Huddersfield earned a shock promotion to the Premier League last season. How will David Wagner’s side fare in the top flight?
INS: Steve Mounie (£11.7 million, Montpellier), Aaron Mooy (£8.2 million, Manchester City), Tom Ince (£8.2 million, Derby), Laurent Depoitre, (£3.6 million, Porto), Scott Malone (£3.5 million, Fulham), Mathias Jorgensen (£2.4 million, FC Copenhagen), Elias Kachunga (£1.2 million, Ingolstadt), Daniel Williams (free, Reading), Kasey Palmer (loan, Chelsea), Jonas Lossl (loan, Mainz)
OUTS: Kyle Dempsey (free, Fleetwood Town), Joe Murphy (free, Bury), Tareiq Holmes-Dennis (loan, Portsmouth), Jordi Hiwula (loan, Fleetwood Town), Rekeil Pyke (loan, Port Vale), Jack Payne (loan, Oxford)
THE STORY: Huddersfield are the surprise addition to the Premier League this season. The Terriers finished fifth in the Championship last year, despite a minus-2 goal difference, and beat Reading on penalties in the playoff final to make it to the top flight for the first time since the 1970s.
Huddersfield had only two players score double-digit goals last season, Elias Kachunga (12) and Nahki Wells (10). The next highest scorer was Isaiah Brown with seven. The primary creators were Tommy Smith and Aaron Mooy, who joined the club on a permanent basis this summer, with 10 and seven assists, respectively.
While the Terriers struggled to put the ball in the back of the net last season — their 56 goals ranked 14th in the Championship — they’ve spent money this summer to help ensure that isn’t the case in the Premier League. As well as signing Mooy on a permanent basis, they’ve brought in Steve Mounie from Montpellier and Tom Ince from Derby, who scored 14 and 15 goals, respectively, last year. Those two must score consistently if Huddersfield are to have any chance of staying up.
The big question surrounding the Terriers is whether David Wagner’s pressing system will hold up in the Premier League. Wagner, good friend’s with Jurgen Klopp, sets his team up in a similar way to the Liverpool boss. That pressing style isn’t something we’ve seen before from a newly-promoted side, and it will be fascinating to see how it works for a team that will likely see little of the ball in the majority of their games.
The system won’t work, as Liverpool have also demonstrated at times, if Huddersfield are sloppy at the back. They weren’t the most staunch defense in the Championship last season, allowing 58 goals, but they did have some important players at the back. Center-back Christopher Schindler was excellent, Smith was an important attacking threat at right-back and Jonathan Hogg played a crucial role in defensive midfield. With most of the money spent this window going toward attacking players, much will depend on how those three adapt to the step up in quality.
As proactive as Huddersfield have been this summer, however, they can’t compete financially with the vast majority of Premier League clubs and are among the favorites for relegation this season. Not that that makes their story any less compelling.
The Terriers, however they fare in the top flight, are one of the feel-good stories of the season. Not only have they not made it to the top flight for 40 years, but they were playing in League One as recently as 2012. The transformation under Wagner, who took over with the club battling relegation from the Championship in November of 2015, has been remarkable.
With most writing them off heading into the season, and with a manager who’s already overcome long odds in his brief tenure, Huddersfield could spring a few surprises this season. They may go down, but it won’t be without a fight.
KEY PLAYERS: Mooy was named to the 2016-17 Championship Team of the Year, and was also selected as Huddersfield’s Player of the Year. His performances throughout the season, and in the playoffs, were pivotal to the Terriers securing their first ever appearance in the Premier League.
There should be extra incentive for Mooy in the top flight this season as well. He was signed by Manchester City in 2016 only to be loaned out, and then sold, without ever having made an appearance for the Citizens. While he’s moved on well, proving himself in the top flight will be a good way to show City what they missed out on.
In defense, Schindler will be essential. The 26-year-old German center-back will be busy this season. Even if everything goes well for Huddersfield, they’ll probably find themselves defending more often than not, and Schindler’s the leader of the back line. His passing from the back will also play a big role in the Terriers’ counter-attacking threat.
As for the new signings, Ince is probably the most intriguing. The 25-year-old has been a standout in the Championship for several years, scoring 14 goals for Derby last season and 12 the season before. He’s also long been linked with a move to the Premier League.
Ince has the ability to play as an attacking midfielder, a winger or even a forward. This versatility will be useful as Huddersfield look to improve on their average attack from last season. Ince will be hungry to prove he has what it takes to excel in the Premier League.
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THE MANAGER: Wagner will be relatively unknown to most Premier League fans. The same was true in the Championship, when he joined Huddersfield after four years with Borussia Dortmund II. But the 45-year-old has been a revelation since arriving in England and has a bright future ahead of him.
Borussia Dortmund are well-known for outperforming expectations, and Wagner has taken that philosophy to Huddersfield, focusing on unearthing hidden value in the transfer market and implementing a philosophy that allows his team to add up to more than the sum of its parts.
The Terriers showed that last year, surprising everyone to lead the Championship for stretches of the season and ultimately get promoted, but the talent gap between the Championship and Premier League is big, and it will be a huge ask for Huddersfield to avoid the drop.
If Wagner manages it, he could soon be set for much bigger things.
BEST CASE: The busy summer pays off, goals are easier to come by and they avoid the drop.
WORST CASE: The attacking players brought in struggle and they head straight back down to the Championship, in last place.