Huddersfield look to profit from a weakened Tottenham team

By Ryan Conway

Huddersfield Town go into their home clash against Tottenham still searching for their first victory of the campaign. David Wagner’s men currently prop up the table and have had very little to celebrate so far this term. Just three goals scored and a joint league high 14 shipped has made for grim reading for Terriers fans.

Spurs, meanwhile, have had their own issues to deal with.

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has been embroiled in a drink driving incident as well as injury. Christian Eriksen will also miss the trip to West Yorkshire through injury, an absence which will be of relief to Huddersfield’s defence.

Their manager Mauricio Pochettino has enjoyed a less than ideal two weeks as his team gave up a pair of late goals against Inter Milan to lose their opening Champions League group game. Spurs then needed penalties to put away Watford in the League Cup, putting even more strain on a squad  whose fitness is already being questioned, but the lack of replays and extra time in that tournament will have been a bonus

While they are rooted to the foot of the table, a home win over the London outfit could see Huddersfield climb out of the bottom three. The Yorkshire side could also profit from Pochettino having one eye on a now critical game against Barcelona on Wednesday.

In their previous meetings Spurs have claimed all of the points with Huddersfield failing to find the back of the net, a fact not lost on the Terriers’ manager. Speaking in his pre match press conference he said,

“My relationship [with Pochettino]is two games, two defeats and no goals – not the best one, but I’m a big fan of what he has done in the Premier League so far.”

Wagner is right to be wary of his side’s results against this weekend’s visitors. In the corresponding fixture last season Spurs ran out comfortable 4-0 winners, putting the game to bed with a three-goal flurry in the first 25 minutes.

Even though his side has been put to the sword in the past, the 46-year-old could not hide his admiration for his Argentinian counterpart saying:

“This is something very special. He’s created success for this football club and this is why I’m a big admirer of what Mauricio is doing.”

A win for Tottenham could lift them into the top four at the expense of Watford, just a point behind Chelsea and Manchester City but three points behind current leaders Liverpool.

The fixture list becomes more forgiving for Huddersfield after Saturday’s clash, with four of their next six league games against opposition currently occupied in the bottom half of the table.

Wagner is not yet panicking about his side’s troubling start to the new season:

“Since I arrived we’ve been much more written off than not so. It’s absolutely nothing new for us,” he said.

“If you are propping up the table there is only one direction you can go and that’s north.”