Huddersfield Town digest: Jon Worthington on permanent manager prospects and playing style
The Huddersfield Town interim head coach has held his first press conference since taking over from Michael Duff - plus all the latest team news and a tentative predicted line-up
What’s been said
— Jon Worthington, on whether he would want the job on a permanent basis beyond his interim spell for the rest of the season:
“I’m always learning as a coach. Since I’ve been back at the club for ten years, that’s what I’ve done. You’re always learning from experience and learning from some of the real top managers we’ve had over this 10-15 year period.
“That’s ultimately what I’m always trying to do, taking the best ideas from others alongside my own. That’ll be no different coming into this experience.
“I can draw back on that now whereas last time it was all fresh. This time I’ve got a little bit of longer period with ten games. It’ll to allow me to implement more things I want to because I’m not going from game to game, and every decision I make won’t be a reactive decision, it’ll be what’s best for the group and Huddersfield Town over this ten game period.
“I think after ten games it’s a great conversation to have to see where we at. Once we get to the end of that ten games I think that’s the time to have the conversation about what the next step looks like.
“I’ve got an unbelievable opportunity and at the end of the ten games I think that’ll dictate where we go moving forward.”
— Jon Worthington, on whether we can expect his side to play the same kind of high octane style we saw during his last spell as caretaker boss:
“Absolutely, yeah. It’ll look the same. We’ll be on the front foot, we’ll win the ball as high as possible, we’ll be really aggressive to take the ball of players. Whenever there’s an opportunity to play forward we’ll play forward, we’ll run forward, and there will just be some clear, simple instructions the players will get as well as the rest of the detail.
“I’m all for that, but I’m also really methodical in terms of how I plan and prepare and make sure they get all the details that we need right as well.”
— Jon Worthington, on his coaching staff:
“The staff is really important to me. I chose that team. They’ll all my choices because I’ve worked with them before, they know how I work, they know what I’m about. I think we’ve got a good mix in terms of personality and experience and I think it worked really well last time, alongside the wider first team staff.
— Town chairman Kevin Nagle, responding to talkSPORT reports linking former Sacramento Republic boss Mark Briggs with the Huddersfield Town manager’s job:
“Absolutely no truth to this.”
Coming up next
Crawley Town come to the John Smith’s Stadium on a seven-game winless streak that has kept them in the relegation zone, nine points away from safety.
A possession-based side, Crawley’s defensive record of 66 goals conceded in 36 games in the worst in the division.
The two sides shared a 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture back in November, with Rhys Healey and Herbie Kane both finding equalisers after Crawley twice took the lead.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Michael Duff had previously hinted that Radinio Balker, David Kasumu and perhaps Mickel Miller were in with a chance of returning to contention over the impending international break, if not in time for Crawley.
However, Jon Worthington says that as it stands he expects his squad for this weekend to be as it was for Saturday’s trip to Bristol Rovers
Herbie Kane is out until mid-April with a knee injury.
Josh Koroma is not expected back until April with a calf injury.
Tom Lees continues to be monitored for a knee injury but remains out of action.
Matty Pearson is set to be out until around the end of March/beginning of April with a calf injury.
Chris Maxwell has an ongoing hip issue and Tom Iorpenda has a long-standing back issue.
Rhys Healey, Danny Ward and Nigel Lonwijk are all ruled out for the season.
Predicted line-up to face Crawley
4-2-3-1: Lee Nicholls; Lasse Sorensen, Brodie Spencer, Josh Ruffels, Ruben Roosken; Antony Evans, Jonathan Hogg; Callum Marshall, Ben Wiles, Tawanda Chirewa; Joe Taylor.
Substitutes: Jacob Chapman, Loick Ayina, Ollie Turton, Cameron Ashia, Joe Hodge, Dion Charles, Freddie Ladapo.
Huddersfield Town Women
Town Women will visit York City on Sunday with just four games left to go in the campaign.
