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David Wagner, here celebrating a goal against Leeds with his players, led Huddersfield to promotion via the play-offs.
David Wagner, here celebrating a goal against Leeds with his players, led Huddersfield to promotion via the play-offs. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Reuters
David Wagner, here celebrating a goal against Leeds with his players, led Huddersfield to promotion via the play-offs. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Reuters

Premier League 2017-18 preview No8: Huddersfield Town

This article is more than 6 years old
David Wagner ranks his team as the biggest underdogs in Premier League history but, with the German in charge, they should be optimistic rather than fearful

Guardian writers’ predicted position 19th (NB: this is not necessarily Paul Doyle’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position 5th (in Championship)

Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker) 1500-1

David Wagner says his team are the biggest underdogs in the history of the Premier League. You could make a case for Blackpool’s class of 2010-11 if you wanted to argue but pettifoggery will not change the obvious point: Huddersfield are really up against it this season. Bookies reckon they are doomed.

But flip that. Huddersfield were underdogs last season, too, yet jumped from a 19th-place finish the previous season to a deserved promotion via the play-offs. Wagner was the single biggest reason for that and his decision to stay is the single biggest reason why Huddersfield can approach their first top-flight campaign since 1971-72 with optimism rather than dread.

What rouses Huddersfield is the fact that all the important people there are on the same wavelength, which is transmitted by the manager. He has generated a potent culture: the players all pull together, the fans are in love and the relationship between the manager and the club’s benevolent chairman, Dean Hoyle, works so well that Hoyle has promised not to sack the German even if Huddersfield are relegated. That is a canny way to head off unhelpful pressure.

What is more, the club’s new head of football operations, David Moss, has made a strong first impression since joining from Celtic in June, using his knowledge of the transfer market to help Huddersfield ensure their preparations for the season could barely have gone better. Huddersfield needed to recruit heavily – no club used fewer players than them in the Championship last season – and they look to have done so well, breaking their transfer record four times this summer as they added quality and diversity to their squad while retaining most of the players who excelled last term.

Huddersfield also bought quickly. Teams who ascend through the play-offs often grumble about having little time to build their squads but Huddersfield were savvy enough to identify and attract targets quickly, bringing in nine players before the start of pre-season training (including three who were there on loan last season, Aaron Mooy, Kasey Palmer and Elias Kachunga). That gave most recruits maximum integration time, which is important in a team driven by a dynamic pressing style and a shared sense that together they can make life difficult for high-brow opponents. Steve Mounié, the most expensive of their recruits at £11.5m, suggested by scoring in three of his first four pre-season matches that he has already fit in snugly.

Past five seasons

The additions up front are particularly encouraging. The Terriers opened opponents up regularly last season with their speed and movement but scored fewer goals than any other side towards the top of the Championship because they finished scattily. Mounié and another summer signing Laurent Depoitre should solve that. Both are reliable finishers and offer an aerial threat that Huddersfield did not have last season. Both are also powerful and adroit enough to serve as target men more effectively than the more nimble Kachunga and Nahki Wells. But Mounié, in particular, is versatile and could also contribute to the free-form attacks that Huddersfield like to unleash when their pressing pays off. That means the Benin international could play through the centre or raid from the wings, giving Huddersfield another option in an area where they will be particularly dangerous thanks also to Wells, Kachunga, Rajiv van La Parra, Collin Quaner and Tom Ince (another new arrival who can finish).

In central midfield, signing Mooy on a permanent transfer from Manchester City was a boon considering how influential he was last season with his strength on the ball and repertoire of passes. The Australian will need to raise his game even higher to impose himself in the Premier League, meaning he will have to show he can operate at greater speed in tighter spaces to continue masterminding the transitions from which Huddersfield like to do damage. Jonathan Hogg was a reliable ally to him last season but will face tough competition for a place in central midfield this term, especially if the 21-year-old Philip Billing develops as hoped. Danny Williams, who sealed his summer move to Huddersfield by performing masterfully against them for Reading in the play-off final, is another enticing option.

Palmer, meanwhile, is a gifted 20-year-old on loan from Chelsea for another season who can be expected to threaten even more regularly from midfield than he did before injury curtailed his last campaign in February. He, or Williams, could step into the gap left by Izzy Brown, another Chelsea player who spent last season at Huddersfield but has joined Brighton & Hove Albion on loan for 2017-18.

Last season's results

Naturally, Huddersfield’s defence will be tested more rigorously than it was last season. The right-back Tommy Smith looks capable of coping, as does Chris Löwe, a decent left-back who should enjoy having more reliable targets for his crossing but will face extra competition this season because of the arrival of Scott Malone from Fulham. Christopher Schindler, a quietly authoritative central defender, should be at home in the top flight. It will be interesting to see who partners him most often.

Schindler’s sidekick for most of last season was his fellow German Michael Hefele, an exuberant character with an all-action style that endears him to fans. But Hefele will probably find himself ousted from a regular starting spot by Mathias “Zanka” Jorgensen, a Danish international signed for £3.5m from FC Copenhagen. Classy on the ball and combative off it, Jorgensen arrives with a reputation for being at least as charismatic as Hefele and may be the only Premier League defender who would be sorry to see Diego Costa go, as he seems the sort who would relish a duel with Chelsea’s brilliant firestarter. It is a meeting that needs to happen some day and it would be a pity if we have to wait for Dana White to arrange it.

The diciest change Wagner must make is between the posts. Unable to persuade his buddy Jürgen Klopp to let Danny Ward leave Anfield again, the manager had to find a new goalkeeper this summer. He will go into the new season counting on a loanee from Mainz, Jonas Lössl, adapting to the Premier League quicker than Loris Karius has done at Liverpool. The 28-year-old Dane is bigger and older than Karius and will inspire confidence in his defence so long as he avoids errors that have undermined him in the past. The 21-year-old Joel Coleman is a decent alternative option, who did well when thrust into the play-off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday last season. But it would not be a shock if Wagner drafted in another goalkeeper before the close of the transfer window.

The pre-season form of the striker Steve Mounié, right, an £11.5m signing, has been encouraging for Huddersfield. Photograph: McNulty/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

It is interesting that Huddersfield’s squad has practically no Premier League experience. Wagner says it is not a criteria that he considers when assembling a squad, other qualities being more valuable. That is a sign, at least, that he is an active thinker rather than a swallower of received wisdom. His recruits certainly vindicated him last season.

The fixtures computer, as if programmed to show a measure of esteem to the first club to have been English champions three years in a row, has offered Huddersfield the chance to ease themselves back into the top flight. Which is to say their opening is about as charitable as could be hoped for in the Premier League, with none of the likely title contenders to be confronted until Tottenham Hotspur make their first ever appearance at the John Smith Stadium on the last day of September. The run-in is less benign, with the final four games being against Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City and Arsenal.

After travelling to Crystal Palace for their opening match, Huddersfield begin their home campaign against Newcastle United. It was when beating Rafael Benítez’s team away early last season that Wagner demonstrated a tactical suppleness that augurs well for the campaign ahead. At St James’ Park he deviated from his preferred high-pressing game and instead ceded possession to spring forward on the counterattack, a strategy they also used to good effect in the play-off final against Reading. The chances are Huddersfield will try to do something similar against the big guns in the Premier League. But they are unlikely to be overly deferential: they must know that, on the evidence of last season at least, there are several ropey sides in the top flight who could be overtaken by a vibrant and well-drilled side who play with indomitable spirit.

Writers' prediction table 2017-18

More on this story

More on this story

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  • There’s nowt wrong with Huddersfield, whatever Jeremy Irons thinks

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