Huddersfield 2018/19 preview: Mbappe’s successor, bookies’ favourites and Wagner’s philosophy

Which of your club’s summer signing has you most excited about the new campaign?

🍃I’m hoping we might have one more big signing up our sleeve after selling Tom Ince, but currently Adama Diakhaby looks to be the most exciting new arrival.

✃It didn’t go well for him at Monaco last season, but the fact they brought him in to replace Mbappe gives a clue to his potential.

ꩲHe is lightening quick and could be a key player for us in the coming season.

Who’s your club’s young-player-who-could-make-a-breakthrough this season?

🀅Abdelhamid Sabiri arrived at the club last season, but the 21-year-old didn’t get many chances in the first team but has impressed in preseason.

ꦉHe looks strong, skilful, and determined. He may start the season as Aaron Mooy’s understudy, but I think he could make a bit impact if he gets a chance.

What will be your club’s biggest factor behind achieving its targets this season?

🌊Keeping hold of David Wagner is absolutely essential to our survival in the Premier League.

🍃He signed a new contract earlier in the summer, so has committed his future to the club but I expect he’ll still be linked to every managerial job going this season.

🥀I’ve always thought that the manager’s influence over a club’s fortunes is overstated, but in his case he really has achieved incredible things in his time at Town.

🗹He’s also getting better, our first season in the Premier League was a learning curve for him as well as the players, I expect he’ll be a bit more tactically astute this season.

What will be your club’s biggest barrier to achieving its targets this season?

🌞Our lack of goals has been a problem for is in the past two seasons, despite them being the most successful years we’ve had in decades.

♛Our inability to score regularly made life much harder for us, and it’s something we’ll need to address if we want to stay up.

𒀰I believe our strikers are good enough to get the goals, but there was a lack of quality service to them last season.

﷽Hopefully our new signings will improve the supply line to Lauren Depoitre and Steve Mounié.

Which club outside yours do you think has done the best business this summer?

🌱Liverpool have certainly been busy this window and the players they’ve signed look like they’ll improve the depth in their squad.

✃It was pretty clear last season that their starting XI was good but they didn’t have enough quality to rotate during their busy spells.

♏Whether they’ve done enough to close the gap on Manchester City is debatable but bringing in a quality keeper solves one of their most obvious flaws.

If you had to pick a six-a-side team from your club’s current squad, who would be in it?

𝕴I’d have Jonas Lössl in goal, he’s great with the ball at his feet so could play outfield if needed.

🎃Christopher Schindler at the back because he one of the league’s top tacklers.

🌞Jonathan Hogg covers every blade of grass and would be useful if things got a bit rough.

ꦫAaron Mooy would be the playmaker, he’s got incredible vision and reads the game so well.

🍎Then I’d have Alex Pritchard and Depoitre up front as a little and large combination.

💛Pritchard is a bag of tricks and Depotire is a steamroller of a player, so they’d compliment each other nicely.

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Finally, how do you think your team will have done come the end of the 2018/19 season?

ꦛThe bookies have us tipped to go down again, but I think we should be able to manage at least 17th.

ඣWe’re probably going to lose more than we win, but this squad is capable of pulling off some unexpected results.

🌸We need to score more goals than we did last season, but I suspect there’ll be three teams that are worse than us by the end of the season.

🧸We’re the underdogs in this league, but we’ve overcome the odds in the last two seasons and I don’t see any reason we can’t do it again this year.