Huddersfield Town digest with injury scan expected ahead of big week
The injury list is thankfully still shrinking on the whole, but Yuta Nakayama will miss out in midweek. Plus predicted line-up, previews of the Cardiff and West Brom games, and more...
Strange though it may be to say as we enter the time of the season when points mean everything, there’s an argument to be made that Town’s performances of late have been even more important.
The gap to the drop zone has shrunk despite Town enjoying their best results and best form of the campaign, with goals scored alone keeping their heads above water at the moment.
But positivity remains unusually high because there is a real sense that Town have shown they are capable of getting the results they need to pull clear. This, we all hope, is simply the moment of inflexion: the point at which those on their way up (Town, Sheffield Wednesday and QPR) have met in the middle with a pack of sides whose form over the past couple of months has sent them the other way (Blackburn, Birmingham, Milwall Swansea, and Stoke).
With Rotherham already looking doomed, Town only need to be better than two of the seven to twelve teams who are around them. If they keep playing as they have, they should do enough to prevail.
Still, the unusually dense league table — even by Championship standards — is troubling. 50 points is usually considered the target to achieve safety in this division; at the current run-rate, that would only be enough to keep you out on goal difference. Or goals scored.
But if the top-half sides keep dropping unexpected points to their less fortunate brethren, we might yet see a repeat of 2012/13, when Town famously drew 2-2 with Barnsley on the final day to ensure both sides beat the drop. They had started the day on 54 and 57 points respectively. Ludicrous.
Our hope is that it probably won’t come to that. There’s still a huge number of six-pointers coming up for all concerned, and if any two sides in the survival fight have a dismal run in those games, it significantly reduces the margin required for safety. For four of the sides concerned, as many as five of their 11 remaining fixtures are six-pointers. (For Town, it’s one of the lesser-known Borg, Four of Eleven.)
There’s only one surefire way for Town to avoid getting into the nerve-wracking permutation chat any further than that: by winning points. And the next few games have nothing to do with six-pointers. They have to do it against better sides, too.
We’ve seen that they can, but the bottom line is this: if they go into the international break in a couple of weeks inside the bottom three, all that goodwill and momentum immediately disappears.
The fact that Town still sit in 21st despite their vast improvement can currently be put down to Results Elsewhere. Come the end of the season, though, it will all be about what they have done.
What’s been said
“The red card was unnecessary. It's a derby and we spoke before the game about keeping clear heads, but derbies are full of emotion. He (Hogg) knows about his mistake. He apologised. As a leader he's fantastic, but next time please not again.
“The players were fantastic and can be proud of their performance. We can be happy with this point and thank the players for their performance.”
— Andre Breitenreiter, on Jonathan Hogg’s red card and his side’s performance against Leeds
“My first view is not on the table, because for me at this moment it’s important the performance of the team is good, and we can be very proud of them after a big [point] against Leeds, not just for the team but for the fans and supporters. They stayed behind for us, and it was unbelievable, it was so good to see.
“… [If we keep show the same things we did in the last [few] games, then I’m 100% sure we can get the points we will need to stay in the league. We don’t expect every week teams like Leeds. We have to be respectful against every opponent, but our team is good and we have high quality, high potential players. Until now we had some players who were injured, so they will come back and maybe increase the quality of the team.
“I’m totally positive with this and I’m sure we will have a good April with good results — but for this we have to work hard and to make things like in the last two games. It’s hard to win points in the Championship and we have to give always our best.
“We have 12 games to play. It’s absolutely too early to speak about the table; we have to speak about our performances, and the performances are really good at this moment. We have to believe in this and make the next steps over the next few weeks.
“The table is important when we know we’re staying for sure in the league — then it’s important. Maybe earlier than 4th May, but in Germany we would say ‘it counts at the end!’.”
— Andre Breitenreiter gives his take on the relegation dogfight at his Monday lunchtime press conference
Coming up next
Town make the long trip to take on Cardiff City on Wednesday evening — a side who look to have turned a bit of a corner after an extended run of poor form.
Erol Bulut’s side had won just two of their 11 games since Christmas before running out 2-1 winners over Stoke City the weekend before last. They followed up by scoring the only goal in the Severnside derby away to Bristol City on Saturday lunchtime.
Liverpool loanee Nat Phillips has been a particularly important addition since arriving late in the January transfer window, helping to shore up a defence that looked to be struggling at the start of the calendar year.
But Cardiff still have issues at the other end of the field, where they have comfortably the worst attacking record in the top half. No Championship side has scored fewer goals since Christmas (10 in 12 league games - half as many as Town). Mind you…they did score four unanswered goals in the reverse fixture earlier this year. So there’s that.
That game showed where we can probably expect Cardiff’s biggest threat: half of their 40 goals this season have been from dead ball situations (including two penalties). That’s comfortably the most in the division if you take spot kicks back out of the equation.
