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Attendance: 17,158

Championship | Gameweek 27

Jan 11, 2020 at 3pm UK

Barnsley
2-1
Huddersfield Huddersfield Town

Mowatt (14'), Chaplin (65')

FT(HT: 1-0)

O'Brien (66')

Preview: Barnsley vs. Huddersfield Town - prediction, team news, lineups

By Leo Nieboer | 09 January 2020

Sports Mole previews Barnsley's meeting with Huddersfield Town in the Championship, including a prediction, team news and predicted lineups.

Two sides sitting at the bottom of the Championship come together when Huddersfield Town travel to face Barnsley on Saturday.

The home side are in real trouble, level on points with bottom club Luton Town, while Huddersfield are sitting gingerly in 20th place.

Match preview

New Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber greets the fans on November 30, 2019 © Reuters

Having achieved promotion to the second tier last season, Barnsley look painfully out of place in the Championship so far this term.

They have the fewest victories for any Championship side at this stage of the season (four) and possess the second-worst defensive record, shipping 49 goals in 26 outings.

The appointment of Gerhard Struber as manager in November was designed to invoke an uptick in results, but aside from back-to-back victories over Queens Park Rangers and Millwall, there has been little to smile about at Oakwell.

Despite only being three points from safety, there is a strong feeling that this Barnsley side simply does not have the resources necessary for successfully navigating a Championship season.

The meeting with Huddersfield, who are in similar form, will at least give Struber's men a decent chance of gaining some confidence in the final third.

Huddersfield Town's Karlan Grant celebrates scoring in October 2019 © Reuters

If Barnsley are an example of a team struggling after promotion to the Championship, Huddersfield can be seen as a club failing to cope with suffering relegation to the division last season.

Following a dismal second Premier League campaign, during which David Wagner left his post, the club has failed to reinvent itself in the more familiar surroundings of the second tier.

Indeed, given that so many key players - Aaron Mooy, Jonas Lossl, Laurent Depoitre, Rajiv van La Parra, Erik Durm and Philip Billing - left over the summer, it is perhaps not surprising to see something of an identity crisis occurring at the Yorkshire side.

Manager Danny Cowley, appointed as manager in September, has seen his side show moments of promise - he went unbeaten in his first eight games - but a recent 5-2 home defeat to Stoke City demonstrated how this team continues to lack a solid foundation on which to build momentum.

A win over Barnsley, who are in an even worse position, would nonetheless provide Huddersfield with more daylight between themselves and the bottom three as they enter the business end of the campaign.

Barnsley Championship form: WWDDLW
Barnsley form (all competitions): DWWDDL

Huddersfield Town Championship form: WDWLWL
Huddersfield form (all competitions): DWLWLL

Team News

Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley watches the action on October 19, 2019 © Reuters

Barnsley have the blessing of no injuries ahead of this game, meaning that Struber can name a full-strength starting XI.

Conor Chaplin, who has eight Championship goals this term and scored against Crewe Alexandra over the weekend, is expected to lead the line once again.

Huddersfield face a wait over the fitness of Alex Pritchard, who has a calf injury, while it remains to be seen when exactly Collin Quaner will come back from a hip problem.

Defender Tommy Elphick is out for the entire season after picking up a severe knee injury in November.

Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Radlinger; Williams, Diaby, Andersen, Oduor; Halme, Mowatt, Bahre; Thomas, Schmidt, Chaplin

Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Grabara; Simpson, Schindler, Stankovic, Brown; Chalobah, Hogg, O'Brien, Bacuna; Ahearne-Grant, Mounie

We say: Barnsley 1-2 Huddersfield Town

Barnsley will throw everything at this game, getting the ball into the final third as often as possible, but their woeful defensive record means that the home side are very likely to ship goals at the other end.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a win with a probability of 47.39%. A win for had a probability of 28.68% and a draw had a probability of 23.9%.

The most likely scoreline for a win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.41%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.82%) and 2-0 (7.45%). The likeliest win was 1-2 (7.04%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.14%).