Huddersfield Town digest: Breitenreiter's future and relegation permutations
Plus the latest injury news ahead of that must-win game against Birmingham
Coming up next and relegation permutations
If Town had been just a little bit better this season, we’d be previewing Saturday’s visit from Birmingham City as a winner-takes-all relegation decider. Instead, either side — or both — could end up relegated or close to it.
The stakes are thus: if Town lose, they will be relegated on Saturday. Simple.
If Town and Birmingham draw and Sheffield Wednesday win at home to West Brom, Town will be relegated (or effectively so, if Plymouth lose on Saturday, given Argyle’s insurmountably superior goal difference).
Birmingham would also be clinging on by a thread at best, relegated at worst, depending on Plymouth and Blackburn’s results.
If Town v Birmingham ends in a draw and Wednesday don’t win it would go to the final day for all three teams (and maybe Plymouth and/or Blackburn too), but Town would need to beat Ipswich and hope for favours in the other last-day results to stay up.
In other words, Town realistically need to beat Birmingham. So: if Town win, it would go to the final day.
Things could get far more complicated from there, so let’s save crossing that rickety bridge for next week if we come to it; but suffice it to say Town would only be out of the relegation zone going into the final day if they win and Sheffield Wednesday lose to West Brom.
The good news is that Birmingham have been in just as poor form as Town over the past couple of months, with their surprise home victories over Preston and Coventry representing six of just eight points they have taken from their past 12 games.
Birmingham have not won on the road since beating then-awful Stoke in mid-January, and only Rotherham have been worse on the road across the season as a whole.
Elsewhere in the relegation battle
Let’s be honest, it’s only Sheffield Wednesday v West Bromwich Albion that’s of immediate interest this weekend.
Technically still catchable for Town are Blackburn Rovers, who host Coventry City, and Plymouth Argyle, who are away to Millwall.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Recently returned from a calf issue — a comeback that Breitenreiter acknowledged put him ‘at risk’ — Tom Lees pulled up with an injury late on in both halves against Swansea at the weekend.
The centre-back was able to continue after the first but had to be subsequently substituted as he hit the ground trying to prevent the visitors’ second goal. Breitenreiter said after the game that he had been told it was ‘a little thing with the knee’, not a recurrence of his calf, but we will need to await further details.
Radinio Balker (thigh) and Jonathan Hogg (shoulder) are both unlikely to feature in the final two games
Yuta Nakayama (knee) and Josh Ruffels (groin) are both ruled out too, while Kian Harratt is suspended for another month or so for gambling infractions.
Predicted Huddersfield Town line-up to face Birmingham City
4-2-3-1: Lee Nicholls; Brodie Spencer, Matty Pearson, Michal Helik, Jaheim Headley; David Kasumu, Alex Matos; Sorba Thomas, Jack Rudoni, Josh Koroma; Rhys Healey.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Tom Edwards, Ben Jackson, Ollie Turton, Ben Wiles, Delano Burgzorg, Pat Jones, Bojan Radulovic, Danny Ward.
What’s been said
“I can understand everybody who doesn’t believe in the team after the result or the performance today, but the team can show next week a totally different performance.
“I’ve experienced the last few weeks with this group that everything is possible. Things happen I’ve never seen and maybe next time it’s a good performance. We have to prepare to go for the next game and go for the next three points.”
— Andre Breitenreiter, on the challenge now facing his side
“All these things happen after the season. We will speak after the season about this. All the conversations with the players and the coaching staff will be held after the season. Now we have to concentrate on the last two games and this is the most important thing.”
— Andre Breitenreiter, when asked if he expects to be at Huddersfield Town over the long term
“A bad result for sure. Unnecessary, the last few minutes, and the result is 4-0, but it’s the same reaction maybe like West Brom or Coventry: they fell together because maybe they were so disappointed. But you have to keep clear over 90 minutes and then the result is not so hard.
“We started not good. We knew about the quality and ball possession and identity of Swansea, but we did it not good. The distances from the defenders to the strikers was too big, we pressed not as a team, individual players were not like the plan we discussed before. Also, the will was not near to 100% as a group. We have to speak honestly about this and it was not good enough.
“But it was nil-nil at half time and we spoke openly and honestly at half time and I told ‘OK, there’s no chance to win this game if we play like the first half’.
“With the substitutions it changed and we created three 100% chances and we have to score a goal … then the goals we conceded were too easy. It can never happen in this way.”
— Andre Breitenreiter, reviewing his side’s four-goal defeat to Swansea
Town player of the year voting
Don’t forget to register your vote if you haven’t already and want to have your say. Voting closes at 23:59 on Thursday evening with the winner set to be announced before the Birmingham game.
Our schedule
Our paying backers will get access to this week’s We Are Terriers podcast when it’s released. That should be out no later than Wednesday morning, maybe before if you eat all your vegetables and are nice to your siblings.
I’ll have a written piece for our £5-a-month backers on Thursday, too. I’m currently minded to reflect on where things have gone wrong for Town this season in more detail, which I’m sure you’ll agree will be a delightful read.
Player ratings from the Birmingham game will be available to all readers as usual upon the final whistle on Saturday, followed by five conclusions (or perhaps a different kind of reaction, this week) on Saturday evening/Sunday morning.