Corberan is facing a Pipa problem when he returns!

SOME problems are nice to have - I can’t get all this money in my wallet, I wish I wasn’t this good looking, I think I have too many Jaffa Cakes, etc.

I’ve never been fortunate enough to suffer from any of the above. The point is, not every problem is a bad one.

For the majority of last season Huddersfield Town’s first XI was picked almost by default. A combination of injuries, circumstances, a truncated schedule, and more besides meant team selection was usually fairly easy to predict.

That made life easy for those of us tasked with writing previews and predicted line-ups, but also for opposition analysts.

After new year the Terriers had been worked out - double up on the full-backs, don’t let whoever is playing as a false 10 today drift inside, get in a low block and let them have the ball until they lose it.

This summer’s recruitment drive was about getting more options for the back four and having a bench that could actually change games.

That has been achieved and the club have reaped the dividends with a good start that is ahead on nearly every metric of last season’s, which was also considered decent at the time.

Town have found a shape that suits, a strongest XI supplemented by better quality back-ups and have profited from a magical spell from Sorba Thomas.

While all of this has been good in terms of measuring progress, Town now have a problem looming, a nice one, but a problem nevertheless.

Everything they have achieved has been done without a couple of key players denied to them by injury.

The big issue is the return of Pipa, Town’s swashbuckling right-back, and what that may do to the first team going forward.

The injury that he played through until he couldn’t last season ruined his summer and ended in both surgery and everyone agreeing it was better to have him right than right now.

He is still a few weeks off being close to the first team, but things have moved on. Town are playing a different way, where does he now fit?

The three at the back at its strongest (Matty Pearson, Tom Lees and Levi Colwill for our money) is here to stay we think.

There are matches for which we might be sorely tempted to switch to a four, but the base it has provided this season has allowed them to move into their current position.

There are still issues around creativity and risk-taking from attacking players, but defensively the mistakes have gone.

We were all worried after the Fulham game that this season was going to become a mirror image of the last. However, Lees’ calm, Pearson’s brute force and Colwill’s clear talent have all eliminated the mistakes. Even Naby Sarr when called upon has looked far better after those moments last year where he had you on the edge of your seat for the wrong reasons.

So there is likely no need for a conventional right-back any time soon. Good job Pipa is anything but, then, as was proved by his deployment last year as a false 10.

It would seem he might be perfect as a wing-back in the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 Town have opted for then. Therein lies the issue.

Sorba Thomas is un-droppable. We won’t reel off the stats again but if you have eyes you know the reasons why. What is also true is that he looks far more comfortable as a wing-back on the right than he has playing wide on a front three.

Thomas, it’s easy to forget, played twice for Boreham Wood in January. His rise has been meteoric and he does his best work when allowed to run from slightly deeper into space afforded him by someone ahead coming inside. His set-piece delivery is exceptional, but think about how many times the overlap has allowed that space to cross in open play.

Danel Sinani is inverted, as is Josh Koroma – Harry Toffolo and Thomas enjoy the space and freedom that allows them ahead.

There is no need for a conventional right-back any time soon. Good job Pipa is anything but then!