Below are selected highlights from Thursday afternoon’s press conference. You can find the full audio above or in your We Are Terriers podcast feed.
Lee Grant
Katherine Hannah (BBC Radio Leeds): The new arrival announced today, then — Bali Mumba. What can you tell us about him and what he will bring to Huddersfield Town?
Firstly, we’re delighted he’s joined us, and I think it’s a really positive signing for the football club, I have to say. He’s a player I’ve liked for a long time, I told Bali this yesterday — it was three or four years ago down at Portman Road, and he cut in from the right and put one in top bins.
That sticks in my memory, and he’s been in my radar since that moment, I have to be honest.
But he’s a player that can play across several positions, so we’ve seen him ply his trade across the front line for Plymouth, we’ve seen him play his trade at both wing-back positions and full-backs not out of the question for him. And that is obviously a huge tick in the column for us in terms of where he can ply his trade.
But the other part of it is his age, and think he’s a really good footballer as well, so we’re excited by that one, and we’re really pleased with how the windows open up so far
KH: Will he be available to play this weekend?
He will be, because he’s played a lot of minutes, if you look over the festive period, and I think his last 90 minutes was against Burton, in fact. He’s trained with us today, he’s in a good place, so of course, we’ve got to think about the big picture in the context of just being in the building. But yeah, he’ll be in a place where he’ll be available.
Steven Chicken (We Are Terriers): I appreciate you may not want to give too much away ahead of potentially his debut, but where do you see Bali fitting into this side? We know that he’s a very versatile player…
Yeah, and in all honesty, I would like to keep that up my sleeve and cards close to my chest on that one,
Bali can play as a left wing-back, he can play as a right wing-back, he can play as a full-back on either side at a stretch. He can play as a right winger or a left winger. He can play in the pocket on the left side, on the right side, and he can play as a forward off the striker on either side of the pitch.
So apart from central midfield, which I’m not sure I’ve seen him play, or with a pair of [goalie] gloves on either, he can probably play in most of the positions.
Mine and Bali’s conversation this morning centred around probably keeping those options fewer, rather than keeping the scope hugely wide, just because he’s got a lot to take in at the moment: he’s got new surroundings, new training ground, new teammates, new everything, so we probably don’t want Bali to try to absorb seven different positions worth of information over the next few weeks.
But, yeah, we also want to be able to utilise him, as and when, wherever we think he can be effective.
KH: You said there you’re pleased with how the squad is shaping up this January window. Can you give us an idea of what the plan is? Where do you want to be by the end of January?
Stronger than where we started, and that really is it in a nutshell, Katherine.
We feel like we’ve made good strides on that already, and I think the January window for every club is tricky to navigate, sure, but if you can come out of it with a feeling of ‘we feel as though we’ve improved the squad picture’, then that’ll be a huge bonus for everybody.
I think we’re taking great strides towards that already, and I’m pleased with what we’ve done, and that has to be the aim.
KH: Still more to come, do we expect?
Yeah, it’s tough to say. As I said right at the beginning, I think I said we have to be ready to adapt to any situation. We have to be able to assess and understand the needs of all of the players that are in the building.
So do I see the picture changing? Probably yes, if I’m being really honest. I think the squad probably will look slightly different than what it looks today, but in reality, that’s by one or two players in either direction.
So as I said, we’ve got to be ready to move and adapt and obviously, of course, see how things progress in terms of fitness, availability, injury and form across the next couple of weeks.
KH: It’s a nice position to be in that you were getting, clearly, the backing from your owner and chairman. It doesn’t sound like you’ve had to fight too hard for him to open the chequebook?
Well, I think if you look at the signings we brought in in the window, of course, we’re always trying to look at things from a business perspective and balance the books, so that’s important.
We’ve taken strides to do that in this window as well, as we did in the window before, with [selling] Sorba [Thomas] and with Brodie [Spencer]. So that’s obviously important.
But yes, without doubt, having a chairman that is prepared to react when a situation arises, as we’ve seen in Bali’s case — he’s one that will be important for the football club as well, it’s a sound piece of business, and for me personally, of course, it’s a positive without a doubt.
KH: Any team news ahead of the weekend?
No, nothing significant. Obviously, Alfie had his knock prior to Rotherham, so we’re delighted he came through the game OK and with no adverse reactions post-game either.
The injured ones are the injured ones, and Sean [Roughan] and Jack [Whatmough] and Herbie [Kane] are pushing, and [Antony] Evans are all pushing really hard on the training ground and doing what they can. But of course, still a bit to go for most of those.
But yeah, other than that, as we were.
SC: So all good on Will Alves after his little kick on Tuesday?
Yeah, he was sore coming off the pitch, and in some ways it was probably needed in that it was his first real whack on the injury, and to know that you can have that and come through it is obviously a positive sign.
So, yeah, no ill effects from that. Obviously, he was recovering with the recovery group today…the lads that played the game on Tuesday are still sort of half-training, half-recovering. But no, he came through OK as well.
Radinio Balker
SC: Admittedly, as you say, you’ve conceded some goals you wouldn’t have liked to concede recently. On the whole though, when you look at the xG, when you look at the number of goals conceded, it has been better over the past few weeks since this change of shape. Do you feel like this system suits you as a defence?
If you look at the numbers, yes. I think because of the way we play, it’s taken away sometimes a little bit of the attacking. But, I mean, we’ve played the same way on Tuesday [against Rotherham], and it’s looked very attacking as well. So it’s difficult to say, but you would say yes, if you look at the stats, and it feels like that as well.
Even against Stockport, we didn’t play well, we were defending a lot, but I feel like we didn’t really give up many chances against them. Yeah, they had some shots, they had some pressure on us, for sure, but I think that security in the back with an extra man saves us those big, big chances that we that other teams create against us. So you could say defensively, it actually works really well, yeah.
SC: Speaking to the manager, he seems to think the difference in those games, like Stockport or Bradford, or plenty of other games against the big teams…is it a matter of self-belief, as the manager seems to think? Do you think you and your teammates need to find that extra level in those big games?
Well, that speaks for itself. I think if you look at the record we have against the top teams, it doesn’t look good. So you could say maybe we need to show some more balls, because what we have done before hasn’t worked either.
So I wouldn’t say it’s self-belief, but I feel like in a game, you have moments where you’re under pressure, and then it’s easy to kick the ball away because you don’t want to concede. And that’s something that you need to — again, the same word I used before — balance. You need to balance it out.
Yes, sometimes kick the ball out. Sometimes keep the ball away because you’re in a dangerous area. But sometimes, you need to have the confidence to keep it and play out of that pressure from the other team.
So yeah, I can’t really answer the question, I can only speak for myself, and for myself, I don’t think it’s a lack of confidence. It’s just knowing as a team what you need in that moment. I think that’s the best answer I can give.
