Huddersfield Town digest as Kevin Nagle declares 'we're not done yet'
Plus injury latest, breaking news on another loan recall and a look ahead to Saturday's clash with Plymouth Argyle including our predicted line-up
There’s plenty for you to our lovely backers to catch up on from We Are Terriers over the past week:
Scouting reports on new arrivals Alex Matos and Bojan Radulovic, who both made their Town debuts against Manchester City on Sunday
The latest podcast, detailing where we think Huddersfield Town need January transfer recruits. They’ve already filled two of those gaps, which is great to see, but there’s more to be done
Five conclusions on the 5-0 loss to Manchester City, with a particular eye on the new faces in the squad, including the returning Brodie Spencer and debutant Tom Iorpenda.
With the bulk of the transfer window still ahead of us, it’s a great time to sign up if you haven’t already. Not only will you get access to all our best content for just £5 a month (or £55 annually), but you’ll be helping to support local, independent, ad-free journalism. And if you’re already backing us — thank you, you are brilliant.
January transfer ins and outs
Alex Matos became Town’s first January signing last week, arriving on loan from Chelsea, and was soon followed by the permanent acquisition of HJK striker Bojan Radulovic.
Brodie Spencer last week returned from his loan spell at Motherwell and caught the eye with a positive showing at right-back on Sunday afternoon. The 19-year-old full-back played extensively at both right-back and left-back in Scotland and could be a big asset to Darren Moore’s injury-hit defence.
And a bit of breaking news for those of you who read the digest as soon as it arrives: Scott High has returned from his loan spell with Ross County. The midfielder returns carrying a hamstring injury that has kept him out of action for some time now, however.
What’s been said
“We’re going to do a lot of things. We’re going to learn a little bit more about Huddersfield. We’re going to learn more about how we can streamline some processes we know we can do better in, and we’re going to get to know the area a lot better.”
[On transfers]: “We’re not done yet. We’ve made two signings and I think we’re going to have some more before the end of the month, and I feel we’re going to better this football club.”
— Kevin Nagle on Sunday, speaking about his ongoing visit to West Yorkshire
“[Radulovic] is a number 9. He plays in the middle of the goal, which is what we want. He scores goals, which is what we want. He’ll bring a wonderful presence to our front line, his link-up play is very very good: he’ll bring others into the game, as well as being in the middle of the goal, which is what we want. We’re really really pleased to get him on board.
“Where he’s at now we have to remember the last time he played was the middle of December. (Editor’s note: The Finnish season ended in mid-October, since when they have played a further three Europa League games). We’ll assess where his fitness is at, and while we’ll be eager to play him instantly straight away, we need to make sure we maintain him over the second half of the season.
“We’ve not brought him in here for one game as a quick-fix solution: we’ve brought him in for the second half of the season, and he’s a really important and imperative part to us for the second half of the season.”
— Darren Moore on Bojan Radulovic on Friday afternoon, hinting as to why he came off the bench on Sunday rather than playing from the start
“I love to tackle, I like to put a lot of challenges in. That’s what fires me a lot. I don’t feel very happy if I don’t put a tackle in.”
— Alex Matos on his part of the game he loves most
Coming up next
Ian Foster will take charge of his first Championship game at his new club having been appointed as Steven Schumacher’s successor (trying saying that ten times fast) on Friday afternoon.
Foster has spent much of his coaching career working in the England setup for the national youth teams and, for a spell, the Lionesses, before departing to join Steven Gerrard’s coaching staff in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq.
Just four point separate the Pilgrims in 18th from Town in 21st, and Plymouth’s form has not been hugely dissimilar to Town’s over the past month or so. They’ve drawn a lot of games, lost a couple you would have expected (to Leicester and Southampton), and claimed a couple of victories you also would have expected (at home to ten-man Rotherham and to fourth-tier Sutton United in the FA Cup).
That makes Saturday’s encounter at the John Smith’s Stadium a real clash between two sides who will be looking to draw a line under the first half of the season and move into a new phase, even if the actual halfway point came a few weeks ago.
Where the two sides have differed is that although Plymouth have the second-worst defensive record in the division, they have not struggled to find the net at the other end. Their past five league games have featured 24 goals, evenly divided between the two ends of the figurative pitch.
Town will need to show an improvement at both ends if they are to earn the win fans will be expecting.
