Huddersfield Town start a hectic period of games with a tricky home fixture against Millwall later today. It’s the first of a sequence of five games in 15 days and with Town currently sitting bottom of the league, it’s hard not to see these next few weeks as being absolutely pivotal to Town’s season. If we can pick up a few wins then we can claw ourselves back into contention but if we continue to flounder then we could head into the World Cup break adrift at the bottom of the table.
Millwall are having a good season so far, after being tipped to struggle after losing their star player, Jed Wallace, in the summer. They’ve been particularly good recently, having won their last four and are undefeated in five. Whereas Town’s recent form has been faltering at best. Last weekend’s battling point against Middlesbrough was a decent enough result but we only got anything out of that game because our hosts were just as bad as we were, so it’s hard to know how we’ll cope against decent opposition that are in good form. With Halloween coming up on Monday, this could be a bit of a frightener for Town fans!
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Millwall
I went through every position on the pitch trying to work out who would be best in each role and after careful consideration, the only change I would make from last weekend would be to swap Rhodes for Ward. That’s not really because last weekend’s starting eleven was superb but because there aren’t really a great deal of quality backup options on the sidelines waiting to come in.
Fotheringham’s reluctance to make changes during games shows he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in his subs, which I can understand as the triple sub he made in the Rotherham game pretty much killed Town’s momentum and all three subs struggled to make an impact. Even so, it’s a worry when other teams can freshen up their lineups and bring on fresh ideas and we have players (who are being flogged in training by the sounds of it) that are fading in the later stages of games and the subs aren’t deemed good enough to come in to relieve them.
Anyway, here’s how I think we’ll line up…
Goalkeeper: Nicholls
Defence: Turton, Lees, Helik, Nakayama
Midfield: Thomas, Camara, Rudoni, Kasumu, Holmes
Striker: Rhodes
Will Fotheringham trust his subs in this game?
Building on my earlier point above, will Fotheringham trust his subs a bit more in this game? With the prospect of five games in 15 days, it will be grueling for the first team regulars if they are to be expected to play every minute of those games. It’s also worth remembering we have a few players close to yellow card suspensions, Kasumu and Thomas are both one yellow away from a ban (Kasumu has actually been booked six times but the two that led to a red don’t count towards the ban total, so he’s deemed to be on four).
I feel like Fotheringham is still learning his trade as a head coach and things like judging how and when to make subs in games is a skill that he’ll most likely get better at with time. So far, I don’t think we’ve used the five subs available to us all that effectively, at best it’s mostly been like-for-like subs to bring on fresh legs or to give someone else a go when the starting player hasn’t worked out.
I’d like to see Fotheringham respond more to what’s happening in games and think more tactically with his substitutes. Against Preston we were losing the game and still were effectively playing with a back five against a team that had little interest in attacking against us when we could easily have taken off a defender and brought on an attacker. This doesn’t feel like advanced coaching badge thinking, it seems like common sense stuff.
It doesn’t even have to be subbing players either, I’d like to see a bit more tactical work within games from him generally. Carlos Corberan and Danny Cowley before him would constantly be tinkering with player positions and pressing systems within games. Opposition coaches hated playing against Carlos last season because rather than having a set system that they could scout and set up for, he tailored his tactical approach for each team he faced. So far, with Fotheringham, he’s not quite coming across as the same kind of deep thinker, despite all his talk of studying at the feet of Germany’s football greats.
Huddersfield Town old boys to look out for in the Millwall team
As seems to happen most weeks in the Championship, Millwall have a few familiar faces to Town fans in their squad. Murray Wallace, Benik Afobe and Scott Malone are all regular starters for The Lions this season so could face their old club this afternoon.
Murray Wallace has blossomed into a very steady, Championship-level defender after never looking like that would be in his future when he was at Town. I was not even a bit sad to see him leave when we released him after he failed to nail down a regular starting spot for us. However, he’s become a seasoned pro at Millwall and deserves credit for the career he’s carved out for himself.
Scott Malone’s Town career will always be seen as a bit comical for the frequent blunders that occured when he was on the pitch. I will always remember him for the time he accidentally blasted the ball straight into his own face when attempting a clearance. However, both before and after his time at Town, he’s been a very, very decent Championship left back with a good record of assists most seasons. It’s just that we gambled that he could do it in the Premier League and he couldn’t. That wasn’t his fault and now he’s back at the correct level for his ability he’s thriving again.
I will always associate Benik Afobe with that awful playoff final at Old Trafford, where Peterborough beat us easily, our fans fought with each other in the stands, others threw their free T-shirts on the pitch in disgust at the full time whistle and I had one of the most depressing fast-food meals I’ve ever eaten in the Lowry Outlet food court while contemplating yet another season in League One. But that wasn’t Benik Afobe’s fault, he did a great job for us when he was on loan from Arsenal. He could have scored more but he was a real, raw talent that looked to have a big future in the game. It’s a bit of a surprise that he didn’t rise any higher than he has.
