Predicted lineup, Grant’s return, mounting injuries, predictions and ownership issues – A preview of Town v WBA

This recent international break feels like it was incredibly long, so it’s a treat to get back to watching Town again today. While it was nice to see Emile Smith Rowe do so well for England, I’m otherwise left entirely cold by international football outside of the big tournaments and I’m glad there won’t be another international break until next March. 

Today’s opponents are West Bromwich Albion, one of the league’s stronger teams but they’re not as good as Fulham and Bournemouth and have dropped a few points away from home in recent times. Looking at the players they have available makes them look to be an intimidating opponent but Town have already shown this season that they can, on their day, match anyone. Sadly they’ve also shown that on a bad day we can be really bad too. Let’s hope today is one of those better days.

Here are a few of my thoughts ahead of the game…

Predicted Huddersfield Town lineup to take on West Bromwich Albion

I’d normally dedicate a whole article to predicting the lineup for the game but it doesn’t feel like there’s all that much to say really as so much of the team picks itself.

These players are almost certain to start: Nicholls, Pearson, Lees, Colwill, Thomas, O’Brien, Toffolo, Sinani, Ward

The big headache for Corberan is replacing the injured Jonathan Hogg (not due back until January due to a knee injury) with Vallejo still ruled out too. Scott High is the obvious choice but he’s not a natural defensive midfielder and lacks bite. Jon Russell may be a wildcard choice for this role as it sounds like he’s been promoted out of the B Team specifically to help cover the shortage of options in the middle of the park. The ex-Chelsea player has received good reports from his games in the B Team and despite often playing further forward, before this season he has played a lot as a defensive midfielder. High seems like the safest option but Russell’s height and strength may be good reasons to prefer him to the relatively lightweight High.

Duane Holmes injury means there’s a decision to make about who plays on the left wing role. The obvious choice is to put Koroma in that slot as a like-for-like replacement. However, Oliver Turton could be deployed as a right wingback and Thomas pushed further up field instead. Few fans would be in favour of Turton starting the game but something about him must tickle Calros’ fancy as he keeps getting time on the pitch despite being mostly poor this season.

Mipo or Campbell could also be preferred to Ward up front but I doubt either will. We’re finally starting to see a bit of form from Danny Ward and a consistent run of starts will hopefully see him continue to get better. I’m not a big Ward fan but it’s worth acknowledging that he has improved a lot as the season has gone on and his work off the ball is a lot more effective now and helps the team out even when he isn’t scoring.

Predicted lineup: 

Goalkeeper: Nicholls

Defence: Pearson, Lees, Colwill,

Midfield: Thomas, High, O’Brien, Toffolo

Attack: Sinani, Ward, Koroma

Karlan Grant returns for the first time

I’m not a big fan of booing returning players unless they left the club in disgrace, so I will be politely clapping Karlan Grant when his name is called out before the game today. His goals kept us up in the first season back in the Championship and he was sold for a huge sum relative to his abilities, so I bear him no ill will. The transfer saga for his move to West Brom went on for far too long but that wasn’t Grant’s fault, if anything it was our stubborness in insisting on getting the right deal that delayed it so I’ll not blame the player.

While it feels inevitable that ex-players will score against us upon their return, I think we should be able to stop that happening today. I’ve not seen much evidence since he left Town to change my mind that Grant is a one trick pony (though it is a good trick) and if you can shut off his one way of scoring a goal he becomes quite ineffective. So Matty Pearson needs to be ready to allow him no opportunities to cut inside onto his right foot, as he’s likely to be the one covering the inside left channel that Grant likes to operate in. We know from his time at Town that he struggles when denied time to move the ball onto his preferred foot and he’s mostly harmless if shephered down the flank rather than letting him cut inside.

Mounting injuries

International breaks are often a chance to help players recover from minor injuries and get them back to full fitness. Instead we seem to be in worse shape than ever. Hogg and Holmes are ruled out for today’s game and the players that have been out previously don’t seem any closer to returning just yet.

I don’t know what’s changed but it feels like there’s quicksand in the treatment room these days, once you enter you never leave. Aaron Rowe has been a few weeks away from fitness for the whole season. Vallejo doesn’t seem to be able to shake off what initially sounded like a minor niggle and Schofield’s odd growing pains seem to be continuing to bother him. 

Maybe we’re given overly optimistic timescales at the initial stage of injuries, maybe we’ve had a bad run of luck when it comes to recovery times but I’m wondering whether we’re doing everything right behind the scenes. It feels like we’re not managing our injured players particularly well, as very few recover ahead of schedule and so many have setbacks that push back their estimated return dates.

Pipa, Rhodes, Holmes, Rowe and Vallejo all sound like they could be back in contention within a few weeks but I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see any of them until after Christmas given how regularly these recovery timescales get pushed back.

Match prediction: Huddersfield Town 3 West Brom 2

West Brom like to press teams high up the pitch and we like to tempt teams with this approach by playing the ball around at the back. When this goes well for Town it draws out the opposition and creates space for the players further upfield to exploit. When it goes badly, we get caught in possession in our own final third and allow easy chances for the opposition. Either way there’s potential for goals at both ends, so I’m predicting a high-scoring and entertaining game.

West Brom have some very good players in their ranks but they’re not invincible and we have plenty of players that can hurt them too. Our new found strength from set pieces also means we’re always a threat even if we struggle in open play.

While it’s possible we could receive another spanking, like Fulham gave us earlier in the season, I’m hoping we’ve grown since then. I’d not be too disappointed to lose today by a goal or two but it’s important for our momentum to not get battered again. If West Brom start to play us off the park we need a plan to drag them down to our level and make it a scrappy, then hope we can edge the game with a set piece goal.

Some thoughts on the ownership of Huddersfield Town

I’ve not had time to write in depth about the sad situation with Phil Hodgkinson’s business empire collapsing but it feels weird to not mention it at all. The message from behind the scenes is a clear “DON’T PANIC!” but also, just as clearly, Dean Hoyle is having to put more money in to cover the day-to-day expenses of the club. 

While such short-term funding is apparently fairly common at football clubs, I’m not sure it’s a sign of the club’s financial health. Even more so when you consider that Hoyle is due another multi-million pound debt repayment in the next few months. I find it odd that the club have publicly shared that Dean Hoyle is supporting the running costs given the concern this has generated. I wonder if Hoyle has insisted this information be shared to help fans to see that he’s not the panto villain some have painted him to be.

It seems like things are currently in a state of flux, with Hodgkinson unlikely to continue as chairman for much longer and Hoyle widely rumoured to be the man to step back in, at least for the short term. I’ll be curious to see who will write the chairman’s comments in today’s matchday programme even though it will most likely be the usual ghostwritten platitudes.

Hodgkinson always made my skin crawl for reasons I struggled to articulate. I agreed with his efforts to make the club self-sustaining and his plan to introduce a clear philosophy built around bringing through young players but something about him meant I couldn’t take to him. I suspect he hasn’t put that much money into the club compared to other Championship club owners but he’s not done a bad job of steadying the ship since he took over. However, I’ll also not be sad to see the back of him when he does make an exit. 

While I suppose there’s nothing set in stone to say he’s going to leave, I can’t see how you can play at being a football club owner when the failure of your other businesses have caused hardship to many other people. If Dean takes back the reins then I think I’ll be mostly relieved despite some ill feeling towards him from other fans. I’ll be glad to see him back.

My biggest fear is that Hoyle might not be interested in anything more than being a caretaker while he finds another investor to take over the club. Looking at the rogues gallery or chancers and charlatans that have bought clubs in the past we could see ourselves out of the frying pan and into the fire.