Two Players Who Huddersfield Need To Sign In January
All things considered, Huddersfield Town will probably claim their first seven games as a Premier League side, as a success – and why not?
The Terriers currently sit 11th in the table with 9 points, though their goal difference of -2 may just be enough to keep their feet on the ground and show what might come over the winter months. Times will get tougher for the Yorkshire side between now and Christmas, though the opportunity will once again come in January for them to strengthen their squad.
The ambition shown by the owners and the management to compete at this level and spend the sort of money needed to achieve that has been admirable, though with more work to do it would not be a big surprise to see the following two players very much on Wagner’s radar.
Alex Smithies (Queens Park Rangers)
As a player born in the town and a product of the Huddersfield Town youth academy, the only surprising element of this is perhaps that the club let him go in the first place.
Playing very well right now in the Championship, Smithies has ambitions to not only be a Premier League goalkeeper but also be an international one, and he looks like he’s achieving neither of those at Loftus Road.
Jonas Lossl is the current first choice but is perhaps not seen as the long-term option. At the very least, David Wagner needs expert back-up to Lossl and this is not a position to meddle with. An injury to a number one with no appreciable back-up can be the difference between relegation and survival – something Dean Hoyle for one would know is not something to take lightly.
Fabian Johnson (Borussia Monchengladbach)
I hate to mention things on a negative note, but of Huddersfield’s more regular contributors in the Premier League, Rajiv van la Parra has averaged the lowest ratings this season. At this point in time, he does not appear quite up to the job and in the modern game, players playing in this sort of position, cutting in from the wings, are often the major source of vital goals.
That’s where Johnson would come in. The American international has been at Monchengladbach for three years now and is still strutting his stuff to a good level in the Bundesliga. He would fit in comfortably in the Premier League and could offer the Terriers a fair improvement on Van la Parra at a reasonable price.