Team prediction, Watford lowdown, Wilder v Warnock – Watford v Huddersfield Town PREVIEW

Huddersfield Town take on Watford today in a match that could see them end the day outside the relegation zone for the first time since… well, actually, I think we’ve been in the relegation zone forever. I don’t remember a time before Town being in the relegation zone, there was the bit at the start of the season where the league table was arranged alphabetically but other than that we’ve been there or thereabouts. But, thanks to some gritty and characterful performances from Neil Warnock’s Terriers, we’ve dragged ourselves back into contention and have a real chance of staying up now.

Watford will be hoping to get their playoff push back on track today though, and have a squad of Premier League-quality talent, so won’t be pushovers despite the form table suggesting they’re there for the taking. 

Here’s a preview of today’s game, where I’ll cover who I think Neil Warnock will pick, talk a bit about our opponents, speculate wildly on how the game will go, why I think Warnock and Wilder hate each other and what the score will be. Enjoy!

Team Selection: Holmes injury forces change to starting eleven

I’ve not bothered with a dedicated post about predicting the starting eleven for today’s game because I think it’ll most likely be the same one that started the game against Boro last weekend but with Ben Jackson coming in to replace Duane Holmes. It felt like it would be pushing it to stretch the above sentence out to a whole article. 

It was a shame to see Holmes limping off last weekend and the news from the press conference suggests that’s it’s a really nasty injury, or more accurately three or four combined injuries which will rule him out for the season. I wondered if he might have been rushed back from injury too soon at the time but by the sounds of it he was just a bit unlucky, as it was caused by blocking a shot which caused damage to ligaments, tendons and chipped some bone around his ankle. He’s unquestionably out for the season but I would have thought it will now be a battle to get him recovered in time for preseason if it’s as bad as all that sounds.

Holmes being unavailable opens the door to someone else coming in. I thought Ben Jackson did OK when he came off the bench last week. He made a couple of errors early on, which was probably just him adjusting to the game but was otherwise pretty solid. I’m not sure he’s an out-and-out winger, but when he’s played higher up the field  he gives good protection to the fullback and he’s very busy, so it puts pressure on the opposition. I’d like to see a bit more attacking threat from him but in our current situation, where being hard to break down is important, I think he’s a sensible choice to bring in. 

Otherwise, I think we should go for consistency and stick with the same lineup. Everyone did well last weekend and deserves to keep their place. Rarmani Edmonds-Green looks a bit odd in central midfield but for now it’s working, as it’s pushing Hogg further up the field, where he can put more pressure on the opposition’s midfield. Similarly, I’m not Ruffels’ biggest fan, but after he sparked off the goal spree in the second half against Middlesboro, he’s earned a week free of flak from the likes of me.

Predicted starting XI: Vaclik, Pearson, Lees, Helik, Ruffles, Hogg, Edmonds-Green, Jackson, Rudoni, Koroma, Ward

Watford are in poor form but are still strong favourites with the bookies

We’re actually in better recent form that Watford if you look at the last six games of both teams. We’ve won two, lost two and drawn two, which has a nice balance to it, whereas Watford have only managed one win, two draws and three defeats in their last six outings. In four of those six games they failed to score too, which offers further hope to Town. This might be one of the rare occasions that we’re playing against a team during a bad run for them rather than meeting them just as they hit a purple patch or appoint a new manager. 

Having said that, the bookies have us at five to one, which might irk Neil Warnock again, as he wasn’t happy the scalpers having us at such long odds against Boro at home last weekend. I was a bit surprised to see us so poorly rated afterI’d seen the form table until I reminded myself of the forward players Watford have at their disposal. Ismaila Sarr, Joao Pedro and Keinan Davis are all incredibly good players for this level and those first two are good enough to get in the squads of top-half Premier League squads. 

Watford currently sit twelfth in the table but are seven points away from the last playoff spot, so will be hoping to win today to close that gap and keep their fading hopes of promotion alive. Realistically, it probably won’t happen for them but they’ll will be expecting to win this game if they are serious about closing the gap on the top six. Town’s job will be to make that as difficult as possible.