Carlos Corberan will then make his first trip back to the John Smith’s Stadium since departing Town in summer 2022, with West Bromwich Albion visiting for a midday kick-off that will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
The Baggies have long been in the play-off mix and have been one of the form sides in the second half of the season so far, with only Leeds and Southampton taking more points over the past 12 games.
West Brom have shared the goals and assists around the side this season, but Celtic loanee Mikey Johnston has been the man to grab the headlines of late after making an impressive start to life at the Hawthorns.
The winger has scored three times in just 361 minutes since joining in January — all of them within six minutes of entering the field of play, whether from the start or from the bench. Danel Sinani, eat your heart out.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Town welcomed back two more players from injury at the weekend, with Michal Helik and Jaheim Headley both coming off the bench against Leeds.
Jonathan Hogg will serve a one-match ban against Cardiff following his red card in that game. In case you wondered, though, you’ll be glad to hear that since those two yellows added up to a red on the day, they do not count towards the EFL’s seasonal yellow card count. That means Hogg is considered still to be on seven yellows this season and there is no risk that he will reach the ten-card threshold (carrying a two-match ban) before the cut-off, which comes in Sunday’s game against West Brom. No other Town players are at risk of that, either.
Yuta Nakayama injured his knee in the first of the challenges Hogg was booked for, with Crysencio Summerville falling onto the defender’s leg. Town are currently awaiting a scan on Nakayama to learn the extent of the injury, but there is ‘no chance’ he will be available to face Cardiff.
Radinio Balker is making good progress with his quad injury but Wednesday’s game may come too soon for him. A return against West Brom currently looks more likely.
Rhys Healey is back in individual training following the groin injury he suffered during the 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday last month. Three more weeks is the current prognosis, but hopefully sooner; either way, a return after the upcoming international break looks likely.
Ollie Turton and Josh Ruffels are out injured for the season with knee and groin injuries respectively, while Kian Harratt is suspended for the rest of the campaign for betting infractions.
Predicted Huddersfield Town line-up to face Cardiff
Andre Breitenreiter went with a 4-3-3 to begin with against Leeds before quickly switching to a 4-4-2/4-2-3-1, but we’re going to tentatively suggest that may have been a specific strategy to deal with a team of Leeds’ standing in the table.
As such we’re going to predict a return to Breitenreiter’s usual form and a 3-1-4-2, with Michal Helik in for Yuta Nakayama and Alex Matos taking over from Jonathan Hogg in midfield — though we wouldn’t actually be at all surprised to see Ben Wiles get the nod over Matos instead.
The beauty of that line-up is it can easily move into any of the four shapes we’ve seen from Breitenreiter so far this season without the need for any substitutions. Brodie Spencer could slot back in at left-back with Matty Pearson shuttling along the line to right-back if he wanted to go to a back four; and/or Matos dropping in alongside Kasumu with Jack Rudoni going to number 10.
3-1-4-2: Lee Nicholls; Matty Pearson, Michal Helik, Tom Lees; David Kasumu; Sorba Thomas, Alex Matos, Jack Rudoni, Brodie Spencer; Danny Ward, Delano Burgzorg.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Tom Edwards, Jaheim Headley, Ben Jackson, Brahima Diarra, Ben Wiles, Pat Jones, Josh Koroma, Bojan Radulovic.
We Are Terriers podcast live show
Don’t forget that David Hartrick and I will record an episode of the We Are Terriers podcast live at Magic Rock Huddersfield Taproom on Wednesday 13th March following the annual general meeting of the Huddersfield Town Supporters’ Association.
The AGM will take place at 6:30pm, with the podcast recording pencilled in for an 8pm start, though the exact timing may vary.
Attendance is free for all HTSA members. You can register for the event here — and if you’re not an HTSA member already, you can become one for the next 12 months for just £1. Sign up here.
There is no requirement for you to attend the AGM to attend the podcast live show, but you will still need to be an HTSA member. If you did wish to vote in the AGM, however, you will need to have registered as a member by no later than 28th February.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women suffered a big blow to their survival hopes as they lost a six-pointer against West Bromwich Albion in a FA WNL clash featuring the two teams either side of the dread dotted line.
The Baggies were seven points ahead of Town coming into the game having played two games more and saw out victory after going two goals ahead in the first half.
Beth Ibbotson pulled a penalty back in added time, leaving Town nine points adrift of Halifax and Stourbridge.
Our schedule
This week’s podcast is already out now, reviewing the Leeds clash and focusing on the shape of the relegation battle. Our backers can get it here.
Paid backers will also get five conclusions on the Cardiff game on Thursday morning, with the player ratings available for all readers on the final whistle on Wednesday night.
Same again on the ratings for the West Brom game, with five conclusions available on Sunday evening.
Final notes
As you may have noticed on Saturday, the Big Red Construction end at the John Smith’s Stadium has been rebranded as the Terriers Together Stand, named after the club’s anti-discrimination campaign, which is designed to promote inclusion and equality. More details are here. Sunday will also be the club’s annual Terriers Together game.
The club are offering 30% off away and third kits instore and online at present, if that tickles your fancy at all.