him up to concentrate on the ugly side of the game, which is where his strength lies.

Strikers: May & Radulovic

It’s mad to think we spent millions on Joe Taylor at the start of this year and by the end of it he can’t even make it into the match day squad. But it’s only right that the team is picked based on who is playing the best rather than who cost the most. With Charles and Radulovic both coming out of the shadows and contributing well for the team, it’s the right choice to push Taylor down the pecking order. After seeing plenty of Charles and Radulovic together and a brief experiment with Charles and May, I think that Radulovic and May is the best available attacking pairing based on current form.

Radulovic had arguably his best game in a Town shirt against Rotherham, picking up a goal and an assist as well as generally contributing well to the team. Alfie May was less eye catching but he did a lot of grafting to make space for others and caused their defence problems. He’s still not found a proper rhythm at Huddersfield Town and looks like he needs a goal or two for his confidence. His track record tells us that he will get goals if he’s given time and I think a run of him and Radulovic playing together could help him in this area.

Merry Christmas Town fans!