Matty Pearson: A case study in Huddersfield Town's positive 'problem'

The centre-back has been a reliable presence in the Terriers’ back line over the past three years but is yet to start a league game this season

There can’t be many players sitting on League One benches who are as good at their jobs as Matty Pearson — but the way the centre-back has dealt with his frustrations serves as the best example for others that Michael Duff could have hoped for.

Pearson and Tom Lees have been at the club together for over three years, but thanks in part to a few spells trading places on the long-term injury list, Duff is the first Town boss who has had to make the decision between the two of them.

Last season, the pair played as partners 19 times, whether that was on either side of Michal Helik or with Pearson playing at right-back.

Despite all three of them being excellent centre-backs in their own right, the common wisdom now is that a Pearson/Helik/Lees axis does not work — and there’s very good reason for thinking that.

Since the 1-3 home defeat to Preston in December last year, we have seen the three start together as a centre-back trio in just one competitive game. That was the Andre Breitenreiter-led disaster against West Bromwich Albion in March, when Town were brilliant in the first half, led 1-0 at the break, then got repeatedly exposed as they fell to a 4-1 defeat.

We’ve only seen Lees, Helik and Pearson as a trio for around 40 minutes this season, after Brodie Spencer’s early second-half injury against Shrewsbury forced Duff’s hand.