Russell out: Is this Huddersfield Town’s best XI on paper when every player is fully fit?

Huddersfield Town are giving their supporters a season to remember as they flirt with the possibility of another promotion to the Premier League. 

Carlos Corberan has overseen quite the transformation in the last 12 months, with Huddersfield emerging as a genuine promotion contender just a year after a woeful collapse almost saw them fall into the Championship’s relegation battle.

What makes Huddersfield’s turnaround even more remarkable is that there hasn’t been significant investment when it comes to the playing squad.

Instead, Huddersfield have pulled off a number of shrewd fee transfers, as well as striking the standard Premier League loan agreements.

We are now at the point where it’s difficult for Corberan to select a matchday squad without leaving out some high-profile names, let alone narrowing that down to a starting XI.

As our graphic below outlines, it’s extremely tough to pick a strongest line-up that everyone can agree on.

There are some obvious selections like Lee Nicholls, Harry Toffolo, Sorba Thomas, Lewis O’Brien and Danny Ward. Perhaps the most difficult decision comes with selecting the best formation to suit Huddersfield’s strongest XI.

For example, Levi Colwill, Tom Lees and Matty Pearson don’t fit into a 4-3-3, whilst Jon Russell and Jonathan Hogg both can’t feature in a 3-4-3 alongside Lewis O’Brien.

You feel that a 3-4-3 would be Corberan’s go-to system if the Championship play-off final was tomorrow, with Colwill, Lees and Pearson offering balance in the back-three, as Toffolo and Thomas provide width at wing-back.

The decision, then, comes on who partners O’Brien in midfield.

Russell would be a popular pick given how he’s emerged in 2022, but as FLW’s Huddersfield fan pundit Graeme Rayner has