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Saturday’s 0-0 draw made it 4 points from 6 for Huddersfield against Brentford this season as Danny Cowley and Co go about teaching the league a thing of two in how to play Thomas Franks’ side.

With Hogg out of the side and Bacuna benched, Huddersfield went with a 4-2-3-1 system which enabled them to be more active in the middle 3rd.

The main reason behind this was the deeper role given to Lewis O’Brien, playing in a double pivot alongside Chalobah. Smith-Rowe, who was making his debut after a loan move from Arsenal, was positioned advanced and ahead of the pair.

This midfield combination gave The Terriers greater depth in possession compared to previous matches, partly due to the benefit of O’Brien picking up the ball in the early build up phases instead of a Hogg or Bacuna.

Working alongside Chalobah, using his sharper movement well, his close control and short passing ability was visible, as was able to not only make sure Huddersfield retain the ball to greater effect but move the team forward when they did have possession.

The physical battle between fellow left-footer Josh Dasilva was at times outstanding, with the Brentford player almost proving decisive late on with instant control to tee himself up for a shot to hit the post after a Benrahma pass was fired at him to come straight back.

The 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 shape with Grant on the left hand side that Huddersfield tend to fall in to can create huge spaces between a detached back four and the front line.

Because of the space between those lines, the midfield can be pypasses altogether as they easily fall into a default ball progression route of chipping it forwards into the wide areas and challenging for the resulting knockdowns.

We were far more impressed with Saturday’s style, seeing Smith-Rowe break forward and beyond Norgaard plus again the impressive O’Brien progressing the ball centrally on top of his defensive discipline and the blocking of shots out of possession next to an improving Chalobah. A midfield 3 with an average age of 20.

With numerous high balls from set-pieces played into the box a clear tactic employed by Huddersfield in most games prior, some variety away from this and quick thinking by Smith-Rowe from a central dead ball situation produced a dangerous moment for Huddersfield.

Brentford, in trying to organize a situation to deal with a lofted ball forward, led to space on the left opening up and a well weighted forward pass into the box from the Arsenal loanee, played inside of Norgaard, found Grant in the box with the opportunity to square or cut back towards the penalty spot. He chose the former and it was in the end blocked well.

For Brentford, we saw Mokotjo come back into the side for Jensen and have a positive effect on the game with his usual efficiency, dynamic movement and knowing when to play a first time ball into the forward line to cut opposition midfielders out of the game.

The South African is intelligent with his vertical movement and finds his way into the final third well, demonstrated early on with a first time delicate flick from inside the box back out to the edge for Watkins to strike, after receiving a ball played in from Benrahma coming in from wide left.

Scrutinizing Brentord in possession a little further, Jeanvier, also returning to the side in the absence of the injured Jansson, in the build up phase can be particularly passive. Safe with his passing, he is most comfortable playing the ball on his right side and out into Dalsgaard in the RB or RWB position.

Opposition teams do not tend press Jeanvier, now having plenty of evidence to study his game. He will rarely move the ball forwards centrally, preferring the safer option of shifting it wide for Dalsgaard to take up ball progression.

This can become predictable with teams using the pass into Dalsgaard as the trigger to intiate their own pressing movements. Jeanvier has the ability to mix this up further.

Jansson has far more variety in possession and offers Brentford the dynamism to surprise a mid block by disguising a vertical pass to find a tucked inside Mbeumo or possibly Watkins in the final 3rd, who has dropped a little deeper in the right hand half space.

Brentford created the most chances, yet the best chance of the game fell to Karlan Grant on the left, coming in on the blindside latching onto a ball played into the box from Smith-Rowe which Jeanvier allowed to run past him and not deal with. Grant blazing over was a huge let off for the returning defender as Opta qualified this moment as the only big chance of the game.

Benrahma was Brentford’s most prolific attacker linking well with team-mates and displaying his usual ability of receiving the ball in space and almost immediately bringing it under his spell to move forward in attack.

It turned into one of those days when Grabara was clean in his saving and collecting of shots that did get beyond the Huddersfield blocks from outfield players, and when he was beaten, the post came to his rescue.

Nottingham Forest play Reading at The City Ground on 22/01/19 before they travel to Griffin Park for Brentford's next fixture.



At the time of writing, Forest are level on points with a game in hand.