‘Mini pre-season’ could be big boost for Cowley
DANNY Cowley has big decisions to make about Huddersfield Town’s training – even though the team won’t play again until at least May.
With the EFL suspending matches until at least the end of next month, the club’s bid to achieve Championship survival has gone on hold.
Originally, the season was suspended until April 4 because of the coronavirus and Town’s players have been told to stay away from the PPG Canalside training complex until Monday at the earliest.
While the playing squad have all been given bespoke conditioning programmes to follow – which can be monitored by the boss through an app linked to special bibs the players have been given – they are not getting the physical sharpness of playing, even on the training pitch.
Match sharpness is lost inside two weeks away from the training ground and players will basically need a mini pre-season to get them back up and running.
That could be a bonus for Cowley, because Town got their real preseason badly wrong under previous boss Jan Siewert and have been playing catch-up ever since – something which makes Cowley’s efforts at the helm even more meritorious.
He and the players are obviously frustrated to be away from Canalside, even though they understand the situation, and club ambassador Andy Booth explained it’s not an easy situation for anyone to work through.
“We used to say in my playing days that you could get away with your match fitness for about 10 days if you were working in the gym,” said Boothy.
“If you played on a Saturday and got injured, missed the following game while doing gym work and then returned to training the following Friday in readiness for a game the following day, you certainly knew about it.
“You started losing match fitness after 10 days and your overall fitness it would be 30 days, no matter how much work you did in the gym, although you could improve that a bit if you were able to keep running. But after that longer sort of lay-off, you really needed a mini pre-season.
“Then your match fitness only really comes when you play, it’s as simple as that - so it’s a difficult situation for everyone.”