Huddersfield Town told they need ‘robust’ players for next League One promotional bid

The Terriers have struggled with injuries over the last two seasons

Huddersfield Town interim boss Jon Stead believes that the club should target “robust” players in their recruitment this summer.

The Terriers have struggled with injuries over the last two seasons in League One, which has hampered them in their promotion pushes.

Despite having 36 players feature for them in league matches this term, only two of those – Ryan Ledson and Marcus Harness – started more than 35 games in the division.

When that statistic was put to Stead at a recent press conference, the interim boss said: “Regardless of who’s at the front of it, I think the recruitment needs to be around obviously having a squad that’s robust, that’s capable of being able to compete at this level with the demands that are on them physically, and to play a type of football that you want to play, you need to be fit and you need to be healthy consistently, so I think that plays a part in terms of recruitment.

“Then you look at the consistency and the kind of make-up of the squad, a lot of change of managers over the last couple of years has meant that that’s a very disjointed group, in terms of positions and profiles, and recruitment in terms of alignment with how you want to play.

“Again, I just feel like continuity, and having a squad build-up that gives you like-for-like replacements, when somebody goes off the pitch, you can put somebody else on. It allows you to be you, it allows you to be who you want to be consistently, and it means that other teams have to adapt for you then, you’re not having to constantly adapt for the opposition.

“There’s a lot of things that we can do better in that aspect, which ultimately then will give the players the best opportunity to succeed, which is what we all want.”

Town took their first step towards building their squad for next season by compiling their retained list. Mickel Miller is the only first-team player that is confirmed to be leaving the club, with the left-sided player departing following a two-year spell.

Neo Eccleston, Omari Mrisho and Peter Thomas – who have all made their first-team debut – are also leaving this summer, while the Terriers triggered an option on Cameron Ashia’s contract. Town are also in discussions with goalkeeper Nik Tzanev over a new deal.

The club have 24 first-team players under contract heading into next season, and asked whether he thought any of the squad were in a “comfort zone” due to their deals not being close to expiry, Stead replied: “I don’t at all, no, I don’t think that.

“I can only go off what I’ve seen and what my eyes are telling me when I’m in there every day, and it’s a group of players that are working extremely hard day in, day out, and they want to get better.

“I think there’s a lot of things that will help them to get better, whether that’s stability, whether that’s different voices, whether that’s the connection with the fans, the other staff, the camaraderie with their teammates. There’s loads of things around it, but I certainly haven’t seen a group of players that are comfortable in any way.

“I think we can still drive them more, I think we can push them more. I think we as a staff, but that’s us looking internally as staff, not pointing the finger at the players, that needs to come from us. We need to drive, and if we’re not happy with things, we make them aware of it and we look to change things.”