Signing is an ideal fit for Corberan system
tions Bromby revealed he was an early target for Town.
He said: “Pipa is a perfect example of the characteristics this club is looking for in a new signing.
“He was identified very early in this window as a target through our recruitment process and he’s a player that Carlos was very excited about when he was brought to him as an option.
“He’s playing internationally for a top footballing nation and he’s played in an elite European league for his club. We’ve also spent a lot of time on our due diligence and the references on his character and the standard of his training were glowing.
“At 22, he is someone we have identified as having real potential to keep improving. Pipa has been signed to play for this club over the long term, not just the short.”
Pipa will be just the second Spanish player to play for Town after Cristian Lopez, who made four appearances from the Terriers bench in 2013/14.
Town head coach Corberan said of his new signing: “I have been very interested in Pipa since the club first proposed him to me.
“He’s energetic and has very good skills to produce for our team, particularly in our build-up in the final part of the pitch. He offers great versatility too, as he can play at leftback and on the right wing as well as his primary position of right-back.
“We are very happy to begin working with him. We will help him to adapt to the demands of English football as soon as possible.”
UP pops the inevitable message in everyone’s texts: “What do you think of the new signing?”
It is, of course, entirely necessary to have an immediate opinion on everything these days. Quickly: Are you for or against? DECIDE NOW.
But the truth is that with every transfer there is an element of wait and see. A player who succeeded at one club can be a flop at another and vice versa. Even now, with easy access to video clips and stats, it is largely a fool’s errand to pass judgement on a signing until you actually see the player in action for their new club. All you can ever do is speculate, that’s why scouting is such a difficult job.
That is doubly true with signings like Huddersfield Town’s new rightback Pipa. The assumption is that a Spain under-21 international who played in La Liga and the Europa League last season has not got to where he is for no reason. On the other hand, at 22, he has made just 25 league appearances in the top two tiers of Spanish football.
From watching his clips, Pipa would appear to be a real attacking threat out on the right. As he himself has highlighted, he loves to use his pace and trickery to beat men to get to the byline and cross, and is always looking for opportunities to get forward and help out his team-mates.
The defensive side of the game is always impossible to judge from video clips alone, after all, it’s hard to set careful marking of an opponent to an upbeat flamenco soundtrack – though we’d genuinely like to see them try!
The reports we have had from those who have watched him play more regularly are that Pipa has a top-flight future ahead of him but that his strengths may lay more in attack than in defence - as his ability to play on the wing, and his jocular warning that he’s ‘a little bit crazy sometimes’ would suggest.
That would not normally be hugely encouraging when talking about a fullback, but it may not actually be quite such a big issue in Carlos Corberan’s system as it would be in a conventional back four.
The full-backs in his flexible 4-3-3/ 3-4-3 operate more like wing-backs when in possession, with the two wingers from the front three expected to get back and do much of the defending out wide.
Our initial reaction to that system led us to draw a tactical comparison to Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham, so it would seem a good fit to bring in a player who spent his first few formative years in the academy at Espanyol when Pochettino was head coach of the first team.
His actual involvement with the Argentinian is likely to have been minimal at best, but it suggests that his football upbringing may have come from a similar school of thought to his new boss’s.
We have seen before how important that harmony between coach and player can be.
Chris Lowe was a key acolyte in David Wagner’s successful Town side, and in becoming the Terriers’ Mr Reliable he helped set the tone and style for the rest of the team to follow.
Town will be hoping Pipa can play a similar role for Corberan.