Talking Tactics | Huddersfield Town v Swansea City

Swansea City look to make it three consecutive wins when they take on Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s stadium on Saturday (3pm). 

Here, WhoScored.com preview the clash looking at what to expect from the Terriers, a key battle and a key stat. 

What to expect from Huddersfield

Huddersfield come into this fixture in the midst of a relegation battle which sees them currently in 22nd position, but just one point adrift of Birmingham City, and potential safety. 

The Terriers have won just two of their 10 league fixtures, with four draws and four defeats. In fact, no team in the division has drawn more games than Huddersfield’s 17 this season.

The most recent of those came in their visit to Bristol last time out, but the Terriers did defeat Millwall in their last home fixture, with a last-gasp winner from Rhys Healey enough to secure three points for André Breitenreiter’s side. 

The hosts haven’t had a settled system of formation for much of the campaign, and have deployed 10 different set-ups. The most frequent of those has been 4-2-3-1. 

Huddersfield have scored 47 goals this term, which ranks them 19th, but only two sides - Blackburn Rovers (71) and Rotherham United (85) - have conceded more goals than the Terriers (70). 

Key Battle 

Huddersfield’s stand-out player this season has been Michal Helik. The Polish centre-back is the Terriers' highest-rated player with a WhoScored.com rating of 7.01 and has picked up six player of the match awards this campaign. 

It comes as no surprise though, as Helik is Huddersfield’s top scorer in the league this season, having scored nine goals from defence. 

His underlying stats amplify how integral he has been to Huddersfield, with Helik topping the charts in the league for clearances with an average of 5.6 per game, as well as ranking third for interceptions (1.8 per game). 

Another key feature of Helik’s game is his aerial dominance, which is further proven by his average of 3.8 wins per game - the highest amongst his colleagues - and the 10th highest in the league. 

However, Swansea also boast their own aerial expert in Harry Darling, as proven in the last fixture between these two sides when Darling won a total of five aerial battles (the most of any player on that occasion) despite only coming on at half-time. 

Darling is also Swansea’s highest-rated player this season with a rating of 6.84 and four player of the match, awards and will be looking to end the season on a high with a big performance here. 

Key Stat

Swansea have had a lot of joy in recent meetings between these two sides with the south Wales side unbeaten in all of their last five against this weekend’s opponents, with Charlie Patino netted a late equaliser in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

Not only have the results been strong, but the Swans have conceded just two goals in their last five against Huddersfield in low scoring affairs between these two.