The club’s fan zone will be open again before kick off, with food, drink and entertainment provided. More info is available here.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Get out your notepads, this might take a while.
Darren Moore has warned us not to expect Delano Burgzorg back anytime soon thanks to the ankle injury he sustained while being fouled in the 3-0 win against Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day. The in-form forward was hacked down from behind trying to go through on goal and completed that game, but has missed all three outings since.
Danny Ward may however be able to return in the coming weeks after a recurrence of his Achilles problem, while Kyle Hudlin apparently picked up a knock at some point only for it to turn out not to be a major problem. The latter has not missed any matchday squads since coming back from a groin injury just before Christmas, but the manager did mention an issue that has already seemingly been overcome at last week’s press conference.
David Kasumu was ruled out of the trip to face Manchester City with a knee injury sustained in training late last week. He will be assessed for Saturday’s visit from Plymouth Argyle.
Jonathan Hogg has missed the past two games with a chest infection. The skipper had returned to training last week only to be forced to return home for further recuperation. He will be hoping to be passed fit to play at the weekend.
Like Burgzorg, Jaheim Headley will be sidelined for ‘a little while’ with the ankle injury he had inflicted on him by an opponent — in this case, against Leicester City on New Year’s Day. He joins a long list of defensive absences that also includes Matty Pearson (calf), Josh Ruffels (groin) and Yuta Nakayama (international duty).
No firm timelines have been provided on the injured trio, while Nakayama’s stay on Asian Cup duties will depend how far Japan progress. Be warned, though, that they are favourites to win the tournament, and the final will not be held until 10th February.
However, Tom Edwards is now back from a spell of leave for personal reasons, while Ollie Turton is back in training and closing in on a return to competitive action after 11 months out with an ACL injury.
Youngsters Pat Jones and Kian Harratt both remain out with hamstring issues, as is the returning Scott High, which you would already know if you had been paying attention earlier.
In the goalkeeping department, Chris Maxwell remains sidelined with a hamstring injury while Jacob Chapman missed Sunday’s trip to the Etihad Stadium with a new ankle issue.
You could pretty much make a team out of those absences at this point, couldn’t you?
Actually not half-bad either.
Predicted Huddersfield Town line-up to face Plymouth Argyle
Honestly, we’ve no idea what Darren Moore’s intentions are in midfield at the moment…nice to have options, isn’t it? Our best guess as it stands:
3-5-2: Lee Nicholls; Tom Lees, Michal Helik, Rarmani Edmonds-Green; Brodie Spencer, Jack Rudoni, Jonathan Hogg, Alex Matos, Ben Jackson; Sorba Thomas, Bojan Radulovic.
Substitutes: Giosue Bellagambi, Loick Ayina, Tom Edwards, Josh Austerfield, Brahima Diarra, Tom Iorpenda, Josh Koroma, Ben Wiles, Kyle Hudlin.
Huddersfield Town Women
After a lengthy and largely enforced hiatus thanks to repeated postponements, Town Women returned to action and got straight back into winning ways by claiming a hugely important win over Stoke City in the Women’s National League on Sunday afternoon.
Yasmin Mason got Town off to the best possible start by opening the scoring just six minutes in, but they went in level-pegging at the break after a Stoke equaliser just after the half hour.
Defender Beth Ibbotson settled the tie in the 73rd minute, however, converting from the second phase of a set piece to earn Town a crucial three points — just their second league win of the season.
They remain in the relegation zone, but are now just three points behind local rivals Halifax (who have three games in hand) and four points behind West Brom (who have played the same number of games as Town).
Town are not scheduled to be in action until Sunday 28th January, when they will face Halifax in the quarter-finals of the FA WNL Cup.
Our schedule
Five conclusions on the Plymouth game should be with you sometime on Sunday. Suffice it to say we will have higher expectations on the result than we did against Leicester and Man City. Player ratings will also be available for all readers on the final whistle as usual.
We’ll continue to keep a close eye on the transfer window, and we’ll keep you informed on any new arrivals with a full scouting report provided to our lovely backers, as we did with Matos and Radulovic last week.
If there’s no further movements to report later in the week, we’ll have something else for our paid backers instead - perhaps a mid-transfer window Q&A, if you fancy it? Get your questions in here, just in case: if we don’t do it this week, we’ll look to do it next.
David Hartrick and I will also be back with the usual We Are Terriers podcast, which schedule permitting, we have pencilled in for release on Wednesday.