Huddersfield Town head to Reading for a Saturday lunchtime game, where they’ll be hoping to keep their momentum going after beating Leyton Orient 3-0 last weekend. There are fitness doubts over Marcus Harness and Sean Roughan but better news in terms of Josh Feeney being available now after suspension and Murray Wallace getting closer to full fitness.
Despite Reading losing their opening game to Lincoln, they will provide stiff opposition for Town and I have a feeling we’ll see a good game. While I thought League One would be full of cloggers when Town were relegated, there are actually quite a few teams that want to play football on the ground and build up possession from the back, Reading are one of those teams. So I’m expecting two teams having a good go at each other and some decent football to be played.
The team selection will be interesting too, as Grant has said that he’ll pick his team based on the qualities of each opponent rather than basing it on the previous game’s performance. The old adage is that you don’t change a winning team but I get the feeling that Lee Grant likes to do things his own way regardless of convention. But it would also be harsh to drop the players that performed well last weekend, so who knows?
Here’s how I think we’ll line up…
My previous concerns about Goodman were somewhat settled by how well he did against Leyton Orient. While he didn’t have a lot of work to do in terms of saves (though he did pull off one that was decent), I enjoyed Goodman’s range of passing that helped Town to start off attacks on the right foot. He takes risks at times but it pays off if he can pick out Town players higher up the field and avoid a dull build up of central defenders tapping it between themselves.
I think right-back is a position where the pecking order is pretty clear already and Gooch is the first choice and Sorensen the backup. He’s not played much but already Gooch looks like a huge upgrade and is intelligent in his choices about whether to attack or drop back.
The availability of Feeney for this game could see him come in to replace either of last week’s central defenders but I think Whatmough and Low is a partnership worth persevering with. Both provide experience, height, and strength to the back line even if they perhaps are short on speed. Feeney and Balker are more mobile alternatives but as it stands, I think Watmough and Low are the best of that bunch.
Sean Roughan is the obvious choice at left-back but he only returned to training on Wednesday after picking up a knock last weekend. Miller dropped back to fill in last week but I suspect that Lee Grant would prefer a more defensive-minded player in this position, particularly in an away game where we’re likely to be without the ball for long periods. So for that reason, Murray Wallace seems like the obvious candidate to come in. If he’s fit. Otherwise, I’d expect Miller to do the same job he did last Saturday, though Grant has been clear that he sees both Miller and Roosken as wingers first and fullbacks second.
I mentioned in my post-Orient write up that I thought Kane and Ledson were a complimentary pairing that produced good results in our first game. While Kasumu and McGuane are decent options too, I’d like to see more of the Kane-Ledson pairing. Ledson adds dynamism and crunching tackles whereas Kane is more notable for his cultured passing. Having said that, Ledson also seems capable of playing a telling pass and Kane does cover a lot of ground, albeit quite slowly.
I’m assuming that Lee Grant was being honest when he said Harness would be out for a while following his knock last weekend, [even if I’ve explained my doubts in my pre-match talking points article](https://terrierspirit.com/birmingham-comparisons-grants-honesty-tactical-conundrums-and-new-pressure-4-talking-points-ahead-of-reading-v-huddersfield-town/). The most obvious way to replace him would be to do the same thing we did when Harness came off last weekend: drop May further back and bring Taylor in up front.
If this is how we do it, then there’s an argument for pushing Wiles into Harness’s role and let Alfie May play centrally behind Taylor. Though the counter argument would be that Wiles looked very good in the number ten role, so we shouldn’t upset that. Either way, it will be interesting to see how May and Taylor combine.
On the left wing, I’d presume we’ll keep Roosken after his goal-scoring performance against Orient. Fresh from signing a new deal, he’ll have a spring in his step and hopefully show that he really can be an effective winger at this level. While I’ve praised his efforts last weekend, his contributions were a bit of a mystery box, sometimes he’d look classy but at others he was a bit clunky and uncertain when attacking. He’s still learning the role of winger, so I expect him to get better the more he plays.
Marcus Harness being unavailable makes it easier to bring Taylor into the team but I think he will start this game regardless. Like other possession-based sides, Reading like to play with a high defensive line. This will leave lots of lovely space behind them for Taylor to run into if we can supply him the right balls. So far, we’ve not seen enough of Taylor’s electric pace but the stage is set in this game to make the most of it. The key things will be whether we can play quality balls over the top and if Taylor can make the runs to latch onto them.
