It could yet Klich into place for Pritchard

WHEN Marcelo Bielsa walked through the doors of Thorp Arch in the summer of 2018, he probably found Mateusz Klich holding a suitcase on the other side.

Ten months earlier, the Polish midfielder’s unfortunate slip had allowed Kenneth Zohore to score a critical goal as Leeds slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Cardiff City.

Subbed off, scapegoated and shipped on loan to the Netherlands, Klich talked bullishly of unfinished business but nobody believed it. Victor Orta, the Whites’ sporting director, actively sought a buyer.

Bielsa, though, is famously meticulous. During his exhaustive video analysis of the United squad - a study that would also transform Kalvin Phillips into one of England’s finest Registas - El Loco saw something in Klich that predecessor Thomas Christiansen had not.

Klich stayed, starred in pre-season and scored the first goal of the Bielsa regime in a 3-1 win against Stoke City.

He would start the next 91 games, and last weekend’s fine volleyed finish against Liverpool marked another milestone in the 30-year-old’s remarkable journey from unwanted outcast to omnipresent cult hero.

Outcast

Can Carlos Corberan, once assistant to Bielsa and now the manager of Huddersfield Town, use his old master’s magic to revive Alex Pritchard?

Signed from Norwich City for £11m in January 2017, the attacking midfielder has never lived up to his price tag.

Injury played its part. So, too, the confidence-shattering hell of playing in a Premier League team bullied and beaten like a playground weakling. Not even the strongest characters in Huddersfield’s dressing room emerged from that experience unscathed.

Nevertheless, a grand total of three goals and two assists from 63 appearances are not the stats of a player once regarded as among the finest talents of his generation. Something has gone wrong.

Watching Pritchard toil in last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Norwich City, you could easily imagine the absent Terriers fans groaning at their streams. A free-kick that sailed miles over the bar. A litany of heavy touches. A player who used to glide and flow beyond full-backs, who saw balls that lesser mortals merely imagined, spending the game with his back to goal, offloading simple six-yard passes.

Statistically, things were just as grim. Pritchard took four shots, none of them on target. He completed just 59 per cent of his passes and lost the ball eight times.

That is more than any of the 22 players who started the game with the exception of Juninho Bacuna, a winger whose job it is to take risks.

Even allowing for first-day rust, quality opposition and a brand new system, those are worrying numbers.

Judging by the outcry on social media, Pritchard was fortunate to be playing in an empty stadium.

That £11m fee, his 30 granda-week wages, the gnawing frustration that somewhere in there is a player of match-winning brilliance; all of those factors have combined to make Pritchard a target for his own supporters. To many, the 27-year-old is already beyond redemption.

Target

Yet the fact remains that Corberan, like Bielsa, studied long and hard before committing himself to the Terriers. He it was who sanctioned the release of seven players after taking the helm.

That’s not to say he could have added Pritchard to the exodus. No Championship club would be willing to match Pritchard’s wages, or pay a fee for a player with one year left on his contract.

But nor did Corberan need to hand Pritchard the No.10 shirt vacated by Aaron Mooy, or deploy him at the heart of midfield.

Clearly, the Spaniard has seen a player who suits his system. Who understands his tactical demands and has the fitness to carry them out. Who has lost belief, but not ability. With a run of games, a restoration of confidence and - yes - a bit of patience from his detractors, there is every chance that Pritchard, like Klich, can come in from the cold.