Town will have to do the ugly side of the game well to get a result

While Town have earned seven points from their last three games, it’s not been pretty for much of that time. Only the twenty five minutes after half time against Middlesbrough has seen them really play with any fluency and flair. The rest of the time it’s been more about digging in and frustrating the opposition and looking to snatch what we can. I think that will be the gameplan for today too.

Watford are on a bad run at the moment, so if Town can set themselves up to be hard to breakdown it will frustrate the Watford players and the crowd will get on the home team’s backs before long. Providing we keep a threat on the counter and relieve pressure with runs in behind from time to time then I think we can withstand them. We stood up to a fairly sustained barrage from Boro last weekend without too many gaps emerging in our defence, so I can’t see any reason why an out-of-sorts Watford should get any more joy out of our back line. 

If I had a choice, I’d rather watch Town play beautiful attacking football, but while we’re in the situation we’re in, I can admire the way we’re doing things at the moment. It’s ugly and unpleasant at times but there’s a kind of beauty to watching us grind our way to safety by grabbing hold of games and not letting go. It certainly beats the resigned slump Town were in a couple of months ago. 

Neil Warnock and Chris Wilder have a long-running feud

As a bit of a sideshow to this match, it’s worth keeping an eye on the benches. While Neil Warnock has history with just about every club and coach that’s been around a while, he seems to have a particular dislike for Chris Wilder that goes beyond his usual matey banter. He gave a flat “not comment” when asked about him in the press conference and some Googling turned up that there’s been a dispute between these two for a number of years.

Wilder replaced Warnock at Middlesbrough a few years ago and Warnock said in a YouTube interview with some fans that Wilder wouldn’t even say Warnock’s name when he came in after him. Warncok also said that he couldn’t support Middlesbrough when Wilder was their manager but he’s now back to hoping they win again since he left. There was also a story in The Sun (I’m not going to link to it because I’m not a fan of them) where they said Warnock was blocked from going into the training ground to clear his desk after he was sacked at Boro because Wilder was in to replace him. While this story was trying to suggest Wilder blocked Warnock from coming in to clear his desk was probably not true, as I don’t believe much in The Sun, the feud might relate to the changeover at the club.

The gap between Warnock leaving and Wilder arriving did seem indecently short, so maybe Warnock didn’t like Wilder putting himself forward for the job while he was still in place. Though that sort of thing happens all the time in football, so perhaps there’s more to it than that. It could even go all the way back to Sheffield United days

Either way, there’s definitely no love lost between these two and I suspect there might be fireworks on the benches at some point this afternoon. If nothing else, Warnock can use this rivalry as an extra bit of spice to motivate his players to fire them up for the game. Though the prospect of getting themselves out of the relegation zone should be motivation enough.

Prediction – Watford 1 – 1 Huddersfield Town

I think Town will scrape a point in this game. We’ve become quite hard to beat in recent weeks and have started to look a lot more like a typical Neil Warnock side, awkward, niggly and difficult to break down. That will hopefully be too much for Watford and we’ll at least come away with a point, maybe even all three.

I’m not predicting a win because I don’t think we’ve got the fire power to match Watford’s but I’d love to be proven wrong. While we scored four last weekend, it felt like everything we hit at their goal went in and those games don’t come along very often. 

You only blog when we’re winning! An apology

I’d like to apologise to regular readers of the blog for the unannounced hiatus I’ve been on since January. The last time I uploaded a post, I still hoped Mark Fotheringham would turn it around and thought Knockaert was going to save our season. 

A combination of family issues, other personal projects and technical bugs with the blog have meant I’ve not been able to upload this last few months. I know it looks like I just stopped because Town have been rubbish but that’s never stopped me in the past and it wasn’t the reason for this break either. Whether it’s League One or the Championship next season, I’ll do my best to keep blogging regardless of how good or bad the football served up on the pitch. 

Now I’m back up and running, I’ll aim to post before and after each of the remaining games this season. Hopefully I’ll be able to report on another Great Escape from relegation and we can look forward to our new owner building a competitive Championship team for next season. As the old saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you!