Huddersfield Town are in South Yorkshire today to take on Barnsley this afternoon, probably the local derby that I’ve seen Town compete in most during my time supporting the club. Leeds and Bradford are more fierce rivalries but Barnsley have been operating in the same league as Town more often than those two so are a more familiar foe.
The timing of this fixture catches both teams in a good moment, with Town winning four of their first five games and Barnsley only two points worse off, with three wins, a draw and a defeat from their opening five league outings. Both have navigated two rounds of the League Cup too. So hopefully we’ll see two teams in good form, having a real go at it.
Lee Grant has a few welcome selection headaches, after making ten changes for the cup in midweek and the vast majority of those players doing well.
Goalkeeper: Goodman
Lee Nicholls was a penalty hero again on Tuesday night, making a fingertip save that was barely perceptible but was enough to make the 12th penalty of the shootout be the first to not go in. I’m sure Nicholls would rather be starting in the league than in the cups, but at least his outings against Leicester and Sunderland have been enough to give him a bit of glory. With the deadline for transfers this summer coming on Monday teatime, it’ll be interesting to see if Nicholls stays or not.
From the team’s perspective, we’ll be better having him at the club but it may be better for Nicholls’ career to go somewhere he can be first choice. This might be tough though, as we won’t want to sell him to a League One rival and the teams that aren’t likely to be in the top end probably don’t have the budget to match his wages. There may be bottom end Championship teams that are interested in him, but I doubt he’d be automatically first choice with many of them. So I’d guess there are only a handful of realistic destinations for Nicholls, which makes me hopeful he’ll stay here and compete with Goodman. Regardless of his cup heroics and the desire to keep him here, I still think Goodman will start today and for the foreseeable future in league games if Lee Nicholls thinks the same, he may be off.
Defence: Sorensen, Whatmough, Low, Roughan
I’ve found it really hard to work out what Lee Grant is doing at right-back. Gooch was given the nod on Tuesday and given the captain’s armband for his return to the team where he’s played hundreds of games. This was smart management by Grant, as Gooch had his chest puffed out all night and showed himself to be another leader in our group. But it tends to be that whoever plays in midweek, usually goes on the bench for the weekend game, so I think Sorensen will come back in. This would have been a cause for concern previously but he was good against Stevenage last weekend, so I’m more happy with the job share situation we have at right-back.
Lee Grant’s trickiest decision for this game is who partners Joe Low in the middle of defence. Low is clearly our best central defender but I’d put Whatmough and Feeney on about level pegging in terms of who is our second best. Barnsley are likely to have David McGoldrick up front today, and while I don’t expect him to be particularly quick, he’s strong and clever, so I’d prefer to see the bigger and more experienced Whatmough come in over Feeney. Whatmough should cope with that particular challenge better and he was excellent against Sunderland. It sends a positive message to the backup players if a good cup performance can force one of them into the league starting eleven.
There’s the possibility that Murray Wallace could be preferred over Sean Roughan at left-back but I think this is a position where there’s one player that’s clearly better than the player competing for his place. Roughan looks a lot more mobile and assured at left back, whereas Murray Wallace has played best as a central defender and looks a bit too slow and reluctant to get forward when he’s played at left back.
Midfield: Kane and Ledson
I don’t know how much sentiment goes into selection decisions but Herbie Kane tends to play well against his old club and will enjoy silencing his critics in the Barnsley stands. Lee Grant has other reasons to persist with Herbie Kane, as he’s been excellent for us so far this season. We rely on him for a lot of our build up play, because he’s the best passer in our squad. And after being criticised last season for being too fat, he’s looking trim and getting himself about the pitch well.
Ryan Ledson has formed a good working relationship with Kane and they’ve benefited from some consistency in this area of the pitch when there’s been a lot of rotation elsewhere. It’s often the positional, defensive and unflashy side of the game that Ledson does but if you pay attention to him, you can see that he does this well.
Attackers: Harness, Wiles, Roosken
Marcus Harness is quietly accumulating a lot of positive remarks from Town fans, as he looks so comfortable on the ball and reads the game really well. Of all the players in our squad, I think Harness is the one that is most important to Lee Grant’s system as he helps bring lots of other players into the game. It’s a bit early to say it, but picking him up on a free may end up looking like the best bit of business we did this summer.
The choice between Ben Wiles or Leo Castledine is a tricky call. Castledine’s screamer against Sunderland was enough justification to pick him for today’s game but Ben Wiles is in decent form too. I expect both will be involved but I Castledine may have to settle with being on the bench and Wiles starting, just to manage the minutes each plays to keep them at peak fitness.
Cameron Ashia seems to prefer playing on the left, despite being right footed, and has done well with the chances he’s been given but I think he needs to be used sparingly to get the best from him. And Roosken, being a left footed, is naturally more able to provide what Lee Grant wants down from this position, as it’s more natural for him to get into wide areas and cross on his better foot. While Ashia has proven he can get onto his right foot and score, I never like seeing players having to constantly turn up good opportunities because they have to turn inside to be on their strongest foot.
Striker: May
Another position where we’ve a good amount of competition but Alfie May is by far the best based on current form. There’s not much point playing “what if” but it’s hard not to daydream about how last season might have gone if he’d have completed his Town medical rather than abandoning it to sign for Birmingham. I hope our new signings are now made to lock their phones away in a lead lined box when completing their medicals to avoid us being gazumped again.
I’ll be curious to see who makes the bench for this game. Joe Taylor seems certain if he doesn’t start but one of Dion Charles and Bojan Radulovic may be a good option to have if we need to throw on additional attacking power in the late stages. Neither Chalres or Radulovic have shone since arriving at Town but I think both have potential to do a job for us in some capacity this season.
Despite Grant liking to rotate, I think this would be our strongest possible lineup if Gooch was swapped for Sorensen.