Preview: Bromley vs Huddersfield

Huddersfield Town head to Hayes Lane having not been beaten in 90 minutes at any point this season.

They sit second in League One and are among the many sides gunning for promotion come season’s end.

Martin Drury was rewarded with the permanent manager’s job in May after a caretaker spell at the back end of last season. He represents Huddersfield’s third permanent manager in a year after the club cycled through Lee Grant and Liam Manning. 

The hope is that this season will begin a period of upward mobility after the side’s 10th- and 9th-place finishes in the two seasons after they were relegated to the third tier.

Given that twelve of the preceding seasons, before the last two, were spent in either the Championship or Premier League, Huddersfield are yet another club who believe they are at least one level too low in football’s pecking order. 

To bolster their promotion push, this summer saw the arrival of some key additions. Ashley Fletcher (Blackpool, free), Ibane Bowat (Portsmouth, undisclosed), Ethan Brierley (Brentford, undisclosed), Matt Young (Sunderland, loan), Derens Fernandes (Excelsior, undisclosed), Ilias Bronkhorst (Excelsior, free), Cameron Humphreys (Ipswich Town, loan), and Samson Tovide (free, formerly Colchester) were all welcomed into Huddersfield’s already talented fold.

Make no mistake, this is a stacked team with options all over the park.

Their start to the season has seen them lead the league in goals conceded per game (0.7), but they are also fourth in the league for shots on target per match, first for big chances created, and third for touches in the opposition box.

Bromley are going to come under a serious defensive examination today, and how they line up out of possession will once again be critical to the outcome. Wasn’t it ever so?

Huddersfield will look to their two nominal number #10s to cause havoc. The players in question, Joe Taylor and Derensili Sanches Fernandes, have had a whale of a time this season.

Taylor has five goals to his name already, and Fernandes is second in the league for assists and first for big chances created. There is plenty of talent in the Huddersfield side, but how Bromley do or don’t deal with those two may ultimately decide the match. 

There have been worrying signs in previous encounters against teams that play with a back three. 

Against Leyton Orient, Bromley failed to get to grips with the number 10s, allowing Yusuf Akhamrich to score two and grab an assist, while Demtri Mitchell collected two assists. 

Against AFC Wimbledon, James Tilley chalked up an assist and Myles Hippolyte scored.

Against Cambridge United, Ben Knight scored and Isaac Heath was a nuisance.

Notice a pattern?

This brings us to the big question: How will the Ravens line up against Huddersfield’s expected 3-4-2-1 shape?

Given Bromley’s solid performance at Blackpool last weekend, one could argue that the starting XI have earned the right to carry on, injuries notwithstanding. However, there is nothing wrong with horses for courses. It surely has to be about who is right for the opposition rather than picking an unchanged side just because they didn’t lose.

That said, the XI at Blackpool looked very good in the shape, dovetailing well in and out of possession. More importantly, their decision-making looked very well drilled.

Will Andy Woodman stick or twist? 

The last and only time he has played a back three this season, Bromley lost 7-2 at Sheffield Wednesday and looked shambolic in everything they did.

However, it won't have escaped the scouting group’s attention that Huddersfield’s most recent league games saw Notts County and Mansfield go like-for-like and get a point.

I remain unconvinced by Bromley switching to a three at the back, more so because of the personnel available, or lack thereof. Then again, the formation and shape are irrelevant if players don’t do their job. 

I’m yet to see Bromley properly get to grips with dual #10s over the course of ninety minutes, and managing this duo, on paper, will be their hardest task so far. 

Will they play a low block or try a pressing game? Which game plan runs the risk of leaving too much space to be exploited? And will an overly defensive stance come at the cost of their attacking transitions?

Last week at Blackpool, Bromley played their most fluent attacking football of the season. It would be nice to see more of that, but today might be a case of needs must.

Join me over on YouTube for The Eleven, where I offer a deeper analysis of Andy Woodman’s options for today’s match.

Mason

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