Huddersfield Town digest: Injuries and predicted line-up ahead of Sunderland test
Plus Jon Worthington on his future and a look ahead to two home games against play-off hopefuls
What’s been said
“I think that’s just down to my beliefs as a coach. I think that’s the direction the club want to be in, and how the people at the club want the football to be. I know that’s how the fans want it to be — and the players do. They showed that today and they can do it. There’s lots of positives from that.”
— Jon Worthington, on the side’s new attacking style, after Saturday’s 3-5 defeat to Southampton
“It’s an interim period for me. I’ll help as much as Mark, Jake and Kevin want me to help. That was my brief when I was first asked to do the job and I’ll continue to do that. I’m Huddersfield through and through, I love the club, and ultimately for me it’s just helping wherever I can.
“… It’s not just me. All the backroom staff have played a massive part in that; I’m just the person stood in front of the camera at the minute.'“
— Jon Worthington, again rebuffing the suggestion he is up for the full-time manager’s job, after the Southampton game
Coming up next
Town will now face back-to-back home games against two sides sitting just outside the play-off places: Sunderland and Hull City.
Sunderland made a change of manager shortly after Town claimed victory at the Stadium of Light back in November, with former QPR and Rangers boss Michael Beale arriving as Tony Mowbray’s replacement.
The Black Cats have had their ups and downs under Beale’s management, losing 0-3 at home to Coventry in his first game in charge and being held to a draw by rock-bottom Rotherham the following week.
However, they now look to have hit their stride, taking seven points from their past three games — including a draw away to Middlesbrough — to put themselves outside the top six on goal difference alone.
Like Town, they have recently discovered a knack for finding goals from all over the pitch: their past seven coming from six different scorers. But Jack Clarke remains the real danger man, taking his goal tally for the season to 14 with his strike against Plymouth on Saturday afternoon. He has claimed four goals and three assists in his past eight Championship outings.
Hull City sit just one position and two points behind Sunderland. They invested heavily in the January transfer window following a poor run of form through the festive period and into the start of the new year.
Liam Rosenior’s side are well-organised but rarely spectacular, with a single goal generally the difference between triumph and defeat alike — so it’s a bit strange that they rarely draw (they have shared the spoils just twice in their past 21 league games), and doubly strange that they have lost 2-0 away to QPR and 3-1 away to Sheffield Wednesday over the past two months or so. Rotherham will be taking note ahead of hosting the Tigers on Tuesday evening, to say nothing of Town.
Liverpool loanee Fabio Carvalho (newly arrived in January) and winger Jaden Philogene are the ones for Town to pay particularly close attention to, with each scoring winners against Sunderland and Millwall before Hull’s weekend defeat at home to Swansea. All of those games were one-nil one way or the other, because of course they were.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Josh Ruffels is the latest player to be ruled out for the season after suffering setbacks in his recovery from groin and hernia issues. Ollie Turton is likewise set to miss the remainder of the campaign with a knee injury. We wish them both all the best in their recovery.
Kian Harratt remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, but will play no further part in this campaign even once recovered: he has been suspended for four months for breaching the FA’s betting rules. Harratt placed 484 bets on football matches between June 2020 and June 2023 and admitted to the charge. His suspension will run through until close to the end of May, effectively keeping him suspended for the rest of the season.
Radinio Balker had been set to start against Southampton on Saturday but fell ill on the morning of the game and had to be replaced. We will seek updates on his recovery ahead of Wednesday’s visit from Sunderland.
However, the club welcomed Jack Rudoni and David Kasumu back from their own bouts of illness. Rudoni set up Sorba Thomas’ opener, while Kasumu scored his first goal for the club to double the lead before the side fell to a 3-5 defeat.
Chris Maxwell was also back in the matchday squad after seven games out with a hamstring injury, and now looks likely to resume deputising for first-choice goalkeeper Lee Nicholls. Jacob Chapman remains out with an ankle injury.
So too do Delano Burgzorg and Jaheim Headley — but the club received a boost to their full-back options with Yuta Nakayama returning from international duty with Japan and going straight into the starting line-up against Southampton.
Caretaker manager Jon Worthington said both before and after that game that Michal Helik was ‘close’ to playing a part at St Mary’s, but added at his post-match press conference that he had yet to resume full-contact training before the journey to the south coast and thus was not considered. The centre-back has been out with the dead leg that forced him off against QPR a couple of weeks ago.
