Huddersfield Town face West Brom tonight at the Hawthorns. The game represents an opportunity for Town to get back to winning ways after losing to Forest in the cup on Monday night. The defeat meant Town no longer have their unbeaten streak in all competitions but remain unbeaten in the league since November.
West Bromwich Albion were widely fancied to make a quick return to the Premier League after being relegated this year but like so many teams (including Town) they’ve struggled to adjust to life back in the Championship and have seen their season fizzle out. They are currently on one of the worst runs of form in the league and their fans are seriously unhappy with what they’ve seen so far under new manager Steve Bruce.
After rotating his team for the Forest game, tonight will see Carlos play his strongest possible team, though a few players may miss out due to injury. Here’s how I think we’ll line up.
Goalkeeper: Lee Nicholls
Jamal Blackman was given a chance on Monday but will step aside so our first choice keeper can return. While we’ve not seen enough of Blackman to make a full judgement, he failed to impress against Forest and his performance underlined how much we rely on Nicholls to organise the backline and spread confidence out to his defence.
Defence: Turton, Pearson, Lees, Toffolo
Colwill has apparently been training this week and is in contention for today’s game but I have a feeling that he won’t feature. Players never seem to come straight back into after any absence and he may well be on the bench for this game. Even if there wasn’t a doubt about Colwill’s fitness, Pearson and Lees are playing so well at the moment it would be unfair to expect either to step aside even though Colwill is such a classy player.
At right back it feels like Turton is the obvious choice, particularly as West Brom have Karlan Grant, who we know specialises in cutting in from the left to shoot on his right foot. Pipa has his merits but his tendency to push too far forward risks leaving us exposed. Turton is the more dependable option and is in form at the moment. Pipa is still not back to his best and his poor performance against Forest makes me wonder if he’s still partially injured.
Josh Ruffels struggled on Monday too so that opens the door for Toffolo to come back into the side. While we’re talking about Toffolo, it’s a concern that news of his contract renewal has dried up over the last few months despite there being reference to talks being ongoing much earlier in the season. I wonder if he’s keeping his options open, particularly while Danny Cowley’s Portsmouth are still in League One playoff contention and may be willing to offer him a pay rise if they step up to the Championship.
Midfield: Russell, Eiting, Hogg
Lewis O’Brien sounds like he won’t be fit for tonight’s game. Carlos said that he had to see if he made it through the training session after the press conference before making a decision but that nearly always means the player is either out or at best will start on the bench. I think he raises the possibility of injury doubts playing to try and keep his opposite number guessing but I’m fairly confident we won’t see O’Brien tonight.
Sadly replacing O’Brien requires two players because he covers so much ground and offers so much in the midde, so I can’t see us being able to function without having three players in central midfield tonight.
Hogg, Russell and Eiting are all a bit too defensive to play as a unit but in the absence of better options this is the best midfield we can put out. While all three could play as the defensive anchor, Hogg is the most likely to pick up that role with Russell and Eiting playing further forward. It will be vital that these two push up and support the attacking players when we get the ball if we want to hold possession in West Brom’s half.
Both Eiting and Russell are cultured passers of the ball and want to move things forward when they get in possession but they can both go quiet for spells too. If this is our midfield tonight then how well Town do will depend on how much this pair can assert themselves on the game.
Forwards: Thomas, Ward, Holmes
Despite West Brom being in poor form, they are the home team and have a squad that (in theory at least) should be able to dominate the game. I have a feeling Town will revert to their counter-attacking approach in this game, which means we’ll rely on Thomas’ pace to hurt The Baggies on the break.
I’m picking Holmes for the left side of attack because Koroma is doubtful for this game and Sinani’s form is even more erratic than Holmes’. I get a bit frustrated by Holmes’ tendency to get basic things wrong and his ability to overdo things at times but his effort is unquestionable and he’ll keep plugging away even if things aren’t working out for him.
After an experiment with a false 9, strikerless system against Forest we will surely return Ward to the starting lineup tonight. The logic of having Sinani drop deep and suck out the Forest defence was a good idea on paper but on the grass it meant Town lacked threat in the final third and didn’t have a focal point for their attacks. Ward starting will bring both of these things back and makes us far more of a threat
Sounds about right. I do hope L’OB makes it as I think it reduces our odds if not fit.
I did read somewhere that on the training ground they had been working on him being a big more advanced Fellaini style player – a bit like what they seem to have done with Billing at Bournemouth.
We are solid 3rd place now so a draw would be a decent result regardless of West Brom recent form.
Edit: Sorry my comment was referring to Russell being used as the more advanced midfielder.
Strong selection. If LOB is fit I’d go with the team that faced Peterborough, but if not, I think you’re spot on.
Holmes is just one of those players who will have me rolling my eyes as he holds on to the ball for too long and misses the easy pass, or purring over his skills, touch and composed finish. Hopefully we’ll see more of the latter tonight.