Huddersfield Town v Leeds United: It’s always a crisis when I lose, admits Danny Cowley

The media can often be accused of whipping up crises where none exist, but it was Terriers manager Danny Cowley who was playing the role of doom-monger ahead of today’s televised lunchtime derby.

Cowley suffered his biggest Football League defeat as a manager at Ashton Gate last week, beaten 5-2 with City’s goals unanswered in the first 50 minutes. It was far from ideal preparation for a visit from a Leeds United starting to add a cutting edge up front to their miserly defending.

“It’s always a crisis when I lose,” said Cowley, who was very critical of his players last weekend. “I’m not used to losing. I don’t like losing and I’ll never accept losing.

“I’ve been the Lincoln City manager in the quarter-final of the FA Cup and we lost to Arsenal and people said what a brilliant experience – well, it wasn’t for me because we didn’t win. I’m a winner and I expect to win.

“I expect my teams to fight and run and make sure they represent the football club in the right way because it’s an unbelievable privilege and we owe it to all of those people who love football and would swap their lives with ours in a heartbeat to make sure we gave our very, very best day in, day out. The players that believe in those values – and we’ve got a number at this club that do – will naturally improve and develop as a consequence of that culture.”

Rarmani Edmonds-Green, Demeaco Duhaney, Scott High and Ben Jackson have been recalled from loans at non-league level for today’s game, and Cowley admits he has paid the price of pushing the likes of Fraizer Campbell and Danny Simpson harder than they were ready for after joining at the start of the season.

“It’s an unbalanced squad, unfortunately, and we’ve picked up some contact injuries which is the nature of a competitive Championship,” he commented. “I don’t want to be one of those managers who criticises what’s gone before because nobody wants to hear that and it sounds like you’re making excuses.

“But you look at the way players have prepared in pre-season and maybe that’s caused a problem, particularly for Fraizer Campbell and Danny Simpson, who were without pre-season and because of the injury situation we’ve had to use them more in a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday situation more than we would have if we’d had a balanced squad.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have played Fraizer on Saturday. We have Kian Harratt and he’s just a 17-year-old boy. He’s going to be a player, he’s got an unbelievable work ethic and attitude but there’s a responsibility on us to look after these young players.”

It has been similar for Alex Pritchard, returning from injury.

“I thought Alex Pritchard was excellent against Birmingham and Swansea, he brought a creativity and a flair that we really missed,” he said. “We were delighted to have him back and we were desperate to have him at Bristol City but we always listen to our medical team and try to make intelligent decisions around the risk.”

Leeds are without the suspended Kalvin Phillips, but have a much more settled team.

“You look at any successful team and it’s always about continuity, it’s about clarity and partnerships,” said Cowley. “In all the successful teams I’ve managed we’ve always had continuity and it’s much easier to keep when you’re winning.”

Derby preview: Page 2