Match Day Thread Huddersfield v Hull City

3pm kick off
Plenty going
Terrys adapted
Have it
City 2-1

 

From The Daily Fail......have we signed Smallwoods brother? Ones playing and ones on the bench!! No Emmanuel or Huddlestone?
Predicted starting XI: Ingram, Coyle, Greaves, Bernard, Elder, Smallwood, Docherty, Honeyman, Lewis-Potter, Wilks, Magennis. Subs: Baxter, Smallwood, Eaves, T Smith, M Smith, McLoughlin, Moncur.

 

Good spot!
I expect McCann will revert back to type tomorrow, and Baz Cooper appears to agree given his predicted line up. I hope we are wrong.
Interesting that he writes ' ..... McCann opted to go with a variation on the 3-5-2 against Boro which certainly delivered the desired result and his players admit to feeling a little more comfortable'. I hadn't seen quotes from players saying that, but interesting if they have.

 

It's unlikely to be a back three again. We'd have to put McLoughlin in who never seems to be very high up the pecking order, and we'd have to leave out an attacking player to do it. With all the players now available again (Coyle, Elder, Huddlestone, Honeyman, Magennis) I don't see it.

 

Josh Emmanuel also said the formation gave them more freedom.
If he reverts back to type 2-0 Town
But if he sticks with the formation from the last game and you add Honeyman to the mix and possibly Hudds I am going for a 1-0 City win.

 

With Alfie Jones out I guess he will go back to 433, and have McLoughlin on the bench as back up. I can't see him starting either George Honeyman or T Hudd, so he may stick with Cannon/Moncur/Smallwood in Midfield. Will Eaves start instead of Magennis, I would expect so?

Great to see 2500 going, it should be a good atmosphere.

 

Honestly I’d go:

Ingram
Bernard Huddlestone Greaves
Emmanuel Honeyman Smallwood Docherty KLP
Wilks Eaves

That’s if they’re all as fit as Grant says. Think Huddlestone could do alright as a sweeper and ping balls forward.

 

No offence but I'm glad it's not your call to make!!!!

 

It’s literally the same team that beat Boro but Huddlestone coming in for an injured Alfie Jones and Wilks starting alongside Eaves.

 

Yep. Huddz can't play in a back 3. And did u really mean the 3 3 2 2 as it's laid out?

 

That remains to be seen but he can play centre-half and has done in the past. I’d think he’d be stronger in a back three than a back four with only one centre-half next to him. Our defence is young and inexperienced, which means they lack positional awareness at times. Huddlestone has great positional awareness which makes up for his lack of pace. He could sit deep, giving Bernard and Greaves the opportunity to push further forward to make tackles and win the ball higher up the pitch.

 

My biggest issue with that lineup would be dropping Tyler Smith but keeping Eaves. I thought Eaves was comfortably our worst player against Middlesbrough. Even if he did put himself about, the amount of fouls he made was ridiculous and when he was put through on goal his shot was laughably poor.

I think the biggest selection dilemma is in midfield. Cannon and Moncur were very good in the two games before the break, and Smallwood was good against Boro. With Huddlestone and Honeyman coming back into things and Docherty on the bench last game, we're really spoiled for options in there now.

 

Good points. Though I don’t understand the opposition to Huddlestone playing as a sweeper in a back three. Sweepers are expected to be more technically-gifted and composed than your average centre-half. They’re also not expected to man-mark anyone and leave that job to the other two centre-halves. Huddlestone is a deep-lying playmaker anyway. Playing him as a sweeper would just make a ‘very deep-lying playmaker’.

 

This could go one of three ways.

I'd settle for a 1-1 right now.

 

Maybe the sweeper role in today's game has changed, but typically I thought a sweeper had freedom to "chase the ball" as the last man at the back if the rest of the defensive unit had been breached. That required a fair degree of speed to cover ground. I don't think Hudds has that speed? Not sure how good his climbing to head the ball is either which is a key attribute for a sweeper.
That's the way I played as a sweeper anyway. (in the middle-ages mind!).

He'd be better deployed as a mid-field general I'd have thought?

 

Just passed on good luck to the Doc in Costcutter for tomorrow.... not a big lad... I was going to tell him the grapes are a lot cheaper in Morissons.

 

What the **** have you been doing to the kid? Checking out his wedding tackle and his haemorrhoids in a Supermarket lavatory...