Huddersfield's survival prospects getting slimmer by the game - Interview

It's been an absolute nightmare time for Huddersfield Town since they were refereed out of last season's play-off final, and according to Brady Frost from the Takes That Chance Podcast it's not going to get a lot better without another switch of manager or some other drastic change.

Pretty disastrous season for Huddersfield so far, where has it all gone so wrong?

Where to begin? Ever since we lost the playoff final to Nottingham Forest, it’s just been a mess, it’s easier to bullet point what’s happened to save you all some time:
- VAR playoff final controversy, lose to Nottingham Forest with an own goal.
- Sell two of our best players in Harry Toffolo and Lewis O’Brien to Nottingham Forest
- Don’t replace said players.
- Carlos Corberan leaves two weeks before the season starts, citing a lack of ambition from the club.
- Appoint a club legend in Danny Schofield, who has never managed and admits it’s too early for him to accept the job.
- Sack Danny Schofield after nine games.
- Replace him with Mark Fotheringham who’s also never managed before.
- Owner Dean Hoyle steps away from ‘day-to-day operations’ and is looking to sell the club and won’t invest further.
- Last year’s Championship Team of the Year goalkeeper, Lee Nicholls, gets ruled out for the season.
- Loan out Sorba Thomas, who is still our top assister this season to playoff-chasing Blackburn as the manager says ‘we need players who are ready to perform straightaway

…and it’s only February! Who knows what else is in store? I consider myself one of the more optimistic fans but we have been one of the worst teams in the league this season so it’s amazing that we’ve still got a chance of staying up. League One beckons unless we can learn how to score goals from open play again.

Huddersfield’s league games so far…
Huddersfield 0-1 Burnley Maatsen 18
Birmingham 2-1 Huddersfield Hogan 5, Placheta 45 — Ward 61
Huddersfield 3-1 Stoke Nakayama 44, Ward 70, Rhodes 86 — Baker 56
Norwich 2-1 Huddersfield Sargent 6, Sinani 16 — Jones 81
Huddersfield 2-2 West Brom Anjorin 11, 30 — Wallace 37, 57
Bristol City 2-0 Huddersfield Wells 35, Semenyo 80
Huddersfield 0-1 Blackpool Corbeanu 38
Huddersfield 1-2 Wigan Lees 76 — Keane pen 25, Lang 82
Huddersfield 1-0 Cardiff Rhodes 8
Reading 3-1 Huddersfield McIntyre 29, Nicholls og 36, Meite 81 — Lees 90
Luton 3-3 Huddersfield Adebayo 18, 37, Clark 45 — Morris og 11, Rhodes pen 32, Jackson 70
Huddersfield 2-0 Hull Coyle og 29, Helik 51
Rotherham 2-1 Huddersfield Washington 25, Kelly 61 — Ward 29
Huddersfield 0-1 Preston Cunningham 50
Middlesbrough 0-0 Huddersfield
Huddersfield 1-0 Millwall Nakayama 9
Huddersfield 0-2 Sunderland Pritchard 55, Diallo 90
Blackburn 1-0 Huddersfield Brereton 35
QPR 1-2 Huddersfield Dykes 1 — Ruffels 9, 26
Huddersfield 0-0 Swansea
Sheff Utd 1-0 Huddersfield Sharp 15
Huddersfield 0-2 Watford Pedro 54, 86
Preston 1-2 Huddersfield Cunningham 34 — Rhodes 76, Hayden 85
Huddersfield 2-0 Rotherham Holmes 31, Rhodes 56
Huddersfield 1-2 Luton Holmes 25 — Bell 43, Burke 84
Hull 1-1 Huddersfield Estupinan 90 — Helik 21
Coventry 2-0 Huddersfield Hamer 53, Palmer 71

Mark Fotheringham, the man of many accents, often in the same sentence - what did you think of the appointment? How's he doing?

As mentioned previously, there was a lot of rumour of our legendary manager David Wagner returning, so unfortunately for Mark Fotheringham when you’re not Wagner, it’s disappointing to some fans. In fairness to Fotheringham, he inherited a struggling side that lost a lot of key players over the summer, we have been better defensively with him in charge compared to Danny Schofield but without threatening to score.

Football is cruel, it’s a results business, we all love stats in the game but this is the one that stands out: Fotheringham’s won five games in 18 matches and that’s poor. Some fans wanted him sacked after the Coventry game, because it was negative football. Some think if he doesn’t win against QPR then he’ll be out the door. The fans haven’t exactly warmed to him and there’s already ‘Fotheringham Bingo’ in press conferences because he repeats the same lines regardless of the result or outcome. Look, he’s been given a really bad hand but he’s not doing a great job either.

