Mark Hudson takes charge of Huddersfield Town tonight as caretaker manager in their match against Cardiff City. He’s the bookies favourite to land the job on a permanent basis and used his prematch press conference to confirm his desire to take charge. The next few games are an opportunity for Hudson to show he has what it takes to turn around Town’s fortunes.

The first job for Hudson will be to pick a team and set the tactics for the Cardiff game. In my opinion, he can fix some of Town’s biggest problems by making just one change to the starting lineup and tweaking the formation. Here’s how…

Go back to playing 4-2-3-1

Mark Hudson was a key member of Town’s promotion winning team in the Championship which played 4-2-3-1 for the majority of the season. Jan Siewert wanted to set Town up to play 4-3-3 but it was clear from just a few league games this season that the formation doesn’t bring the best out of our squad. The striker was too isolated, the midfield disjointed and there was a lack of creativity. Some of these issues are down the players but I believe the shape they were playing in limited the players and stopped them from producing their best form.

The 4-2-3-1 formation means there is a player in the number 10 position, operating behind the striker and being the creative linchpin in the final third. This means that the striker can get better service and attacking play can be linked up more fluently. Alex Pritchard specialises in this role and it means he can be brought in from the leftwing, where he struggled to make a significant impact upon games.

Drop Bacuna for van La Parra

Bacuna’s struggles in the Fulham game have been widely commented upon, so I won’t go into that again. He was subbed at half time in the game before at QPR, after he probably should have been sent off for a terrible tackle. It’s obvious that he has talent but a spell out of the starting XI might take a bit of pressure of him and give him time to focus on improving his game.

O’Brien and Hogg are both well equipped to play in the deep-lying midfield positions in the 4-2-3-1 system and Pritchard can move into the number 10 role, so a left winger will be needed to provide attacking threat. If I’m honest, I think that Mbenza and Diakhaby are more of a threat than VLP but neither has shown enough positional sense or defensive discipline to deserve to start an away game against a tricky opponent.

While the defensive side of the game hasn’t always been van La Parra’s strong suit, over the course of his Huddersfield career he’s improved a great deal and understands the balance between defence and attack. He’s also able to take the ball in deep areas and drive Town forward with his dribbling ability, which can take pressure off the defence when they’re under pressure.

Will Hudson make more changes?

I think Town can be a far more effective team with just one change to the starting lineup but it could be that Hudson makes more adjustments to get the team he wants to play against Cardiff. However, in the Manchester City game that he took charge of last season he was fairly conservative with his selection. There was a preference for players were experienced first team players and he set them up to have a go at Manchester City (we were beaten 3-0 but didn’t play too badly if I remember correctly).

Here are a few other areas that Hudson may be tempted to change:

Kongolo could be moved to central defence and Jaden Brown give a go at left-back

Chalobah may come into midfield in place of O’Brien to add more defensive cover

Mounié could play alongside Karlan Grant to try and build a partnership (However, I can’t see us playing with two strikers)

Can Town beat Cardiff?

I think Town have a significantly improved chance of getting something from this game now Siewert has gone and Hudson being given a go. It’s not clear what kind of a manager he is, but I think he’ll be keen to show he can cut it at this level and will look to get his team playing with pride and passion.

The team have looked very low in confidence in the last few games and Hudson will need to show that he can make this side believe in themselves. If he does that, I think that we’ve a good chance of getting something from the game.