Talking Tactics | Swansea City v Huddersfield Town
After their trip to Yorkshire in midweek, Swansea City return to the Swansea.com Stadium to take on Huddersfield Town on Saturday (3pm).
Ahead of the clash, WhoScored.com preview the fixture looking at what to expect from the Terriers, the key battle and a key stat.
What to expect from Huddersfield
Darren Moore’s Huddersfield currently occupy 21st position in the table, six points above the drop zone.
The Terriers have won four of their 18 league fixtures this season, with seven draws and seven defeats. In fact, no team in the division has drawn more games than Huddersfield’s seven this season.
The visiting side did get the better of Sunderland in their last outing which put an end to a run of six games without a win.
Moore’s men have won twice on the road with their other win coming against West Brom back in September.
There have been a few different formations adopted by Huddersfield this campaign and they don’t appear to have settled on a favourite. The most frequently employed is a 3-5-2 set up which has been used by Moore in six games this season, but most recently they have opted for a 4-3-3.
Only Rotherham currently average a lower possession percentage (34.1%) than Huddersfield (36.5%), so Swansea can expect to have the lion's share of the ball here.
Key Battle
Huddersfield will be looking for their second away win on the spin and the WhoScored.com match forecast suggests they will look to dominate the game aerially. The Terriers rank fourth for aerial wins per game, with 20, whilst Swansea are averaging 15.
Michal Helik leads the way in the air for Huddersfield. The defender is winning 3.7 aerial battles per game, a total that none of his colleagues can better.
He’s also been the main man going forward and is Huddersfield’s top scorer with five goals this season.
The Polish defender was the player of the match in the win over Sunderland after opening the scoring at the Stadium of Light, as well as winning three aerial duels and two tackles.
He’s also Huddersfield’s highest-rated outfield player – with a WhoScored.com rating of 7.02 – and has picked up more player of the match awards (three) than any other Huddersfield player.
The Swansea attack will be doing their utmost to ensure that Helik isn’t the stand-out player here. Striker Jerry Yates will be hoping he can cause Helik and the Huddersfield backline problems and add to his tally of five goals this season.
The 27-year-old has scored five goals from his nine attempts on target in the league this season, and is Swansea’s top scorer.
Key Stat
The Swans boast a strong record against today’s visitors.
Swansea have won four of the last five meetings between these two teams. In fact, Swansea have not been beaten in any of the last four match ups with Huddersfield, and the Swans have only conceded one goal in that time.