Huddersfield Town play their first friendly of the pre-season against Accrington Stanley on Wednesday evening. It’s Town’s first game since their historic playoff final victory that saw them promoted to the Premier League. I suspect this game will be substantially more low-key.
I have to confess that I’m not a big fan of pre-season friendlies, so won’t be going to this game. They’re good for raising fitness levels, testing out tactics and helping new players gel but they’re rarely much of a spectacle.
Accrington Stanley v HTAFC – Match details
Kickoff: Wednesday 12 July 2017 at 7 pm
Venue: Accrington Stanley Football Club Livingstone Road, Accrington, Lancashire, BB5 5BX
Tickets prices: Adults: £10 / Over-65s / Full-time students & under-18s: £5 / Under-12s: £1
The ticket office Twitter account has confirmed that you can pay on the day if you don’t have a ticket.
https://twitter.com/htafcslo/status/885052901105815552
Likely line-up?
I’ve no idea! It’s Town’s first game of the pre-season, so it’s a mystery who David Wagner will pick for his team. Instead, here’s my personal pick of Town’s best 11:
The above is likely to be very wrong. I honestly don’t think the starting eleven means a great deal though, as I’d expect the whole team to change for the second half, so most players will receive a run out at some stage.
David Wagner has an almost full strength team to pick from. Aaron Mooy won’t be available as he’s taking a well-earned break after his exertions in the Confederations Cup. Jon Stanković is still out with a long-term knee injury, though I heard some talk on social media that he might be recovering more quickly than expected.
Four questions that we could get answers to against Accrington Stanley
Here are a few things that are worth looking out for in the game against Accrington Stanley:
- Which side of the field will Ince play on? He played most of last season on the right wing for Derby but has played on the left earlier in his career. Will he play on his preferred wing, or will Wagner deploy him on the left, so Kachunga can stay in his preferred position on the right wing?
- What next for Nahki Wells? The arrival of Mounié and Depoitre means Wells goes from being the first choice to the third choice striker. Will he get to play in the striker position or will The Tank and The Beast share striking duties and leave Wells either on the bench or deployed elsewhere? Given the huge improvement in Wells’ build up play last season, I wonder if Wagner will experiment with him in the number 10 role.
- Will Wagner stick to 4-2-3-1? Pre-season is a good time to try out alternative formations, and there has been some talk among fans about using other formations to get their preferred players onto the pitch at once. For example, playing two out and out strikers would get the new frontmen on the pitch at the same time.
- Will the fringe players get a chance to prove themselves? Players such as Jack Payne, Harry Bunn, Sean Scannell and Joe Lolley are all rumoured to be available for either permanent or loan moves away from the John Smith’s Stadium. Will David Wagner give them any game time to prove themselves? Arguably he already knows what these players are capable of, so it could be decisions have been made and it’s not worth playing them. We’ll know more after the game.
Accrington Stanley v Huddersfield Town history
There haven’t been many recent competitive games between Huddersfield Town and Accrington Stanley. We’ve met each other twice in recent history, both games coming in the early rounds of the FA Cup.
The most recent meeting came in 2007, where Town won 3-2 thanks to a brace from Malvin Kamara and an 89th-minute winner from Luke Beckett. Good grief! Ten years ago we had Beckett and Kamara scoring for us, now we’ve got players we’ve spent over £10m on playing for us. What a time to support Town!
The only other time we’ve met recently was when Accrington Stanley knocked us out of the FA Cup live on BBC One thanks to a stunning goal from Andy Gouck. We lost 1-0 that day, with a team that included Efe Sodje, Andy Booth and Jon Stead.
As I said on Twitter, I feel partly to blame for that goal because I’d mocked Gouck for being a bit tubby about 30 seconds before he blasted the ball in. He got the last laugh that day.
David Wagner’s pre-match comments
The pre-match interview with David Wagner looked to be in his sparse looking office. The only nod to personalisation was a little club scarf over his shoulder. He talks about the importance of pre-season training, the benefits of getting most of the new players in early and how important the friendlies are for getting the players into the habit of playing 11-on-11 matches.
Don’t call it a friendly
In the above interview, David Wagner also made it clear that he doesn’t like the word “friendly” as he says that anyone pulling on the blue and white stripes of Huddersfield Town should never be friendly in the way they play. He prefers to call them test matches, which is frankly confusing given that test matches are, and have always been international cricket matches.
Opposition info: Accrington Stanley
It’s Accrington Stanley’s first game of the pre-season too, so there’s not a lot of information about their likely starting lineup or shape. They had a relatively good season last year in League Two, finishing 13th but just five points short of the playoffs. This summer they’ve sold their star striker, Shay McCartan, to Bradford City for an undisclosed fee of over six figures.
They’ve recently brought Jonny Edwards on loan from Hull. The twenty-year-old striker played 11 games for Accrington Stanley in the second-half of last season, scoring one goal. There may be other trialists and new signings for Stanley at the game, as manager John Coleman has said he wants to bring in some more players before the start of the new season.
Man to watch: Billy Kee
Kee scored 15 goals in 46 games last season and will be hoping to get on the score sheet against Premier League opposition. He’s played the majority of his career at League Two level but has consistently scored goals, so is someone Town’s defence will have to keep an eye on.
I was going to put up the usual YouTube highlights reel, that would make Kee look like a world beater but when I searched YouTube the first video that came up was of him setting himself on fire while his mates laugh like idiots. So here’s that video instead:
Terrier Spirit prediction
My main prediction is that tomorrow’s game is going to be underwhelming. There’s such a lot of buzz and excitement around Town at the moment, so it’s going to be very hard for a fitness-building friendly against Accrington Stanley to satiate the desire for Premier League football we’ve all had since Wembley. Friendlies are the equivalent of a paracetamol compared to the crack cocaine of competitive football, it’s just not nearly enough.
I’ll go with a 2-0 victory to Town. I don’t think we’ll push ourselves too hard but with the quality in our team we should be able to create enough for at least two goals and our defence will want to keep a clean sheet. I don’t want to sound complacent though, and I’m sure Accrington Stanley will give us a good workout and could beat us if we don’t pay them respect.
Tell me what you think
Much like the Town team, I’m using the pre-season to practice things and work out how I want to do things when the Premier League season starts. I intend to write match previews for all of Town’s games in the forthcoming season, so this is a test of this format. Please let me know if this works for you, if I’ve missed out anything you’d like to see or if there’s stuff I don’t need to bother with.
The aim is to provide fans with useful information before games and talk over the interesting points that are relevant for the game ahead. It would be good to get some feedback on if this is useful or not. Please pop a comment below with your thoughts.
Cheers!