Football League World
·1 October 2024
Joe Taylor named as Huddersfield Town urged to sort "glaring" issue in January
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Football League World
·1 October 2024
FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit has outlined the problem area that the club must address in January.
This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
After a bright start to the 2024/25 season, it has been a tough few weeks for Huddersfield Town in League One — especially in front of goal.
However, after installing Duff as boss earlier in the summer, the West Yorkshire outfit had a strong summer window after bringing in plenty of EFL experience to help their promotion efforts over the course of the season, and they will hope to return to the Championship immediately under Duff.
Huddersfield are back in the third tier for the first time since 2012 after they were relegated from the second tier last season, and they were widely tipped by punters to be among the promotion contenders this campaign under Duff's tutelage.
His side have now lost five of their last six games in all competitions this season, with goals proving to be a particular issue in attack. That's due to the Terriers missing the most big chances (16) of any side in the division so far, whilst they have also created the most xG in the league with 14.1 despite scoring 12 times and underperforming on that particular front (all stats per FotMob).
With other sides around them proving to be more clinical, it has seen Huddersfield drop from their positive start down to 10th in League One, with a trip to league leaders Birmingham City up next.
FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit Graeme Rayner is desperate for the club to address their attacking output with a clinical finisher for League One football.
He has urged his side to perhaps revisit a player linked during the summer, having missed out on key targets in the market to other clubs, including the side they face this evening.
He said: "In the January transfer window, I think we have to go out and buy a striker. We have to.
"We missed out on two, in Alfie May and Joe Taylor, in the summer window.
"There is maybe a suggestion that we may go back in for Joe Taylor. I would be happy with that.
"We need to sort out our goalscoring problem. It's one of many issues we have got at the moment, but that is the glaring one.
"So I think, in January, we will go out, and we will have to secure a striker.
"Otherwise, we can say goodbye to any hopes of getting out of this division anytime soon by going up."
The first-team squad appears to be in decent shape for League One, and they have five senior centre-forwards, which leaves them with some real firepower in attack on paper.
However, Danny Ward is now 33, Callum Marshall is only 19 and inexperienced, and neither Rhys Healey nor Bojan Radulovic have put together regular scoring runs in their careers. That leaves Freddie Ladapo and possibly Josh Koroma as their main sources of goals.
The latter has operated as a striker this season, but is nominally a winger or attacking midfielder. As mentioned previously, Huddersfield were linked with moves for two strikers, with Luton Town frontman Joe Taylor a possible option alongside Southampton centre-forward Dom Ballard, following a summer report which linked both players to the John Smith's Stadium.
Another central striker of real quality is paramount, especially after the club missed out on Alfie May to Birmingham City at the last minute, thus seeing a promotional rival adding a high-quality player at League One level. They will hope to add someone who is preferably capable of plenty of goals, whilst also giving the team a focal point to build around.
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