Will Town set out to win ugly?
I felt like there was a bit of a change in tone from Fotheringham in his prematch press conference this week and he talked more about having to do whatever it takes to keep the team up. Previously I think he was doing a lot more talking up the team’s footballing quality and how much of a force we will become once his coaching methods have been embedded. Now he’s got his feet under the table and perhaps understands the quality of squad he’s got to work with in comparison to the teams he’s coming up against, he’s understandably changing tack and talking more about winning dirty and dragging the team over the line by any means necessary.
Pragmatism is absolutely fine in Town’s current position though, so I’m not going to complain. Anything else would be bonkers really. If you’re bottom of the table and trying to play total football then you know you’re in trouble.
It will be interesting to see if the style of play is any different today. Will there be a bit less playing out from the back and a bit more knocking it long to the strikers? I don’t think there will be too many complaints if we do, even if it means the possession stats take a bit of a hit.
Score prediction – Huddersfield Town 0-2 Millwall
I’ll probably get some stick in the comments for this prediction but I think the odds are stacked against Town in this game and Millwall are the likely winners. We’re too much of a work in progress at this stage and make too many basic errors to avoid defeat against a half-decent Championship team. Against fellow strugglers we’ve got a chance but organised and competent teams can wait for us to blunder and pick us off, I fear that will happen today.
I hope I’m wrong, and with home advantage and our ability at set pieces, it’s always possible. With Sorba Thomas on the pitch there’s always hope that something will happen, particularly if one of Ward or Rhodes is on the pitch to convert any chances we can create for them. Having said that, it could be argued that we haven’t created a goal from open play during Mark Fotheringham’s six games in charge yet (the own goal Camara set up against Hull is debatable as it came from the break down of a set piece).
What do you think the score will be? Put your prediction in the comments.
Tentative 1-1, but it’s more a hope than a prediction. The only thing that makes me a little optimistic, is that we know some of our players can play better than they are. We haven’t played well all season, you feel like if they can put in a good performance there’s no reason we couldn’t beat any team in the league (if the opposition has an off day maybe). MF is not Carlos, but he is certainly a motivator, it’s hard to look past some players just not giving 100%, either effort or ability on the day.
A draw would be a good result for Town I think. You’re right that there’s more to come from some of our players and hopefully Fotheringham can get them up for it. Maybe we need a motivator more than a tactician at in the moment, as confidence can get you a look if way.
There’s one half of the scoreline that can be predicted with a degree of certainty:-
Town 0
The only question is how many, if any, will be leaked at the other end? If Town concedes in the first 20 mins, it could end up with it being 3 or 4.
I shan’t be listening or watching…..thankfully.
The club is in a sorry state from top to bottom. The statement this week from Hoyle just put the cherry on the cake – an admission that he’s not been up to the job, the club up for sale, the Crown Jewels in O’Brien & Toffolo already sold, 2 strikers well past their prime and a 3rd striker nobody has seen yet due to long term injury, the club captain crocked and seemingly not totally at one with the Head Coach, and a shouty inexperienced Head Coach allegedly with lots to bring from the Bundesliga and so far nothing seems to have changed.
The country has had 3 prime ministers this year; Town has had 3 Head Coaches this year. Both Town & Country are an embarrassment.
It’s hard to disagree with any of your assessment about the current state of the club but when the whistle goes at three o’clock I’ll still believe Town can get something from the game. Also, despite how bleak things might feel now, I know that if Town somehow manage to pull off a win and a decent performance today the optimist in me will look at the league table after the game and see how many points Town are away from the playoffs (the answer will be too many but I’ll look anyway).
We (Millwall) have recently gone to 4 at the back (I’d like to think due to fans’ pressure on Rowett). George Long has at the same time replaced Bialkowski in goal because Long is much better with his feet and we now play a lot of long ball, getting it forward early and have a pretty high press. We are the best team in the division at set pieces – even from our own half we will pump the ball up for a Jake Cooper flick on. Alongside Coops today will be Leeds loanee Charlie Cresswell who came on at HT last week due to another injury to Hutch. He’s been mixed so far, hopefully he will do better now the system has beem simplified. Wallace is also injured so Malone will continue to deputise, he has done alright the last couple of games. RB is Danny McNamara who is superb. As is Billy Mitchell in CM where he will share duties with George Saville. In the 4231 the exceptional Zian Flemming will play in the 10, flanked by Voglsammer (really a CF but doing a job out wide) on the right & the explosive ‘sick-note’ Bennett on the left. Goal poacher is Tom Bradshaw who is on a bit of a run lately. The likes of Styles, Burey & Afobe will come on 2H.
Thanks Chris, that’s a really useful preview of what to expect from Millwall. It sounds like we’ve picked a particularly bad moment to play you guys. Hopefully we can upset your momentum this afternoon but all the best for the season after 5 o’clock today.
Town 0 millwall 2
Imo Fothers is totally deluded, says samething all thebtime, banging on about 50 points.
