Corberan will be happy when the window closes
CARLOS Corberan is not ruling out the possibility of dipping into the transfer market this month, but he would be perfectly content if the window were to close right now.
Huddersfield Town have few longterm injury problems to deal with in the first team, with Ryan Schofield’s shoulder injury and knee injuries for Rolando Aarons and Alex Vallejo their only current issues, although they await news on Danel Sinani’s injury after he was taken off at halftime on Saturday.
None of those players, apart from the Luxembourg international, were regular starters even before their injuries, and Corberan is now in a position where he is envious that Premier League clubs are permitted to name up to nine substitutes on their bench - a luxury he enjoyed in the FA Cup win over Burnley last weekend.
That means that for the Town boss, avoiding any unforeseen injuries or player sales is as important as what the Terriers are able to do with new incomings.
“Positively, it has been a quiet market still,” he said.
“It’s true that for me [head of football operations] Leigh Bromby and his people did a very good job at the beginning of the season.
“If you prepare a squad for all the season, you don’t have any needs at this point, because if you prepare for a season you don’t prepare a squad just for the first part of the season, you prepare a squad for the full season.”
Town have lost one first-teamer from their squad in striker Mipo Odubeko, who was last week recalled from his loan by West Ham United after joining late in the summer window.
But Corberan believes Danny Ward, Jordan Rhodes and Fraizer Campbell are ample options up front - especially since he has had to leave Campbell out more often than not in recent weeks.
Part of that was because the forward had a spell in isolation after having close contact with someone with Covid, but the returning
Rhodes has generally been preferred to Campbell even when the latter has been fit.
Corberan alluded to Odubeko as he continued: “Now analysing the situation...it’s true that in the last day of the market we needed a striker because Rhodes had an injury, but right now we are talking that Campbell is out of the squad for some weeks.
“It means that one of the strikers who was in the plan for the squad has been out, so for me everything depends about the moment.
“It doesn’t mean we’re not going to be watching the market because, like every single club, we need to be watching the market and analysing our needs, but it’s true that [after] the work the club did very well from the beginning of the season, we are not in a rush situation now to be looking for many players.”
Asked if any players Town did bring in would therefore be a bonus, Corberan said: “Yes. At the same time that we have been working well, of course every club is going to be looking what gaps they can improve.
“Yes, you can call the improvement possibilities a bonus, and these improvement possibilities depend on the performances of the team from the start of pre-season to the moment we have right now.
“Of course, the last point is that we can improve and we want to improve this with the players that we have.
“But if we consider it is necessary to bring someone in to give something different, this club for me has enough ambition to consider these options.”