Why Huddersfield Town should send Josh Koroma out on loan in January

According to Examiner Live, Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley has opened the door for young striker Josh Koroma to depart John Smith’s Stadium on loan when the transfer window reopens in January.

The 20-year-old joined the Terriers from Leyton Orient following a hugely successful campaign in the National League but he has only made a couple of appearances for the West Yorkshire outfit in all competitions so far.

Born in Southwark, Josh Koroma rose through the youth ranks of Leyton Orient before making his senior professional bow for his boyhood club in the 2015-16 season in League Two.

The youngster only played a bit-part role in the fourth-tier but benefitted from the club’s relegation to non-league football at the end of the following campaign to establish himself as a regular starter.

Koroma bagged 11 goals in 39 appearances in the Conference Premier last season to propel Orient back to the Football League system, with his burgeoning reputation as a top young talent in the non-league arena prompting Huddersfield Town to bring him to the Championship.

The youngster started in the 1-0 EFL Cup defeat to Lincoln City in August and played a cameo in a 2-0 defeat against Reading in the Championship but he has faded away from the first-team fold ever since, with the Terriers struggling at the bottom of the table following a nightmarish start to the season.

Things have definitely taken a turnaround in the positive direction following the appointment of Danny Cowley, with Huddersfield conjuring up some crucial wins against Stoke City and Hull City, but Josh Koroma has continued to find himself lost in the cold due to a lack of involvement.

The 20-year-old, though, has continued to impress for Huddersfield’s Elite Development Team and recently netted a hat-trick against Crawley Town. Koroma has found regular minutes hard to come by and he might well be forced to weigh up his options in January should there be no significant movement on his playtime.

To put things into perspective, Josh Koroma continues to be an exciting young striker with great ability and serious potential but he doesn’t really look capable of making a big impact on the Championship at this stage of his career.

Verdict

Racking up the goals in the National League is one thing but the Championship is head and shoulders above the fifth-tier in terms of quality and Koroma probably needs an intermediate step to hone his skills before making the jump to Huddersfield’s first-team.

That he hasn’t been able to break into the side despite the awful scoring returns of Fraizer Campbell, Collin Quaner, Isaac Mbenza, Steve Mounie, Adama Diakhaby and Elias Kachunga is indicative of the fact that Koroma is not yet ready to play a big role in the Championship.

Making the step up from the non-league arena to the second-highest level of professional football in England requires any player to go through a lot of transformation, both physically and mentally, and a loan spell in League One or League Two in January could make the process of transition a lot easier for the 20-year-old.

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Plus, Koroma is still very much in his formative years and he needs to play regularly to progress, which is unlikely to happen if he stays put at the John Smith’s Stadium. Lack of playtime is only going to stall his development and a loan move in January could be beneficial for all parties involved.