First Team Coach on players fitness and themes in intra-squad friendly
- Town’s First Team and EDT players compete in international break friendly
- Nine Young Terriers take part in the game
- Comments from First Team Coach Andrew Hughes
During the international break, the Huddersfield Town players competed in an intra-squad friendly, which First Team Coach Andrew Hughes believes was the perfect way to keep the players fresh and ready for the upcoming Premier League game against Crystal Palace.
The behind-closed-doors friendly, which took place at PPG Canalside, included all available members of David Wagner’s First Team squad, alongside nine youngsters from Mark Hudson’s Elite Development Team; Luke Mewitt, Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Romoney Crichlow-Noble, Harry Spratt, Demeaco Duhaney, Scott High, Isaac Marriott, Aaron Rowe and Olly Dyson.
‘Hughesy’ explained why the Club opted for an intra-squad friendly over playing another opposition.
“We’re in an international break and we’ve only had five game leading into it, so it’s not like the players have had a large micro cycle of games, so the aim was to keep the players ticking over.
“Everyone says ‘what do players want’ well they want games. We looked at the option of playing another team, but we felt an in-house game was good.
“The Under-23s are in a good place with ‘Huddy’ (Mark Hudson) and we wanted to look at one or two of them integrated in with the First Team players.
“Everyone played a part, no-one was given the day-off and we had a full-on match to keep the players in the cycle of preparing for next week.”
The game also provided a perfect opportunity for players who have just come back from injury to get minutes into their legs.
“’Kache’ (Elias Kachunga) had some game time on Saturday against Everton, so did Erik (Durm), but it’s nice for them to get some 90 minutes.
“Danny Williams as well, obviously, he made an appearance against Stoke and he made another appearance now; it’s all about everyone getting minutes into the legs.
“It was great seeing Bacca (Juninho Bacuna) and Hoggy (Jonathan Hogg) going at each other, Danny and young Scotty High. There were some real good performance from some of the younger lads too, so it was really pleasing.”
Town’s First Team Coach continued to discuss how different themes were used throughout the game and explained how this friendly with also benefits the Young Terriers involved.
You can watch the full interview below on #HTTV!
