New manager will inherit a back problem
THE next Terriers boss has a tricky job on their hands on several levels, but trying to pick which two of their three excellent centre-backs will start should they opt to play a back four is one we don’t particularly envy.
Michal Helik (rightly) came first and second in the player of the year voting respectively, and both of them played every single minute under Neil Warnock as Huddersfield Town dramatically turned their season around – but so too did Tom Lees. There’s a reason for that.
In fact, Lees played more minutes for Town this season than anybody – including the ever-present Rudoni. The only games the centre-back missed were because of a onematch suspension after his red card against Norwich and a bout of Covid in November.
He played even more minutes in 2021/22.
Some players struggle with staying consistent through that amount of action, but by and large, Lees has been excellent since arriving at the club. The only player who got a higher average player rating from us in his first season was Lee Nicholls, and that was only by 0.01 of a mark.
This season, only Helik, Matty Pearson and Jaheim Headley have rated better than Lees.
Helik may be slightly less errorprone – Lees does have occasional ricks – and Pearson scores a lot more goals, but at his best, Lees outstrips both of them and he tends to raise his game when the pressure is on most. His performances in both legs of last season’s play-off semi-finals were exceptional, and his form under Warnock was perhaps the finest of his Town career, with his outings against Millwall and Sheffield United nothing short of stellar. Town would not have won either game without his heroics.
We make no secret of the fact that we like Lees a lot on a personal level, too.
None of Town’s current crop of players make us particularly fearful when they’re put up for pre-match press conferences – and trust us, there have been a few former players who did – but Lees is the one we always look forward to the most.
Lees’ measured delivery may not come across as outstanding in audio format, but put it on the page and you realise just how much thought and intelligence he clearly puts into his profession. You practically never get a cliche from Lees, and every question is met with the kind of detailed, thoughtprovoking answer that makes you think he will make an excellent manager one day should he choose to go that route.
So if you had to pick two of Lees, Helik and Pearson, who would you go with? That’s a question Warnock never really had to answer – Ollie Turton’s injury and Matt Lowton’s poor form meant Pearson was required at right-back. But there was one game in Carlos Corberan’s second season in charge where a similar decision had to be made.
Lees started the season injured, but when he came into the side, it was largely in a trio alongside Pearson and Levi Colwill.
When the Chelsea loanee then got injured, a Pearson and Lees partnership came to the fore, with
This season only Helik, Pearson and Headley have rated better than Lees Steven Chicken
Turton, Naby Sarr or Jonathan Hogg making up the back three as required whenever Town shifted away from a four.
But all three were finally fully fit and available for just one game before Pearson himself suffered a seasonending knee injury.
Corberan had to pick two of the three for the trip to face Hull last April – and Pearson was sacrificed in favour of Lees. There really isn’t much in it, but truthfully, we think we’d have done the same.