No plan at all except Thomas crossing, seems amateur
Also the captain Lees does not speak or shout ,!
I agree we could do with a few more vocal leaders on the pitch. I wonder if they’re all too scared of Fozzy Bear to shout at each other.
I’d like to respond to your comment about the final at Old Trafford, where you said “our fans fought with each other in the stands…”
Just to be clear here, fans were not fighting each other. What happened was that one group of men decided to fight other people sitting near them. There had apparently been trouble brewing for some time from this group. I was there with my wife, and this was what I wrote at the time, which I was going to post on Down at the Mac at the time, but didn’t, and have never posted it anywhere till now:
“We were sat just in front of the fighting. We heard something and turned round and it was just total mayhem. This one guy with a Town shirt was getting continually pounded in the head by a group of others.
They were rolling down and over the seats. If this had started 3 or 4 rows further down they’d have gone over the tier. It was absolutely terrifying. There were some other guys who just seemed to get in the way of them and they also got badly hit in the head. Seemed to be 4 or 5 guys that were doing all this. We grabbed our stuff and moved to the side and then up the stairs to get away from it all. It just wasn’t ending, and like I said, if you were in the way, you got beaten up.
When we got to the top of the stairs we saw a steward had pulled one of the guys off, but all he got for his trouble was to get continually smashed in the face by the others. While this was happening, one woman was shouting at the stewards, why don’t they do something, his reply was that the stewards shouldn’t get involved. Which is understandable, but then why is there a situation where it takes police 10 mins to get to the trouble.
To people here who have said, why didn’t fans try to stop them, I would say one thing, if you went in, you would get your head smashed in – even if you weren’t trying to get involved and just happened to be sitting in the wrong seat, they would hit you for being in their way. It was truly terrifying and I thank God we weren’t sat 3 rows further up otherwise that would have been us getting smashed in.
And as others have said, when the police did get there, they were still raining blows, although we felt so sickened and shaken as we’d only just avoided getting caught up in it that we’d left by the time the police arrived.
It was just a horrible, frightening, sickening end to the day which left the result meaningless.”
Thanks for sharing. I was on the lower tier, so only had a vague concept that there was trouble between our own fans but your description sounds truly awful. I always like to think Town fans are a bit better than those of most other clubs but there are obviously a minority of people who go to games that are violent thugs looking for any excuse to hurt other people for the smallest provocation. Thankfully these occurrences are rare but upsetting all the same.
Unfortunately I can only watch Town on ifollow as I live in Spain now, but I don’t feel like paying to watch a team with no momentum. It seems like they are all dragging big weights along with them, physically and mentally. For a number of years now they haven’t been exciting in attack and if they fall behind it’s difficult to see them getting back. I like Thomas, but other teams have worked out his game, and quite frankly Town’s game. Good wingers cut inside and shoot or lay the ball off to others in the box. This hardly ever happens, it’s like a string is keeping him within a couple of feet from the touch line. Is this him, or the manager? We need another outlet to take some of the predictability out of our game, and some of the pressure off him.
I think Pat Jones is the only exciting alternative wide player we have bit he’s been injured since Fotheringham arrived. He’ll hopefully he for again soon as he’s got pace to burn and seems to be a able to finish too. I agree that Sorba seems a bit too easily worked out in open play, having a fullback to draw players away would give him more space too. As a wingback he’s often isolated and working against two defenders.
It seems to me Thomas is under instruction to bang the ball into the middle, whether just passed the halfway line or the byline. He hardly ever beats his man or goes for goal himself. It’s one touch and the ball’s gone – often without seeing or picking out a player.
A prediction. Hoyle gone. Fotheringham out, Dave Baldwin (ex Burnley) in, Sean Dyche (ex Burnley) in.
It occurred to me that Baldwin most likely has a good relation with Sean Dyche. He was (and potentially still is) on a huge wage at Burnley so we’d need a new owner with deep pockets but you never know.
The reverse psychology worked a treat. More of the same for Wed ?
I’d love to claim it was reverse psychology!
As I walked along the North Sea coast in Suffolk at 3.45pm yesterday, checked my phone and it read for the first half:-
Town 1 Millwall 0 (reported as a long shot – cough cough having now seen it)
Shots – Town 10 Millwall 0
Shots on Target – Town 6 Millwall 0
Corners – Town 6 Millwall 0
I thought I must have died and gone to heaven!
Shame you missed it. You’d have loved it. The theatre! The hilarity (the towel business was excellent). And some excellent attacking play from Town’s midfield not seen this season. Hope it’s not a flash in the pan but it promises better things than we’ve seen so far this season. Players definitely up for it. Perhaps Frothy will turn out better than I expected? Light at the end of the tunnel? Or perhaps it’s the train coming.
Millwall were as bad as most other teams we have come across this season.
I’m interested in the comment about the poor standard of other teams in the Championship. I received criticism last season for suggesting that the general standard was poor – Town finishing 3rd is evidence in itself I’d have thought. Now it seems the overall standard may be even lower?