Huddersfield Town v Cardiff City: Bluebirds face tough trip to promotion hopefuls

City were held to a draw by Blackpool at home on Saturday.

CARDIFF City travel to play-off contenders Huddersfield tomorrow night looking to stretch the gap between themselves and the bottom three.

Morison’s side face a tough test as they play an in-form Terriers side.

Remarkably, the last time Huddersfield lost in the league was at home to Middlesbrough at the end of November last year.

Their most recent win at the weekend against top of the table Fulham leaves them just five points outside the automatic promotion places.

Despite this, recent positive performances should give the Bluebirds some confidence to match the Harriers, with just one loss in their last six league games.

This much-improved Cardiff side will look to make things difficult in what are likely to be tough conditions up north, following the recent bad weather.

Last weekend, City were held at home by mid-table Blackpool.

Despite 12 shots on goal and 56% possession, the only had Joel Bagan’s goal after half time as reward and they had to settle for a point.

Team news:

It was announced this morning that City striker Max Watters is facing “at least” six weeks out with an ankle injury.

The 22-year-old got injured last week at training.

Cardiff City boss Steve Morison said: “It’s never nice to lose a player. It’s really unfortunate to see how it happened.

“He’ll be fine hopefully. Six weeks is the minimum. Hopefully he doesn’t need surgery or anything like that.”

Other remaining absentees include centre-backs Curtis Nelson and Sean Morrison, who are both out long-term.

Promising youngster Rubin Colwill also remains sidelined with a foot injury.

Positive news could see Joe Ralls return for the Huddersfield clash.

Morison said: “Rallsy came back into training yesterday. If he comes through training tomorrow, he will be available for selection.”

For Huddersfield, long-term absentees include Alex Vallejo and Ryan Schofield.

Ex-Newscastle winger Rolando Aarons has been out with a knee injury since December, with no timescale given for his return.

Cardiff City Predicted XI (3-5-2)

Smithies (GK), Drameh (RWB), Ng (CB), Flint (CB), McGuinness (CB), Bagan (LB), Doyle (RM), Wintle (CM), Vaulks (LM), Hugill (ST), Davies (ST).

Cardiff will probably look to set up in their usual defensive 3-5-2 formation.

The two wingbacks (Bagan and Drameh) will look to push forward when in possession, but then when the ball is lost, tuck in to form a back five.

This will be vital to combat Huddersfield’s attacking 4-3-3 formation, who will likely leave three up-top for much of the game.

Cardiff’s key goal-threat is likely to be from the set-piece, with centre-backs such as Flint heading forward to use their aerial presence.

Huddersfield Town Predicted XI (4-3-3)

Nichols (GK), Toffolo (LB), Lees (CB), Pearson (CB), Turton (RB), O’Brien (LM), Hogg (CM), Russell (RM), Holmes (ST), Ward (ST), Thomas (ST).

The Huddersfield formation tells a rather different, more offensive story.

They will look to use their quality to get the ball to their three forwards and expect to play the majority of the game in Cardiff’s half.

As mentioned though, they will need to be careful with giving too many set-pieces away.

Providing they successfully navigate this threat, Huddersfield’s quality should eventually be too much for Cardiff.

Cardiff City Championship form:

W, W, W, L, W, D

Huddersfield Town Championship form:

W, D, W, D, D, W