Are Huddersfield Town genuine relegation candidates?

Having experienced the incredible highs of winning promotion to the top flight in 2017 – it’s been a staggering decline for Huddersfield Town.

The Terriers managed to stay up in their first Premier League season under David Wagner, but the German manager left the club by mutual consent midway through the following campaign. They went on to finish rock bottom of the league, picking up just three wins all season.

Since returning to the Championship, they’ve really struggled to adapt. Jan Siewert, who was in charge of the club when they were relegated, lasted just three games into the 2019/20 season before being sacked by the club.

Danny Cowley was next to take over after winning two promotions in three seasons with Lincoln City, but he too lost his job despite guiding them to safety.

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Huddersfield are now in the hands of Carlos Corberán, who previously worked as assistant manager to Marcelo Bielsa while at Leeds United, winning promotion to the Premier League with them in 2020. The allure of a management job was too much for him, and he left the Whites to take over their struggling Yorkshire rivals.

However, six months into his tenure, the Spaniard may be finding that his side are slowly getting dragged into a relegation battle.

The Terriers have lost four of their last five league games, their only point coming in a 1-1 draw against ten-man Stoke. They were also embarrassingly knocked out of the FA Cup by League One side Plymouth Argyle.

Despite sitting 15th in the Championship table, Huddersfield are just six points off Rotherham, who are occupying the last place in the relegation zone and are in much worse form than almost all the teams below them.

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This is largely due to the Terriers’ horrendous injury list. Key players such as Carel Eiting, Josh Koroma, Tommy Elphick, Christopher Schindler, Danny Ward and Richard Stearman are all sidelined and will miss Huddersfield’s next game with Luton Town.

The Hatters sit just one point ahead of their upcoming opponents with a game in hand but look to be in a much stronger position than the Terriers.

Luton will have been boosted by their FA Cup run, which ultimately saw them fall to eight-time winners Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. However, consistency has been the issue for them, and ultimately why they haven’t been able to pull themselves closer to the Play-Off places.

While they earned a superb win at Bournemouth, Luton have gone on to lose their last two league games against Brentford and Blackburn. This has largely been the story of their season – earning a convincing win against a top side, but suffering defeats to those around or below them.

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Nathan Jones may hand a debut to Tom Ince, who moved to Kenilworth Road on loan from Stoke. The 29-year-old has significant experience at both Premier League and Championship level, including a spell with Huddersfield when they were in the top flight.

The winger’s career has stalled ever so slightly as he has fallen out of favour in Michael O’Neill’s side. A move to Luton presents a fantastic opportunity for him to have a run of games to prove that he can thrive at this level, while the Hatters can benefit from his pace and skill on the right flank of their 4-1-4-1 formation.

Maybe this presents a good opportunity for Corberán’s side to stop the rot that they’ve fallen into, but it also provides an opportunity for Luton to build on their own run of form against an injury-ravaged side.

Despite being so close to each other in the table, their aims are clearly distinct, although both teams will feel that they can capitalise on the other’s weaknesses.

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