Predicted starting XI, score and key talking points for Huddersfield Town’s trip to QPR 

As Alan Partridge once said, “Go to London! I guarantee you’ll either be mugged or not appreciated. Catch the train to London, stopping at Rejection, Disappointment, Backstabbing Central and Shattered Dreams Parkway.” 

Let’s hope that Huddersfield Town’s trip to Loftus Road this afternoon doesn’t result in shattered dreams but given the recent form of the home side and our pitiful away record it’s likely to be another big ask for Town to come away with anything. 

Read on to find out my thoughts on who Town will select this afternoon, my prediction for the outcome and some of the key talking points ahead of the match. 

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI 

Goalkeeper: Schofield 

Defence: Edmonds-Green, Stearman, Sarr

Midfield: Rowe, Hogg, O’Brien, Bacuna, Pipa 

Attack: Sanogo, Campbell 

Carlos has some genuine competition among senior players now a few have returned from injury, which bodes well for the run in, providing murderball doesn’t twang any more hamstrings. Danny Ward, Alex Pritchard and Jonathan Hogg are all back in contention for this match after recent layoffs. Ward even played half an hour for the B Team this week and came through without needing a new sick note. 

The weaknesses of Schofield’s game have been extensively covered in recent weeks but last Friday his saves kept us in the game against Cardiff and he deserves some credit for that. He’s still dodgy on crosses but he claimed a few decent high balls last week. I’m certain Charlie Austin, panto villain that he is, will target Schofield today but I’m hopeful the young keeper will be up to the test against the nasty but effective striker. 

The only change I’d make to the back line would be to swap Keogh for Stearman, specifically to put him on Austin and try to snuff him out. Edmonds-Green could make way for Vallejo to join the back three if Hogg comes straight back in but I’d worry about the lack of pace on our back line if we did that. Sarr, for all his faults, has played a lot of minutes for us this season and is clearly seen by Carlos as a key player, so I’m sure he’ll continue on the left of the back three. 

I hope that Pipa and Rowe are kept as the two wingbacks as they’ve both looked better in this more advanced role. Either of the right-footers could be played on the left while we wait for Toffolo to return from injury. Pipa’s tendency to cut inside makes him a reasonable choice for the left but he needs to avoid making the same inside run too often or he’ll become predictable. 

Most players would be eased back into action from the bench after an injury but Jonathan Hogg isn’t most players and we need him too badly so he’ll most likely start in the middle today. Ahead of Hogg I suspect we’ll carry on with Bacuna and O’Brien, as both seem to be playing better under this new system, which gives them a bit more creative responsibility and makes use of their energy to track back. 

Campbell and Sanogo looked like a nice combination and each player’s skills compliment the other. It takes time to build up an understanding so I hope they’re given a bit of time together on the pitch. I was impressed with Sanogo against Cardiff and look forward to seeing what he does today.

Score prediction: a 2-2 draw

I’m going to predict a Desmond Tutu for Town today. QPR are in decent form but aren’t the type of dour team that we’ve struggled with this season. I think it’ll be an entertaining game, Town will mostly play on the counter and try to find gaps whenever they can get forward quickly. 

I think we can score today but I’m not confident we can keep it tight enough at the back to avoid conceding. In all honesty, I think a point would be a decent return under the circumstances and keeps the points tally ticking over. 

5 talking points ahead of the game 

Can Town get their first away win since October? 

I had to double check this but our last away win was that great 3-0 victory over Millwall way back at the end of October. It’s now been 12 away games without a win, which is pretty dismal given the consensus seems to be that this season’s Championship isn’t up to much. 

Our inability to win on the road has been mostly due to how frequently we’ve gifted opponents soft goals. Our new approach of playing it long more often may not always be pretty but it should cut out many of the costly mistakes we’ve been making and keep us in games for longer. 

To win we’ll also need to be clinical at the other end of the pitch. Hopefully Sanogo can help us with that and I’m sure he’ll be itching to make amends for last week’s penalty miss. I’m not sure he’s a prolific kind of striker though and it may be that his main role is to occupy the defence and make space for others to get forward and find shooting opportunities. 

How pragmatic is this new approach? 

Town’s last two games have seen a shift to a more combative and safety-first approach to playing. I’m curious about how far down this path Carlos is willing to go. I feel like his instinct will always be to attack and go for the win. Will we continue hoofing the ball if we go behind or will he revert to trying to play out from the back and try to play beautiful football?

This shift in tactics has thrown me a little bit because it feels like a massive contradiction of the bold new approach we were promised when Corberán arrived. I also have a suspicion that the change has been requested by the higher ups rather than come from Carlos himself but that’s just a personal theory and isn’t based on any evidence.

Will Charlie Austin get his revenge? 

Since Charlie Austin booted Jonas Lössl in the face back in our Premier League days he’s been a bit of a villain to Town fans. Which meant many of us took some pleasure in his desolation last season when our defeat of West Brom seriously dented their promotion ambitions (even though Brentford went on to foul up the opportunity our win over West Brom gave them). 

Whether you love him or hate him as a person, he’s incredibly effective at this level and will no doubt be a thorn in our side today. I hope one of our more experienced centre backs is given the role of man marking him and hopefully we can nullify his threat. 

Can Pritchard prove Dean Hoyle wrong? 

In a wide-ranging podcast interview this week, Dean Hoyle said that he had overpaid for Pritchard when he brought him in at David Wagner’s request. While it is pretty much an objective fact that he hasn’t been worth the money we spent on him, it’s not a great idea to slate a current player. 

I’m sure it will have stung Pritchard to see the quotes from Hoyle and perhaps that can be a motivating factor for him today. Nothing else seems to draw a performance out of him but spite might be the mystery ingredient needed to get him playing like an £11m player. 

Can Town remain on the fringes of the relegation battle? 

The club released its second monthly update from the board this week. This time Chief Executive, Mark Devlin, waffled about things we already knew. It’s not his fault as some months there won’t be much news but it’s still good to keep communicating anyway. The only notable thing I read in his statement was how Town are on the “fringes” of the relegation fight. 

While I’m sure he was trying to make our situation sound less worrying, it seems daft to pretend we’re not right in the thick of the relegation scrap and desperately need to get some points on the board. 

If Town start picking up wins they could easily pull away from the pack at the bottom of the table but until then we’re struggling and our recent form is worrying even if last week’s pair of draws suggests we may be turning it around. 

Rotherham’s postponement means that Town can’t enter the bottom three if they lose today but if the other teams below us pick up points and we don’t it could leave us desperately hoping Rotherham aren’t able to win their games in hand. Otherwise we could find ourselves quickly slipping from the fringes of the relegation battle and straight into the bottom three.