Huddersfield Town take on Blackburn Rovers tonight in a game that has potential to be an entertaining affair with two attacking teams. Town will be keen to put a lacklustre Boxing Day performance at Barnsley behind them and to continue their excellent home form.
Rather than just predicting the team, I’m going to preview the match more broadly in this article mostly because our lack of depth in the squad is making the team almost pick itself.
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Barnsley
Carlos has picked the same lineup for three consecutive games and I have a suspicion he may do the same again. If it was down to me I’d consider benching Eiting for this match because he’s been off form for a while now but the lack of credible replacements might mean he’s given another opportunity.
We play Reading on Saturday in another home game and it’s possible that Carlos will look to rotate the team a bit to mean we’ve got fresh players for Saturday. But I can’t see there being many changes because of the lack of first-team ready options outside of this main group of players.
There hasn’t been a pre-match press conference before tonight’s game and therefore there’s been no injury update, so I’m assuming we’ve got the same team available. I do worry what we’ll do if either Mbenza or Campbell pick up a knock as we’ve virtually no other options in attack.
Predicted lineup: Schofield, Pipa, Edmonds-Green, Sarr, Toffolo, Hogg, O’Brien, Bacuna, Eiting, Campbell, Mbenza
What to expect from Blackburn
From what I’ve heard, Blackburn like to play attacking football and should give us a good game. They’ve got one of the league’s most potent strikers in Armstrong so Sarr and Edmonds-Green will have their hands full.
Town have played much better this season against attacking teams than they’ve managed against one’s that set up defensively, so I’m hoping for some entertainment in this game. We might not win but I’m sure we’ll have a good go at them which will hopefully at least mean we’ll see a good game.
Blackburn have scored 35 goals so far this season (ten more than Town), making them the division’s joint top scorers alongside Bournemouth. So we’re going to have to be on top of our defensive game tonight and not make any silly errors.
5 questions that will be answered in tonight’s game
- Will Carlos persist with the cream chinos? We lost while he was wearing them against Barnsley so now might be a time to prove our fortunes aren’t forever aligned with his choice of trousers.
- Will Corberán use his substitutes to try and change the game? Lately he’s been making fewer changes and doing it later in the game. Possibly because he’s lost confidence in the fringe players since the Bournemouth walloping.
- Can Town score enough goals without Koroma? Since we lost Koroma to injury we’ve looked far less threatening and aren’t putting in as many shots. I hoped someone else would step up and take responsibility but so far we’ve not seen this.
- Which Naby Sarr will turn up? I love watching Naby Sarr play, he’s capable of amazing things but can also have the odd horror show too. I just hope he can string together a few solid games and cut out the errors that were becoming a feature of his game.
- Is fortress McAlpine being rebuilt? You can tell this comes from a long time ago because the stadium name has changed many times since, but our stadium used to be referred to unironically as Fortress McAlpine because of our excellent home form (I’m guessing this would go back to the Steve Bruce era). Lately we’ve been excellent at home despite the absence of fans and may be building back that reputation. Given we’ve played on some fairly poor playing surfaces recently it could be as simple as we play better at home because our pitch is in relatively better shape than some of the potato fields we’ve come across at Oakwell and St Andrews.
TerrierSpirit.com prediction for tonight’s game
I think it will be a game where both sides go after each other and we’ll hopefully see some end-to-end attacking football. I can’t see Town keeping Blackburn out at our end but I do think it’s possible we could outscore them if we can get our attacking rhythm back.
I’m going to predict a scoreline of 3-2 with Fraizer Campbell, Lewis O’Brien and Isaac Mbenza scoring our goals. All three of those players should be looking to get into double figures for goals this season and none are on track, so it would be nice to see them score.
I might be being a tad optimistic after we struggled so much against Barnsley in our last match but I’m hopeful this opponent will bring a different challenge and maybe even play into our strengths more. I’d also point to how Town have tended to show a response after disappointment so far this season, so we’re due a decent performance.
You were right – team unchanged.
On the basis of it’s been ‘one good, one bad’, we can but hope that tonight sticks to the sequence after a truly awful display on Saturday.
Easy choice for Man of the Match.
good all round team effort tonight with everyone working hard on and off the ball/a very good win. well done
Carlos sure isn’t keen on using his bench! Bizarre when for the umpteenth time Eiting looked lost and out of his depth.
A bit fortunate to secure all 3 points but I’m not complaining.
i agree he is a bit beloepar but certainly not outof his depth a very gifted player who again shows great positional awareness. as have said before work of the ball is as important as on it.cambell once again leads the way in this aspect of the game a great shift last night
Deja vu, David. Things like “a good shift” and “it’s off the ball that matters” are legitimate parts of football but I can’t help but think it’s providing excuses for players who don’t do the basics very well. Last night I saw so many misplaced passes and some basic lack of control of the ball that really is inexcusable for Championship level professional footballers.
But after getting 3 points, I’m prepared to forgive & forget.
First and foremost, what an excellent game of football. Another performance where the team battled for each other and dug in at the back. The whole team looked dead on its feet as Blackburn pushed for an equaliser, and this was typified by Pipa helping the ball into the wrong area of the pitch for the leveller, but then having the presence to set up Sarr for the winner. Edmonds-Green and Schofield continue to grow week by week and the latter pulled off another worldy – both players deserve their shirts based on performances alone and not because they are all we have. I have criticised Sarr in recent weeks but worth 10/10 for an exemplary performance at both ends of the pitch. O’Brien worked tirelessly and his effort more than made up for the odd loose pass, Hogg was a rock, and Bacuna played his best game for some time. Mbenza again justified the praise heaped upon him in recent weeks. Carlos seems reluctant to use his bench and that probably shows he thinks the fringe players are some way short of the quality he expects. So despite Eiting having another poor game and Toffolo looking mentally shattered with his poor decision making going forward, it is hard to drop them. But here we are, top half of the table and the January transfer window beckoning – lets hope it is a good one.
A performance to round the year off, never -say -die, and played right to the 95th min. 31 pts into 2021 is as much as we could have hoped for, the Jan. transfer window will depend on how many players we can offload as to to how many we can recruit, the one thing we want is quality, and players who can stand up to the Corberan way, if Town gives Carlos his way we will have success, the key to that will be the big summer window and the hope of spectators filling the JS. again. I wish HTAFC and all fans a very Happy Blue and White New Year.
PS. keep the Terrier Spirit going.
I guess we’re all waiting for our host’s after match comments & player scores. I’ve just watched the 10-minute highlights on YouTube and whilst they don’t tell the full story of the match, it does tell a few things:-
1. It confirms what a great first half save that was for Ryan Schofield.
2. I think you do have to be critical of Schofield for the Blackburn goal. It required a strong punch away from danger if he can’t catch it.
3. Toffolo didn’t have his shooting boots on. He had 2 excellent shooting chances and failed to hit the target with either.
4. After a few innocuous sidefooted shots from Eiting in previous matches, he did at least go for greater power this time but his form & confidence is so woeful that it had a predictable result of clearing the crossbar comfortably.
5. Good to see O’Brien making some confident runs down that left flank. If he could provide a finish, he would be back close to his best.
6. Pipa’s pass to Sarr for the winner was top drawer.
7. Sarr is unlikely to have a better match in a Town shirt than that. Superb at both ends.
8. It’s a popular move of Town’s to charge at the byline but then instead of crossing, just a ‘stop ball’ to the supporting player is very effective. The 10-minute highlights show that Town used that a lot last night. Given that the odds are that neither Campbell nor Mbenza are likely to be in the 6yd box, I like this alternative.
Great to have another 3 points. The team certainly gave their all last night.