Promoted Teams Analysis FPL 2017/18 Huddersfield

Onto the players…

Goal Keeper and Defenders
Keeper
Town only managed 12 clean sheets last season with just 6 at home, conceding 56 goals in their 46 championship games. With on loan Danny Ward returning to his parent club Liverpool. The Terriers moved to sign Danish international Jonas Lossl (4.5m) on loan from Bundesliga side FSV Mainz. The 29 year old 6ft 5in stopper made 27 appearances last season keeping 5 clean sheets. Although Mainz had a difficult season, the great Dane is highly thought of and supposed to be “a great shot stopper and good with the ball at his feet”, according to the Town coach.

Centrebacks
Mathias Jorgenson (Zanka) (4.5) is another Dane, signed from F.C. Copenhagen this summer. The experienced 27 year old centre back made 33 league appearances, 6 champions league appearances and 3 Europa League appearances (2 goals) last season for the Danish league winners. He also has 11 caps for his country and is expected to push Michael Hefele for a place in the back four alongside Chris Schindler.

Hefele (4.5m) made 31(9) appearances at centre back last year grabbing 3 goals and became a cult hero with his “Its a F*cking dream” comment when interviewed by a Sky interviewer after grabbing the winner to beat bitter Yorkshire rivals Leeds United at the John Smith’s stadium in February. The German was occasionally moved up front when Town were chasing matches late on and as a result a total of 28 efforts on goal is more than double that of Chris Schindler.

Schindler (4.5m) was nearly an ever present last term as he made 46(1) appearances for The Terriers helping himself to 2 goals and 2 assists and was a commanding presence at the back winning 4.4 headers per appearance, more than twice his central defensive partner Hefele. The German, who has represented his national side at U21 level, was signed from 1860 Munich in 2016 where he made 152 appearances scoring 4 goals.

Fullbacks
At leftback is another German, Chris Lowe (no not the Pet shop boy !) (4.5m). Signed from Kaiserslauten in 2016, Lowe made 99 appearances over 3 years for the Bundesliga side scoring 4 goals. Last season in the Championship he made 42(2) appearances for Town, grabbing 2 goals and 2 assists. One of these goals was a penalty as he took over spot kick duties towards the end of the season from previous penalty takers Van La Parra and Aaron Mooy who managed to miss 2 out of 3 between them. Lowe’s place will be under serious pressure from another new recruit Scott Malone (4.5m)!

Malone is an attack minded full back who can also play on the left side of midfield. The 26 year old had a fantastic season last term helping The Cottagers to clinch a play off place grabbing himself 6 goals and 3 assists in 36(2) games in the process. Indeed one of those goals was against his new club at the John Smith’s stadium! His performances earned him a place in both the EFL and PFA’s Championship team of the season and if Malone can nail down that left back spot he could be a very shrewd investment, though this is what Wagner had to say after the signing “we already have a very good left back in Chris Lowe, but as we enter our first Premier League season it is so important to have competition and the ability to rotate our side, as we did so successfully last season “

Another attack minded full back is Tommy Smith (5m). The jewel in Towns back line last season, Smith arrived from Manchester City’s academy in 2010. He broke into Towns first team in 2012 and last season helped himself to an impressive 4 goals and 10 assists in 45(2) appearances and made a total of 53 key passes more than any defender in the championship also earning himself a place in The Championship team of the year.

Midfield

Another player earning himself a place in the Championship team of the year was Aaron Mooy (5.5m) The Australian international started his career at Bolton. Not able to break into the first team there he moved to St Mirren in 2010 where he made 21 appearances scoring 1 goal. In 2012 Mooy moved back to Australia signing for Melbourne City where he made 53 appearances scoring 18 goals before Manchester City signed him in 2016 and then loaned him straight to Huddersfield. The 26 year old playmaker was one of the main pieces in the jigsaw of David Wagner’s play-off winning side scoring 4 goals (1 pen) and grabbing 7 assists in 45 appearances. He averaged 1.4 shots per game with a pass success rate of 82.6% and was on most set pieces including corners and penalties until Lowe took over spot kick duties.

