Huddersfield Town are set to clash with Watford at the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday. The Terriers have hit a rough patch in the season with 2 losses registered in the last 3 league fixtures and the other one a draw.
They were completely outpaced by Crystal Palace in the last fixture and were unfortunately defeated by 2 goals to nil, at home. The Eagles were on top throughout and opened the scoring in the first half through James Tomkins’ close-range effort as Huddersfield failed to deal with Luka Milivojevic’s corner, earned by the excellent Wilfried Zaha.
Having waved play on a few minutes earlier, referee Mike Dean did award a Palace penalty when Huddersfield defender Martin Jorgensen tripped Andros Townsend and Milivojevic converted from the spot.
It took the hosts until nine minutes from time for their first effort on target, a tame strike by Rajiv van La Parra which was easy for Wayne Hennessey to gather.
Now Huddersfield are just 3 points clear from the bottom three and just one slip up might severely hurt their chances of survival. This fixture is not expected to be a walk in the park with Watford gunning for maximum points too.
The Hornets are coming off a defeat at the hands of Burnley in their last match and will look to turn the tide in their favour when they take on the Terriers.
David Wagner will have to win the tactical battle over Rafael Benitez and here is how the Huddersfield boss might field his men on game day.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Defence
Jonas Lössl is the predicted starter in between the sticks with Joel Coleman as the backup option on the bench. The 29-year-old has 8 clean sheets to his name which is impressive compared to the 54-goal defence record Huddersfield holds.
Zanka and Christopher Schindler might get paired up in the centre-back roles with
Florent Hadergjonaj and Scott Malone fielded in the fullback positions. The latter on the right.
Midfield
The holding midfield role might feature Aaron Mooy and Jonathan Hogg. The latter did get taken off the last fixture with an ankle injury but have since returned to team training and is available for this tie.
Alex Pritchard can take up the attacking midfield role ahead of the duo.
He should be flanked by Rajiv van La Parra and Tom Ince. Collin Quaner might make a substitute appearance.
Attack
Steve Mounie might be the one to fill the number nine role and improve upon his 7-goal tally for the season.
