Five conclusions as Lee Grant rediscovers winning formula for Huddersfield Town

The Terriers claimed their second 3-1 win of the week as they eased past Plymouth Argyle

1. Four-four-bloody-two

If we were ready to criticise Lee Grant for not finding a solution to Town’s problems and being unwilling to shift away from his initial plans for this team, then we also need to extend some credit his way for finding a system and a selection that does work, even with the limited options currently available.

In fact, while he would never have asked for it, the injury crisis might be just what Grant needed to devise a more pragmatic answer to Town’s problems.

We can’t imagine Grant would have stuck Marcus Harness in central midfield, fast-tracked Radinio Balker back from injury, or played with a front two of Dion Charles and Bojan Radulovic in other circumstances. Yet, across this week’s two victories, they have been among Town’s best players.

As much as Town fans were a few steps ahead of Grant, we can understand why the manager stuck to plan A for as long as he did. Their worst performances early in the season were marred by players underperforming, red cards and individual errors, which seemed to give Grant a false sense that it was a matter of ironing out the kinks rather than trying something different. But after that losing streak, he had no choice but to concede it wasn’t working and change.

Grant’s first attempt at trying something new against Bolton in the FA Cup didn’t pay off. However, after returning to the drawing board, he has crafted something that looks the part and has delivered results.

Plymouth have struggled this season, of course. It was readily apparent why they have the worst defensive record in the league and have sunk to the bottom of the table. It was astonishingly easy for Town to play through them.

But you can only play what’s in front of you and all that. Let the Plymouth fans worry about their own team. Besides, Town have faced less-than-spectacular opposition and come up short several times this season.

As ever in this division, it was all about sticking to their jobs and doing the basics well. This has been no guarantee so far this campaign, let alone one game to the next.

Even so, here they stuck to what they had done well against Mansfield, did it all again, and got the same result out of it: a comprehensive and comfortable 3-1 victory.

There are bigger challenges to come, but let’s not dwell too much on this gift horse’s dentistry. Town scored as many goals here as they had in their past five league games, racking up a higher expected goals (2.67) than in the past three league games combined — their joint-highest xG of the season, alongside the opening day victory over Leyton Orient.

Most importantly, there wasn’t a single Town player worthy of serious criticism. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to say that.