The arrival of Tom Ince (6m) from Derby appears to have taken away set piece duties from Mooy although at the time of writing they hadn’t appeared on the pitch together in a Town shirt. Signed from Derby for a fee thought to be close to 11 million, Ince is best known for his time at Blackpool where he scored 31 goals in 100 appearances for the Tangerines. After leaving Blackpool Ince’s career seemed to stall. After an unsuccessful loan at Crystal Palace, Hull City signed him in 2014 before loaning him to Nottingham forest in the same year after making only 7 appearances. Again things didn’t work out at Forest as he only made 6 appearances before moving onto Derby in 2015 again on loan. Here Ince’s career kick started again as he made 18 appearances scoring 11 goals. Derby took him on a permanent contract that summer splashing the cash in a 4.75m deal. Last season Ince was a revelation, scoring 14 goals (2 pens) and grabbing himself 6 assists in 41(4) appearances and averaged 2.9 shots per game with a pass success percentage of 83.5 %. The versatile midfielder can play CM, LM or RM and will, in my opinion replace Rajiv van la Parra (5.5m) on the left side of midfield, with VLP dropping to the bench. Wagner will be hoping Ince can boost Towns goal output if they are to stay in the Premiership. Indeed Ince has already scored 3 goals in 3 friendlies for Town in the pre-season build up.

Another player who will be hoping he can carry on from where he left off last season is Elias Kachunga (5.5m). Signed initially on loan from German team Inglostadt last summer, the pacy attacker was snapped up on a permanent deal in March for 1.1m. Playing mainly on the right where he linked up well with Tommy Smith, he occasionally played as striker and finished the season as Towns top scorer with 12 goals and a couple of assists from 44(1) appearances.

Another new signing is Danny Williams (5m) from Reading. He doesn’t really have any FPL relevance with just 4 goals and 1 assist from 39(5) appearances last season and will probably compete with Jonathan Hogg (4.5m) for the double pivot role alongside Mooy.

One player flying slightly under the radar is Kasey Palmer (5.5m). The Chelsea youth team player, tipped as one of the academies most promising talents, is an England U21 star and joined Huddersfield on loan last July making 16(9) appearances notching 4 goals and 3 assists in just over 1300 minutes of action before an achilles injury in February ruled him out till returning for the playoff final as a substitute. Playing in the AMC role, Chelsea must rate him quite highly as they extended his contract on July 3rd, tying him to the club until 2021, before loaning him back to Town a day later for next season. If Palmer kicks on this season he definitely could be one to watch.

Forwards

Now anybody that watched Huddersfield last season will know it was blatantly obvious from early on in the season that the club were crying out for a decent striker. Nakhi Wells (5.0m) only managing 10 goals in 34(12) appearances and the club only managing 56 goals in 46 games reflected the problem. Colin Quaner (4.5m) was bought in the January transfer window to try and rectify the problem, but could only grab a paltry 2 goals from 9(10) appearances. Wagner knew that bolstering his attack was a priority and moved to bring in Steve Mounie (6.0m) from Montpellier for a club record transfer fee of 11.4m. The Benin international arrives as hot property having bagged 14 goals(6 headers) and 3 assists in 32 starts in his first full season in the French top division. Previously the 20 year old spent a season on loan at French league 2 side Nimes where he notched 11 goals in 32 appearances. Mounie posses good movement and pace for a player of 6ft 3in and is able to drift out wide and play as a winger if required. Given his fee I’d expect him to start in the lone striker role ahead of another new signing Laurent Depoitre (5.5m)

Depoitre was Wagner’s first signing of the summer from Porto for a fee believed to be in the region of 3.5m. The 6ft 3in Belgian international made his name at Gent where he amassed 27 goals and 14 assists in 70 league outings and also made 7 champions league appearances, scoring once. He joined Porto in August 2016 for 6 million euros, but failed to establish himself in the first team making only 7 appearances scoring once. Depoitre has been described as “a physical target man” who’s major strength is his aerial ability and has been likened to compatriot Christian Benteke.

Hopefully the signings of Mounie, Ince and Depoitre will add the much needed firepower Huddersfield need to keep them in the Premiership and with their favourable opening fixtures of cpl,NEW,SOT,whm,LEI there is every chance of them getting off to a good start.

This is the way I expect Wagner’s men to line up:

Thanks for reading Promoted Teams Analysis FPL 2017/18 Huddersfield. This article was written by Brookyboy

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