I can’t predict anything that will happen with Huddersfield Town at the moment, it’s been a disastrous season before Fotheringham, with Fotheringham and if you did force my hand, I’d probably say after Fotheringham too.

Thought you might be getting your act together with a couple of wins over Christmas but the form looks pretty desperate coming into this one, how you playing?

I thought so too but we’ve not won in the league or cup since the turn of the new year, scoring three and conceding eight. Away from home, it just looks like we’re setting up defensively and wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin' for a set piece goal and to keep the other team out. At home, well we’ve won four of our last ten matches but it’s all a bit huff and puff and in my opinion, it doesn’t feel like we’re proactive to turn the game in our favour at times, even with the roar of the crowd. If I had to guess how we’ll play on Saturday, we’ll start brightly, look positive and make a few half chances, then it’s really down to if we score first, if we don’t you’ll win.

Some interesting January business - Knockaert eye-catching, surprised you let Thomas go - how's it gone? How do you assess it?

It’s given us options but Knockaert’s been injured. Most of the signings, they’re all streaky players and it seems like we’re just gambling on someone having a purple patch. Tomáš Vaclík, the ‘keeper who we’ve signed from Olympiacos, seems on paper, a fantastic replacement for Lee Nicholls who’s been ruled out for the season. This team really lacks pace so Martyn Waghorn isn’t going to solve that but the Watford youngster, Joseph Hungbo looks intriguing.

The Sorba Thomas thing is strange, but he’s been on the bench in the last few matches and if the rumours are true, it appears to be a fallout, then I can see why they’ve done it but we’ve just signed lots of strikers and we’ve got rid of our top assister? Unfortunately, you’d have to say that’s his Town career unless there’s a change of management and I’m concerned losing the winger will have a negative impact on Town’s survival hopes. Just sums up how bad the club has been.

Summer Ins >>> Jack Rudoni, 21, CM, Wimbledon, £850k >>> Tyreece Simpson, 20, ST, Ipswich, £522k >>> David Kasumu, 22, CM, MK Dons, Undisclosed >>> Michal Helik, 26, CB, Barnsley, Undisclosed >>> Yuta Nakayama, 25, CB, Zwolle, Free >>> Connor Mahoney, 25, RW, Millwall, Free >>> Will Boyle, 26, CB, Cheltenham, Free >>> Tino Anjorin, 20, AM, Chelsea, Loan >>> Luke Mbete, 18, CB, Man City, Loan >>> Kaine Kesler-Hayden, 19, RB, Villa, Loan >>>

Winter Outs >>> Jon Russell, 22, CM, Barnsley, Undisclosed >>> Sorba Thomas, 24, RW, Blackburn, Loan >>> Ryan Schofield, 23, GK, Crawley, Loan >>> Aaron Rowe, 22, RB, Stockport, Loan

Stand out players and weak links in the team?

There’s no standout players at the moment and a few weak links. I think Jack Rudoni has improved more and more over the season so he’s one to watch out for and even though we’ve been shipping goals, MichaÅ‚ Helik has been a fantastic signing at the back and Jordan Rhodes can still score, we’ve just not been giving him opportunities to do so. Weak links, I’d say midfield we’ve got nobody to create chances so if you’re half decent defensively, you’ve got a chance of keeping us quiet. Our left side of defence, Ruffels and Pearson looks shaky and opposing players have found a lot of joy recently so watch out for that.

Will you survive? How's this going to end?

The only way Town stay up is gambling on an experienced manager and removing Fotheringham. They’re working with nothing but the combination of him and Danny Schofield at the helm has meant for large parts of the season, we’ve comfortably been one of the worst teams in the league and we’re fortunate that other teams have been equally bad that we’re only three points off safety. When Huddersfield Town were last in a relegation battle two years ago, they were fortunate to stay up because of some teams having points deductions and that’s the only way I can see us staying up currently, unless we change manager.

This club is a mess that’s losing money, with an owner that doesn’t want to be in charge and as a result is working on one of the lowest budgets in the league, spending the bare minimum whether it’s managers or players. It needs a new owner, new voices and new energy. I can only see relegation unfortunately unless something drastic changes.

Links >>> Official website >>> Ground Guide >>> Down at the Mac — Forum >>> And he Takes That Chance — Podcast

The Twitter @brady0894, @takesthatchance, @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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