One To Watch: Rajiv Van La Parra

Last week I was at Ewood Park with a few Blackburn supporting friends. Their visitors that day were Huddersfield Town and I must say, despite Blackburn not being the best team on the day, Huddersfield will not be an easy team to beat by any stretch of the imagination. Despite dominating the game, their 2 goals were defensive mistakes by Blackburn so they are not the most clinical team but they all look good on the ball and will be hard to break down.

Before selecting my one to watch this week, I must mention that Wells was one of the contenders. He had a slow start to his career with the Terriers but he has found a new lease of life and is back to his usual goalscoring self. He may be a problem but I believe that Shotton if he is at CB or Morrison will certainly be up to the challenge.

Having watched that game, one player stood out to me as being an absolute menace and it was Van La Parra. He played as right full back for Huddersfield Town last week, and his pace caused them to double mark him in the second half. Not only has he got the pace, he also has the skill to match. Several times he was fouled as he was too skillful for the Blackburn winger to handle and several times he was able to find a team mate with his crosses.

What I liked about him as well was his attitude. He was able to pick himself up after every foul and not get rattled with the game. He didn’t let it get to his head and was immediately up with a smile on his face. Not once did he have a go at the referee or the opposition player and this must show that he has a very professional attitude.

Having only made 5 appearances for Huddersfield, it was a risky choice this week. But before that he played for Wolves right up until last month so he has come to the Town and made a big impact right from the start. He is hungry to get forward and is always able to use use his fitness and stamina for the full 90 minutes. It was hard not to include the likes of Bunn and Whitehead in the nomination this week, but I feel that with Grounds and Caddis not being the most pacey, Van La Parra could cause a lot of trouble.

Overall, I think it will depend if we turn up or not. Huddersfield are an unpredictable team and when it works, it really works and I think this is the same for Birmingham City. So it’ll either be 0-0 or a high scoring game. It will be won and lost in the midfield so I hope we are able to win our tackles there and hopefully come away with all 3 points.