Town’s Academy Manager speaks to #HTTV
- Academy Manager Leigh Bromby speaks to #HTTV
- Under-19s & Under-17s play first friendlies on Friday
- Leigh keen to see players take learning onto the pitch
Huddersfield Town Academy Manager Leigh Bromby is interested to see how the Club’s young players can take what they’ve learned onto the pitch in their opening friendlies later this week.
Town’s young players have been back in pre-season training for a fortnight now and play their first friendly games of pre-season on Friday and Saturday.
Mark Hudson leads the Under-19 side into a tournament based around local non-league sides Brighouse and Liversedge, whilst Bromby will take the new Under-17 side to Mousehole in the South West of England for another two-day tournament.
“It’s gone very well so far; it’s been a good start,” Leigh said of pre-season so far.
“It’s been a big move for many of our Under-17s. We’ve recruited many of them from London, so it’s a totally different dynamic and culture. The first two weeks has been a settling-in period and helping them to get used to the expectations of our environment.
“One objective is to prevent injuries. These players are all from different backgrounds and won’t be used to the demands, so a big feature of the training programme has been resilience. We’ve invested in performance psychologists and put lots of work into that.
“Fitness is still so important here, because playing in our First Team demands the highest level of fitness.”
Leigh believes it is vital for the elder age group to face older players, as they will this weekend, for their continued development:
“It’s important that our players of that age play against men in a challenging environment. We will be better technically, but there’s a physical element to football and we want them to experience that.
“Hopefully fans turn up and put them in a real stadium situation. They have to learn about that; it’s a big part of their development.
“Afterwards, that group goes to play Bayern Munich in very different circumstances.”
As for the Under-17s, he’s simply hoping to see them taking the lessons they’ve learned in training into games in the face of stiff opposition.
“We’ve done a lot of tactical work, as our formation is demanding in that sense. The way the Under-17s will play, right at the beginning of their journey, will look different to the First Team, but I’m really looking forward to the games to see what they’ve taken on board.
“Immediately, results aren’t the focus for this group. I’m more interested to see them learning and improving. We want them to win, but we’ll use the games to evaluate how they’re progressing.”