Worthington then reassured us that Brodie Spencer’s withdrawal midway through the second half was simply down to cramp.
Rhys Healey faces at least ‘a couple of weeks’ out of action with the groin injury he suffered against Sheffield Wednesday.
Danny Ward returned to full training last week after a lengthy absence with an Achilles issue but was not included in the matchday squad.
Town absentee list vs Sunderland (to the best of our knowledge)
Doubts: Radinio Balker, Michal Helik, Danny Ward.
Injured: Delano Burgzorg, Jacob Chapman, Jaheim Headley, Rhys Healey, Josh Ruffels, Ollie Turton
Suspended: Kian Harratt
Predicted Huddersfield Town line-up to face Sunderland
Unless we’re told otherwise in the interim, it looks like Jon Worthington will be in the dugout again when Town face Sunderland on Wednesday evening.
The caretaker boss has shown a willingness to tailor individual game-plans to combat the opposition. However, there are enough similarities in shape between Southampton and Sunderland to make us think we may be in for a repeat of the game-plan that served Town so well for much of the game at St Mary’s.
Our only hunches would be that with Sunderland less focused on patient build-up play from the back, out-and-out striker Bojan Radulovic may be preferred to the pressing and counter-attacking energy of Josh Koroma.
Picking between centre-backs remains a nightmare, but we imagine Michal Helik and Radinio Balker would both be pencilled in for starting spots if fit. We’ve gone with Pearson over Lees as our third centre-back thanks to his greater set-piece threat and ability to move over to right-back if a tactical switch is required.
If Balker starts, it would free up Nakayama to start on the left and allow Brodie Spencer to go to the right. But Spencer and David Kasumu both did a specific job very well against Southampton, so we’ll predict them to remain in situ.
3-4-3: Lee Nicholls; Matty Pearson, Michal Helik if available/Tom Lees if not, Radinio Balker if available/Yuta Nakayama if not; David Kasumu, Alex Matos, Jonathan Hogg, Brodie Spencer; Sorba Thomas, Bojan Radulovic, Jack Rudoni.
Substitutes: Chris Maxwell, Tom Lees/Michal Helik/Radinio Balker, Yuta Nakayama/Tom Edwards, Ben Jackson, Brahima Diarra, Ben Wiles, Pat Jones, Josh Koroma, Danny Ward/Tom Iorpenda
We Are Terriers podcast live show
Don’t forget that David Hartrick and I will record an episode of the We Are Terriers podcast live at Magic Rock Huddersfield Taproom on Wednesday 13th March following the annual general meeting of the Huddersfield Town Supporters’ Association.
The AGM will take place at 6:30pm, with the podcast recording pencilled in for an 8pm start, though the exact timing may vary.
Attendance is free for all HTSA members. You can register for the event here — and if you’re not an HTSA member already, you can become one for the next 12 months for just £1. Sign up here.
There is no requirement for you to attend the AGM to attend the podcast live show, but you will still need to be an HTSA member. If you do wish to vote in the AGM, however, you will need to have registered as a member by no later than 28th February.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women resumed their Women’s National League North duties with a trip to Derby County on Sunday afternoon but came away empty-handed after suffering a 3-1 defeat.
Town trailed by a single goal at the break but found an equaliser through Caz Fields on the hour, only for Derby to hit back with a rapid-fire double ten minutes later.
Town Women remain in the relegation zone, seven points adrift of West Brom having played two games fewer.
They will next be in action next Thursday, 22nd February (7:45pm KO), as they host a local derby against Halifax Town at the Stafflex Arena.
Our schedule
Dave and I have agreed that if we get manager news before the Sunderland game, we’ll hop on the microphones to do a podcast reacting to that and cover the Southampton game, then pick up the Sunderland and Hull games in next week’s edition of the We Are Terriers podcast.
If there’s no manager news, we will instead wait until Thursday to do the podcast, covering both the Southampton and Sunderland games, then react to the Hull game and (surely) the new manager on next week’s episode.
Remember that the podcast is exclusive to our paying backers. If you’re not one already, you can sign up with a seven-day free trial here.
I’ll have player ratings from the Sunderland game for all readers on Wednesday evening, followed by five conclusions for our backers first thing Thursday morning.
Same routine for the Hull game: player ratings on the final whistle, conclusions either Saturday evening or first thing Sunday morning.