Middlesbrough vs Huddersfield prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-08-18 14:00.
Due to some major transfer developments, there is a renewed sense of cautious optimism around Middlesbrough in spite of them making the worst possible start to the Championship season (L2). The will he, won’t he, Chuba Akpom saga has finally ended with his £10m departure to Ajax, whilst Boro found themselves enjoying a coffee and a Danish, in the form of new forward Emmanuel Latte Lath and defender Lukas Engels.
Reinforcements in those positions have been the most desperately needed, so Michael Carrick will hope they can push them back on the promotion trail here against Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield. The former Boro boss is not a man they like to face too often though, with Middlesbrough coming up trumps in just three of their 14 meetings with Warnock-led sides over the years (W3, L11), yet the third victory did come in an EFL Cup meeting earlier this month!
Tasked with keeping Huddersfield up in what may finally be Warnock’s last season in the dugout, the 74-year-old has overseen a similarly woeful league start (L2), while scoring just a single goal along the way. He remained upbeat after holding title hopefuls Leicester to a respectable 1-0 defeat, stating that his Terriers “can go anywhere and have a really good game”.
Indeed they can, but they must aim to emulate the incredible four-game run in which they ended last season with (W3, D1) if they’re to make their positive performances pay dividends. Teesside didn’t provide a particularly fruitful hunting grounds for the Terriers between 1988 and 2021 (D1, L8), but they’ve since put together back-to-back visits with clean sheets for the first time in this H2H’s 123-year history (W1, D1).
Key battle: Daniel Barlaser put in his best performance yet in a Boro shirt in terms of his Flashscore rating (8.8) in the cup H2H this month, assisting both before and after half-time in that 3-2 win. Middlesbrough-born Huddersfield midfielder Jonathan Hogg will attempt to stifle Barlaser’s performance, but he’s received a booking in a third of his career league meetings against his hometown club (W4, D3, L5).
Hot streak: Middlesbrough are enduring their longest winless run of Championship games (D2, L5) since a stretch of ten under Jonathan Woodgate in 2020.