Though I’m pretty sure long-term readers will probably disagree with my assessment of myself, I generally have fairly balanced opinions about Town, falling somewhere between the doom mongers who will look for misery in even the most joyful moments and the happy clappers who can never find anything wrong with the club. But as of right now, it’s difficult to feel optimistic about Town’s chances going into their match against Watford later today.
Even if Watford is only five spots ahead of Town in the standings and we have home advantage, it’s difficult to ignore the reality that we’ve lost our previous two games, 4-0 and 4-1. It’s difficult to be motivated when you consider our ever-expanding injury list, Jonathan Hogg’s ban for this match, the widening divide between the supporters and the team, and Darren Moore’s unimpressive first season as manager.
So please, click away immediately if you clicked on this post in the hopes that it might cheer you up before you trudged down to the stadium this afternoon. If not, continue reading and let’s both sink into our sorrow!
predicted Watford vs. Huddersfield Town starting lineup
Even under ideal circumstances, selecting the starting eleven is a challenge for the manager because there are only eleven starting spots available and he must let go of seasoned pros who anticipate playing championship game. There are simply too many fantastic choices to choose from, so sometimes even players in excellent form have to make way. Right now is not the finest of times. Rather, Moore must assemble the finest squad he can with the limited resources at his disposal. It’s not simple.
The team posted a photo to Twitter of Tom Lees receiving a commemorative shirt at this week’s training, which his teammates gathered around to celebrate his 600th appearance. Although the first team is shown in the photo, it appears as though several members of the senior squad are watching the B Team train. Unfortunately, there are a lot of new faces in the roster because young youngsters have to fill in so many vacancies.
This has been a very lengthy way of explaining that for this game, it’s better to assume a little weird lineup. Darren Moore finds himself in a difficult situation where he must decide whether to continue with the players who severely disappointed him against Leeds last weekend—players who were primarily seasoned pros—or take a chance by adding young players who are riskier and less experienced and who might struggle against Watford. Alternatively, take a chance on players who are likely not ready to return from injury, will not be at full alert during the game, and run the risk of making their injury worse.
I believe Tom Edwards will most likely be benched after all the stick he got last weekend, some of which came from me. In addition, there was a widely shared photo of him appearing a little worn out at a Halloween party on Saturday night. While I felt this photo attracted some unjustified criticism, it wasn’t the best timing considering his terrible day against Sumerville. Given that he has also been problematic in recent games, Nakayama need to be benched as well. This allows Josh Ruffels, who is now back in training following an injury, to move to the left of defence, and Ben Jackson to the right.
In order to form a back three with Lees and Helik, I would also anticipate seeing Matty Pearson returned. We’ve just allowed four goals in each of our last two games, so even though it seems stodgy to have three fairly slow central defenders at the back, playing an extra defender would be the obvious way to counter that, especially one like Pearson who keeps things simple and puts his body on the line when he defends.
Our midfield faces significant challenges in finding players who can fill that role. Ben Wiles will play but appears to be carrying an injury of his own (or at least something is making him underperform most weeks), Rudoni is injured, Kasumu has been out for a while but returned to training this week, Hogg is suspended after receiving five bookings, Brahima Diarra is technically capable of playing in this area but was awful against Leeds. Diarra didn’t receive any more criticism for his very poor first half performance last weekend, but that was only because he’s a young player and there were more serious issues in other areas of the pitch.
It might be necessary for someone like Josh Austerfield to step up and contribute to the squad if Kasumu isn’t healthy enough after just a few days back in the gym. Although we didn’t send him out on loan this season, we did so specifically because of this kind of injury issue, so it’s unclear how he will handle it. This gave him the opportunity to step up and demonstrate his ability to produce at the Championship level. We need all the adults on the pitch so we can scavenge together, therefore I imagine Kasumu will be wrapped in sticky tape and tossed outside.
There are issues going forward as well. Delano Bergzorg shared an image of his knee with a compression sleeve on social media along with a statement that he will be “back stronger.” We won’t be seeing him today, which means that we’ll probably only have two players up front in Harratt, Thomas, and Koroma (despite Moore mumbling something in his presser about players’ social media posts not being worth reading too much into). If—or, let’s be honest with ourselves, WHEN—we’re chasing the game, I’d predict Thomas and Harratt with Koroma on the bench as an alternative off.
When it comes to selecting a team for today, I truly feel bad for Darren Moore because it’s not about trying to find an eleven that can go out there and inflict the greatest amount of damage on Watford. With any luck and if Watford doesn’t poke too much at the cracks, it’s more of a job of trying to patch up the holes as best you can and put together a starting eleven that almost looks like it might be a Championship club. Furthermore, I truly detest to consider how we’ll staff a bench. We named three left backs as substitutes last weekend. Which begs the question of why we even bothered to use every slot.
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on Watford: Nicholls, Jackson, Lees, Pearson, Helik, Ruffels, Kasumu, Diarra, Wiles, Thomas, Harratt
