Kick-off: 1945, 25/09/2020
Stadium: John Smith’s Stadium
TV: Sky Sports
Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest have both made dismal starts to the season and are under pressure to get off the mark on Friday night.
Neither team is yet to avoid defeat or even score a goal after first-round EFL Cup defeats were followed by back-to-back losses in the Championship.
Confidence must be an issue for both sets of players and a goalless first half at 7/5 is our opening Huddersfield vs Nottingham Forest prediction.
A Look At Huddersfield Town’s Betting Odds
Huddersfield spent most of last season in relegation trouble and look set for more of the same this time around.
Danny Cowley was replaced by Carlos Corberan during the summer but the Spaniard faces a tough test in his first season as a manager.
He is tasked with introducing a new style of play while the club continue to offload the big earners from their time in the Premier League and repay loans owed to former chairman Dean Hoyle.
Steve Mounie recently returned to France, star striker Karlan Grant is yet to feature this season due to talks over a possible move to West Brom, while fellow forward Danny Ward is out injured.
Last season’s player of the year Lewis O’Brien is also injured while loanee Emile Smith-Rowe was their most creative player last season but has returned to Arsenal.
It is little wonder therefore that Town have barely created a clear chance in their three defeats against Rochdale (1-0), Norwich (1-0) and Brentford (3-0) so an away win to nil appeals at 3/1 in the Huddersfield vs Nottingham Forest odds.
Last Huddersfield line-up: Hamer, Pipa, Toffolo, Stearman, Schindler, Hogg, Bacuna, Pritchard, Diakhaby, Mbenza, Koroma.
A Look At Nottingham Forest’s Betting Odds
Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi began the season under pressure after last season’s collapse cost them a play-off place and the new campaign has not begun any better.
Forest have now gone eight league games without a win after two first-half goals from Kieffer Moore condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at home to Cardiff on Saturday, having already lost at Barnsley (1-0) and QPR (2-0) in the cup and league respectively.
Lamouchi said: “Some players are still thinking about the end of last season, but this is a new season and we have new players and we have the quality to get out of this situation.
“But the league has started. This is not a friendly game. This is the Championship and we need to have more aggression and determination. We cannot accept what happened in the first half of this game.”
There is certainly more quality in the Forest team and it is surely only a matter of time before their results improve, while the same cannot be said for the hosts.
Huddersfield’s heads are likely to drop if they go behind and all five goals they have conceded this season have been in the second half.
Three of those have been in the 80th minute or later so the visitors to score the most goals between 75 minutes and full-time at 18/5 merits selection as our final Huddersfield vs Nottingham Forest prediction.
Last Forest line-up: Samba, Figueiredo, Worrall, Ribeiro, Jenkinson, Colback, Ameobi, Freeman, Yates, Grabban, Lolley.
Additional stats
Last result:
Brentford 3-0 HUDDERSFIELD
FOREST 0-2 Cardiff
Head-to-head: Forest 3-1 Huddersfield, Huddersfield 2-1 Forest, Forest 2-0 Huddersfield, Huddersfield 2-1 Forest, Forest 0-2 Huddersfield, Huddersfield 1-1 Forest
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