Carlos Corberan test is chance for Huddersfield Town to prove transfer impact
The former Terriers boss knows all about half of Neil Warnock’s squad, but the current Town manager may finally have the chance to try and spring some surprises
AAAARGH I’M A MONSTER GRRRRR. Did we get you? Did you jump? No, because that surprise was ineffective and purely theoretical. And we might say the same about Huddersfield Town so far this season.
Last season, Neil Warnock was able to pull several different jacks-in-the-boxes out of his toy chest, give them a whirl, and see whether they took the opportunity to pop out or just idly played a merry tune. Jaheim Headley, Brahima Diarra, Josh Koroma, Kian Harratt and Rarmani Edmonds-Green all leapt at their chance, to varying degrees; others, like Etienne Camara and Jordan Rhodes, were cast back down.
Unfortunately, that meant that Town came into this summer without too many more surprises to pull out, with Pat Jones, Kyle Hudlin, Josh Austerfield and a returning Yuta Nakayama the only potential candidates. So far, none are yet to really make an impression.
So what do you do when you’re bored of the old toys? Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! You get shiny new ones in, complete with laser light and sounds. (Have we dehumanised these footballers enough yet? No? Don’t worry, we have the transfer deadline day meat market still to come!).
Read more: Neil Warnock issues demand to Huddersfield Town players for West Brom showdown
It’s important to Huddersfield Town that Delano Burgzorg (not to be confused with Buzz Lightyear’s nemesis Zurg) and Ben Wiles are just generally good at football, obviously. Wiles, in particular, is a relatively splashy new signing for the long-term future, and Town will be desperate for that investment to pay off.
Just as important, though, is that they bring Warnock something that the opposition cannot entirely plan for. Bar Josh Ruffels’ ongoing evolution into near-undroppable form and Lee Nicholls’ sudden propensity for error, we’re not sure we’ve seen anything out of Town’s players this season that we didn’t expect. As those two examples suggest, that is both a good thing and a bad thing.
We wouldn’t have changed the starting line-up after the Leicester or Middlesbrough games either, such were the performances in those two games, so this is not meant as a criticism of Warnock – but that feeling of sterility will be heightened by Town having made just a single change to their Championship starting line-up all season, with Jonathan Hogg replacing Edmonds-Green after the opening day defeat to Plymouth.
Now, perhaps it’s the impending trip to face West Bromwich Albion, but we remember making much the same comment about Carlos Corberan more or less immediately before Town embarked on the unbelievable unbeaten streak that propelled them to the play-off final. Sometimes things just need time to click into place, and sometimes it is only through consistency and repetition that you get there.
It does not feel like Town are currently in that position, though. Not to say these players have necessarily been playing badly, but there are too many players who it feels like would have been playing just by default regardless of form: Diarra, Koroma, Sorba Thomas, Jack Rudoni, Danny Ward.
With Wiles and Burgzorg at his disposal, and hopefully one more still to come, Warnock may now be able to smash that perception. All being well, the duo can increase the competition for places and thus drive up the standards – and allow the manager to try one or two things that opposition scouts won’t already have seen from Town a thousand times already over the past six or seven months.
That could be in what they do themselves, different tactical ideas that couldn’t work without them, or bringing something different out of the players around them. However it comes, Town do need it – especially as they prepare to go up against a West Brom head coach who knows all about half their players already.
