Huddersfield Town digest: Injuries, John Smith's Stadium agreement and more
All the latest updates ahead of Huddersfield Town's meetings with Bristol Rovers and Wrexham
What’s been said
— Michael Duff, on his midfield shape change, at his Thursday afternoon press conference:
“We’ve played two deep-lyers the past couple of games. We had two eights before and they were getting a bit too high too early. We can easily flip back into that but it just gives us a bit more structure in midfield.
“We didn’t feel there was enough balance in there and it was too inconsistent. We’re just trying to get a bit more structure to it. It might be something we go back to when there’s more confidence in the team.“
— Michael Duff, on his centre-forward options and Bojan Radulovic, at his Thursday afternoon press conference:
“I don’t have a pecking order because I’ve not had them all fit at one time. It’s up to them to make that decision for me. We pick the two we think are the most in form or the fittest.
“Pato (Martin Paterson) does a lot of work with the centre-forwards so it’s just finding what turns them on really. Some need an arm around them, some need a rocket.
“Bojan clearly had a difficult year last year from January coming in, um, for him and the football club. And then in the summer, I dunno whether there's a bit of noise, whether he thought he was leaving, whether he didn't think he was leaving, or whatever. But then he got injured, missed a massive chunk of pre-season, then we start to get him fit, and he gets injured again after scoring a hat trick for the B team [in August] and then the window closes.
“But the beauty of the window closing is we need to work together and we'd never got a chance to work with him, but he realises that he's not going anywhere, he needs to score, we need him to score, and it needs to be a working relationship. That's where he has been good.
“He's accepted loads of new information. He's learning about the league. The bit that people don't understand is he's in a different country, he hasn't got an army of mates [nearby], he's living away from his family, his girlfriend came over [from abroad] every now and again…I think she's over full time now, which is another positive.
“Even silly little things like in the summer he's renting virtually at an Airbnb from week to week because he doesn't know what's going on. But the window closes, [it makes a difference] the fact that he's now renting a place and he's settled; and now he's fit and now every day he's starting to look sharper and sharper, and hopefully he’ll be the player that the football club signed.”
— Bojan Radulovic, on finally getting a run in the Town first team:
“It’s been tough since I came [here] but now I’m feeling good, feeling happy, feeling fit, and I’m ready for the upcoming games.
“The only one I’d consider to be a big injury was the last one, when I pulled my groin and was out for six weeks. It’s not been an easy time, but now that’s in the past and it’s a refresh for everyone. Now we have to be focused on the future.
“There’s been a lot of changes and when a different manager comes in it’s a change for the team. We have to get used to that and we’re getting used to playing in a different formation and style of play.
“Personally it suits me well because I think what he expects from me is what I do best — that’s my job on the pitch. We’ll see what happens on Saturday. We’ve had a tough run but the team has a different mentality and different energy now.”
FA Cup first round date set for a Friday night
Town’s trip to Tamworth in the FA Cup first round has been selected for live coverage by the BBC. It will therefore be played on Friday, 1st November in a 7:45pm kick-off. The game will be shown live on BBC Two.
Kirklees Council agree to transfer stadium shares to Town
An agreement has been reached for Town to take on Kirklees Council’s 40% share in KSDL, the joint venture between the council, Town and the Huddersfield Giants that owns and operates the John Smith’s Stadium.
The transfer would take the football club’s share in the stadium to 80%. Huddersfield Giants would still hold the remaining 20%. The Giants are currently looking at building their own stadium.
The council have agreed to write off their loans to KSDL as part of the agreement, and are also expected to become the owners of a plot of land on Gasworks Street currently owned by KSDL. The council will continue to hold the freehold of the John Smith’s Stadium site.
Coming up next
Bristol Rovers will visit the John Smith’s Stadium for Saturday’s 3pm kick-off. Despite sitting nine places lower than Town in the table, Rovers are only two points behind the ninth-placed Terriers with four wins, five defeats and a draw from their ten league games so far this season.
Matt Taylor’s hard-working side rank highly for tackles (3rd in the league) and especially interceptions (top of the stats in League One) and play a counter-attacking style. Only Shrewsbury and Lincoln have had less possession on average, and they rank seventh for percentage of passes played long rather than short.
Rovers have not struggled to score this season but have been vulnerable to conceding set piece goals: seven of the 16 they have shipped have come from dead balls.
Rovers will need to be taken seriously, but tactically they could be good preparation for Town’s trip to Wrexham on Tuesday.
Phil Parkinson’s side are statistically not dissimilar, but have been able to execute their style to greater effect and sit second in the table (with third-placed Mansfield holding a game in hand). Wrexham are the second-highest scorers in League One at present (18 goals), behind only Peterborough, and have one of the leanest defences (8 conceded).
Forward Jack Marriott and midfielder Elliott Lee have been particular goal threats, scoring half of Wrexham’s goals between them, several of which have been from set pieces to add to centre-back Max Cleworth’s three goals from dead ball situations.
Only Lincoln and Blackpool have scored more than Wrexham’s six from non-penalty set pieces this season — but Town have conceded just one (against Reading), a record only bettered by spotless Stockport.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Brodie Spencer is suspended for the Bristol Rovers match on Saturday after picking up his fifth league yellow card of the season against Barnsley just before heading away on international duty.
Joe Hodge has been confirmed to be out for around eight weeks with a groin injury suffered in the league win over Barnsley — that would put his return date in December.
After returning from injury from the bench against Barnsley in the EFL Trophy, Rhys Healey started Tuesday’s B team game against Sunderland but had to go off after being sick on the pitch early in the game. He returned to the training ground on Thursday and a decision will be made on him on Friday.
Mickel Miller was rested for the EFL Trophy game against Barnsley after rolling his ankle slightly in the league game a few days prior, but the measure was precautionary and he is available for selection on Saturday.
Josh Koroma is expected to be out until November with a back injury.
Lee Nicholls is expected to be out until mid to late December with an elbow ligament injury. Michal Helik has been ruled out until the back end of November with a hamstring injury, while Radinio Balker is out until the new year with the fractured ankle he suffered in pre-season.
Duff says they are only looking at bumps and bruises other than that.
Predicted line-up to face Bristol Rovers
3-4-1-2: Jacob Chapman; Matty Pearson, Tom Lees, Nigel Lonwijk; Lasse Sorensen, Herbie Kane, David Kasumu, Mickel Miller; Ben Wiles; Bojan Radulovic, Callum Marshall.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Jaheim Headley, Ollie Turton, Jonathan Hogg, Antony Evans, Freddie Ladapo, Danny Ward.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women were handed a walkover to the first round proper of the FA Women’s Cup on Sunday after Barnsley forfeited. They have been drawn at home to Nantwich Town on Sunday, 3rd November.
There is no game for Town Women this weekend.
Our schedule
We’ll have our player ratings on the final whistle for both the Bristol Rovers and Wrexham games.
I’ll have a written piece for our lovely backers out at some point before the weekend.
Five conclusions on each game will be out the morning after for our paying backers.
We’re going to save next week’s podcast until after the Wrexham game, with that being a bit of a big’un — look out for that Wednesday night/Thursday morning.