Perfect time for a break as Terriers pile on the minutes!
end of Saturday’s game Thomas looked fatigued. He gave the ball away for Cardiff’s winner, and he couldn’t get into anything like a sprint to get back.
Thomas has been undeniably vital for Town this season but is also the only realistic option in Pipa’s absence to play as a wing-back on the right. Of 19 available Town games, he has featured in every single one and only missed 102 minutes of the season in total.
Having started as a sub in the Carabao Cup opener at Sheffield Wednesday and impressed when given half an hour there, he has played a full 90 minutes 15 times. He’s also been on international duty with a 15-minute cameo for Wales on his debut against the Czech Republic followed by a start and full game against Estonia.
1,608 minutes in a Town shirt, 1,713 total, at some point he needs a rest. Better to lose him for 90 minutes than six to eight weeks with a pulled muscle. It’s easy to forget this is his first full season as a professional footballer.
PEARSON is a bit of a machine – he just doesn’t miss many games. In his three seasons with Luton he made 40+ appearances and played well over 3,000 minutes in each - in fact over 4,000 in one of them. He’s also not someone you tend to sub off - when he’s started, he’s not finished a match only eight times in the last four years.
Pearson’s game isn’t built around pace, although he has been stepping out more, notably on the right wing with Thomas ahead and Danel Sinani tucked inside. He’s also still the second-highest scorer at the club. Unlike Thomas it’s probably best to just keep playing him.
KEEPER won’t get fatigued much, nothing to worry about apart from a suspension if he picks up two more yellows.
O’BRIEN is somewhere near his best again and when he plays well, Town tend to play well. He started the season slowly after Covid issues but is now revelling in the games coming thick and fast.
The schedule is more forgiving than some have been - five games in December and five in January there were 14 in the same time frame last year thanks to the compressed window to play the season.
If O’Brien is fit you play him and, thankfully, he rarely suffers from injury. The midfielder also has one of the best engines in the division Carel Eiting was absolutely stunned at the distance he covered in training, never mind in games. No worry here, or not yet anyway.
FOOTBALL’S bionic man eventually broke a little last year and a suspension became an injury layoff. He started this season having been hit by Covid, but is now one of the first names on the team sheet again.
Toffolo has not quite been at his best but is still completely reliable. He doesn’t tend to need much rest, can’t see that changing any time soon.
THE fact Hogg is so high in this list at 32 years of age (33 in December), in one of the most combative positions on the pitch, with no natural replacement in the squad for when injury strikes, is a bit of a worry.
We don’t know what the latest is after he had to leave the field against both Peterborough and then Cardiff last week with a muscle injury. Alex Vallejo is his direct replacement but is a very, very different player and is also currently injured. Scott High is an eight, not a six, O’Brien works higher up the pitch and Duane Holmes doesn’t really work as a defensive midfielder.
Hogg is at a stage of his career where his minutes are just starting