Under-19s working on the physical elements of the game
- Young Terriers returned to action against Brighouse Town
- Coach Jon Worthington goes into detail about the Young Terriers’ pre-season
- Youngsters working on the physical elements of the game
Huddersfield Town’s youngsters are building up the physical elements of their game and their match fitness after a long period without football.
The Young Terriers returned to Canalside in early July after four months of working at home due to COVID-19.
After weeks of training, they were finally back on the pitch and faced Brighouse Town in a pre-season friendly.
Worthy explained how important these games are to build up the players’ fitness.
“It was great to be back on the pitch and for the lads to get some minutes.
“It was a good test after a long day. They were working hard physically, running all morning and then on the training pitch before the game.
“You want them to have these tough days in pre-season. We then gave them a good physical challenge against a good Brighouse team.
“At the minute, it’s just about the players getting minutes and for these lads it was good to test them. For a lot of them it was their first experience playing against men.
“They’re a group that need those challenges, will take those challenges and learn from them.”
Throughout the season, Worthy will focus on a number of different elements of the Terriers’ style of play. But at this moment in time, the main focus is the physical element of their game.
“We’ll always have our long-term aims throughout the season, but at the minute the short-term goal is just getting players minutes, getting them physically capable to build them up to play 90 minutes.
“There’s been a long period for these boys without football, especially with lockdown, so it’s important they really crank through the minutes now and get themselves back up to speed.”
Worthy detailed the work the youngsters have been doing in training and how more pre-season games will help them.
“In training we’ve been building it up. We’ve had different groups come in due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we’ve done social distancing training, and a phased return through that.
“We’ve got a couple more pre-season matches announced so far, so we’re going to continue working on the physical element of the game, linking a lot of attacking and defensive concepts into our academy philosophy.
“We are always looking to improve, always looking for more learning for the players, and fixtures like the Brighouse one will help with that.”
