Huddersfield Town digest: Duff on transfers plus injury news and suspension risks
All the latest ahead of Huddersfield Town's next League One clash against Lincoln City
What’s been said
Michael Duff, speaking about the upcoming transfer window on Thursday afternoon:
“We’ve identified areas of the pitch that we need, but whether we can strengthen or not, they’re not my conversations. We [the coaching staff] have an input into people who are coming into the building, but I don’t know if a player’s going to cost £1, £1m, or £10m. I don’t write the cheque, that’s not up to me.
“We try and get the best value for money and the best person we can but there is no open chequebook. Alfie May is a perfect example: it got to a point where we weren’t prepared to do it. It’s getting the balance, and there’s a lot of things that have to come together for any transfer.
“I’ll be involved in the process. We’ve not had a conversation where Kevin [Nagle] has gone ‘right, you can go and sign 10 players for £2m each’, but he’s also not said ‘you’re not having anybody, you’ve got to sell to bring in’.
“It’s just what positions do we want to identify, who are the people in those positions, and then we try and find the best one that we can.”
Michael Duff up for manager of the month
Town head coach Michael Duff is one of four nominees for the EFL’s League One manager of the month award for November.
Town went unbeaten throughout the month in the league, drawing with Crawley and claiming victories over Charlton and Leyton Orient.
Duff faces competition from Wycombe’s Matt Bloomfield, Stockport’s Dave Challinor and Wrexham’s Phil Parkinson. The winner will be announced on Friday.
Discussing his nomination, Duff said:
“It’s a sign that we’re doing something right. We’ve reversed the horrible slide they were on and have almost put ourselves back onto parity now. Now we’re out of the hole, can we kick on and go further in the league?
“The biggest part for me is you get nominated but it’s not me, it’s the staff. In the middle of that part of that really bad run, my staff — particularly my immediate staff — were rock solid. You learn more about things in adversity, it’s easier when you’re winning every week.
“It’s just a nod that we’re moving in the right direction but for me I don’t look too much into it.”
Coming up next
Town will host Lincoln City on Saturday afternoon, with the Terriers hoping to keep their winning run at the John Smith’s Stadium going.
Lincoln are themselves looking for their first win in seven games having drawn three and lost three of their last six in the league - though they have claimed cup victories over Manchester City U21s, Crawley and Morecambe in that time.
The Imps’ wins and losses have typically been decided by just a single goal in either direction, as reflected in their +1 goal difference. They currently sit ninth in the table, four points outside the top six.
A counter-attacking team, Lincoln have the lowest average possession in the division this season and are a particular threat from set pieces. No other League One side has scored more goals from non-penalty dead balls (12) — though no side has conceded fewer than Town (2).
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
The Lincoln game marks the last game in which receiving a fifth yellow card of the League One season would lead to an automatic one-match ban. Town have just two players at risk of falling afoul of that: Michal Helik and Nigel Lonwijk are on four yellows apiece going into the Lincoln game. If either get booked against Lincoln then they will be suspended for the trip to Cambridge, but if they avoid being carded they won’t need to worry about it in future games.
The next threshold is 10 yellow cards for an automatic two-game ban up to and including the 37th league game of the season, and then 15 for a three-match ban by the last league game of the regular season. Brodie Spencer has the most League One yellow cards in the Town squad at present, with five (for which he served a one-match ban in October).
Jonathan Hogg was a late withdrawal from the side to face Bolton in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night, with Danny Ward drafting in after the skipper picked up a calf injury in the warm-up. Hogg is now expected to be out for at least 4-6 weeks.
Herbie Kane was suspended for the Bolton game for picking up yellow cards in the group stage of the competition, but can return to action against Lincoln.
Callum Marshall took a blow to the chest that forced him off against Mansfield and left him with a bruised sternum, but is back in training and should be available for selection on Saturday afternoon.
Lasse Sorensen made a welcome return to action for the final half hour at Bolton, forcing Town’s late consolation goal as his saved shot ricocheted back into the net. The wing-back had been out with a hamstring injury since going off early on against Bristol Rovers in mid-October.
Radinio Balker played 45 minutes for the B team in their 5-2 Central League Cup win over Accrington Stanley on Tuesday afternoon but still has a way to go before he is ready for first-team football. The centre-back has been ruled out since fracturing his ankle in pre-season.
Lee Nicholls has been back in full training but had to take a few days out after feeling a bit of irritation in his injured elbow, which has kept him out since September. The goalkeeper is now thankfully back on the training pitch again after a check-in with his surgeon, but won’t be available to play on Saturday.
Joe Hodge has been out with a groin injury since October. He has reported back to Wolves for a final sign-off before going back into full training, and all being well, Town hope he can return to full training on Friday with a view to a return in the coming weeks.
Antony Evans remains out of action with an injured and painful big toe, with no timescale set on his return.
Rhys Healey is expected to be out for another lengthy spell with the calf injury he suffered against Charlton last month, and Mickel Miller is expected to be out until March-April with the knee injury that forced him off against Leyton Orient.
Predicted line-up to face Lincoln City
3-4-1-2: Jacob Chapman; Matty Pearson, Tom Lees, Nigel Lonwijk; Ollie Turton, Herbie Kane, David Kasumu, Josh Koroma; Ben Wiles; Danny Ward, Callum Marshall.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Michal Helik, Lasse Sorensen, Brodie Spencer, Tom Iorpenda, Freddie Ladapo, Bojan Radulovic.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women will be hoping to exert more pressure on the top of the table by continuing their positive run of league form in their trip to face Stockport County on Sunday afternoon.
Glen Preston’s side are just four points behind league leaders Leeds United, with this weekend’s game the final fixture before a Christmas break.
Arthur Difford will bring you full coverage of the Stockport game on Sunday with player ratings and a report as usual here on We Are Terriers.
Our schedule
We’ll have players ratings on the whistle on Saturday afternoon and five conclusions out for you on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
The podcast will be released first thing Monday morning as usual.
There will be a written piece for our paying backers in midweek next week ahead of the Friday night trip to Cambridge.