Ipswich Town take on all-but-relegated Huddersfield Town at Portman Road this afternoon (12:30pm). Alex Jones takes a look at the Terriers.
Change, change, change
Incredibly, Huddersfield are on their fourth manager of the season, having started off with veteran Neil Warnock, who helped secure their survival last season.
It never looked like a long-term option, with the 75-year-old admitting that he remained in the position as a favour to the owner. He left the club in September 2023 to allow a new boss to come in, which saw Darren Moore take up a new job in Yorkshire a few months after leaving Sheffield Wednesday.
It turned out to be a disastrous appointment, albeit that he earned a draw against Ipswich in his first home game in charge. All in all, they picked up just three wins in 23 games under his management, and the Terriers parted company with him at the end of January.
B Team coach John Worthington took charge for a month before Huddersfield turning to ex-Hoffenheim manager André Breitenreiter, who hasn’t been able to turn around their fortunes. It now looks like they’re heading in one direction.
All but mathematical
Barring the most miraculous set of results imaginable, it’s all over for Huddersfield. They’ll spend next season in League One, having last featured in the third tier in 2011/12.
To avoid the drop, they’ll need to beat Ipswich and hope that Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle lose at home to Norwich City and Hull City respectively. On top of that, they’ll also need a 15-goal swing.
At the end of the day, that’s not going to happen, and the Terriers’ relegation has certainly been coming. They’ve hovered dangerously above the drop zone for quite a while, but with Sheffield Wednesday and QPR picking up form, they always felt like the most likely candidates to drop in.
They haven’t lost too many games, but draws have been their downfall. Nine wins from 45 matches is the second-lowest total of any team in the division behind Rotherham United.
A rapid decline
With Huddersfield lingering in the relegation zone, it’s easy to forget where they came from. As recently as 2017, they finished fifth in the Championship under David Wagner before winning the play-offs to reach the Premier League for the first time in their history. This came after an extended period of stagnation, and was seen as a remarkable achievement.
They went on to survive in the top flight the following season, confirming 16th place after a 1-1 draw away at Chelsea. However, they finished rock bottom in 2018/19 and were plunged into another relegation battle just 12 months later, surviving by just three points.
They finished third in 2021/22 as Carlos Corberan guided them to Wembley, where they lost to Nottingham Forest, but the Spaniard’s departure kickstarted a difficult period which will ultimately culminate in another relegation.
Preparing for life in the third tier will be hard, but the aim will certainly be to bounce back up at the first time of asking.
Off-field issues
It’s fair to say that the John Smith’s Stadium isn’t a happy place at the moment. Huddersfield have won just one of their last 11 games, which came at home to Millwall, drawing five and losing five in that time.
There’s a clear uncertainty hanging over the club. American owner Kevin Nagle has claimed that he’ll allay fears in a Q&A once the season has finished, but he’s been vocal on Twitter and quick to shoot down any murmurs of discontent at the club, of which there have been many.
Breitenreiter criticised his players after their 1-1 draw at home to Birmingham, accusing them of lacking ‘heart and passion’, while defender Brodie Spencer has said that the team have a ‘soft’ underbelly.
The manager certainly didn’t help the situation when he removed a tag for the official Huddersfield account from his Instagram bio, sparking fears that he could walk out on the club after today’s game. That being said, it sounds like none of the fans would blame him.
Some supporters have claimed that they wouldn't be upset to see their side lose to cost arch-rivals Leeds United automatic promotion, but the players are unlikely to feel the same way.
Who could start?
Huddersfield are set to be without a number of players, including captain Jonathan Hogg, who’s still recovering from a shoulder injury. He’s set to be joined on the sidelines by Yuta Nakayama (knee), Josh Ruffels (groin), Radinio Balker (groin) and Tom Lees (leg).
Breitenreiter has preferred to use a back four in recent weeks, but he switched to a back five after they were thumped 4-0 at home by mid-table Swansea City two weeks ago. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to secure a win, but it did help them out defensively.
Breitenreiter has said that he'll make changes, albeit not wholesale, with second-choice goalkeeper Chris Maxwell coming into the lineup. He also hinted that Delano Burgzorg, who scored against Ipswich in the reverse fixture, may be left out as he prepares to return to parent club Mainz at the end of the season.
Set pieces could be their biggest threat. Top scorer Michal Helik is a centre-back with nine goals to his name, and he’ll be keen to link up with Sorba Thomas, who was surprisingly benched against Birmingham despite being one of their top performers this season. Expect the Welsh winger to return to the starting lineup in Suffolk this afternoon.
Possible XI: 3-5-2: Maxwell; Pearson, Helik, Spencer; Turton, Matos, Rudoni, Kasumu, Thomas; Ward, Healey
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