Stoke City v Huddersfield Town - Rest key for coach Carlos Corberan

The maxim that preparation sometimes revolves around relaxation – in a bid to freshen up minds as well as aching limbs – is not lost upon the Huddersfield Town head coach who incorporated some of that during the last international break.

A new window of games, which see Town fit in 11 matches in the space of 40 days before the New Year, begins today at Stoke, the start of a pivotal run to the end of 2020 when the league table is likely to take shape.

The Potteries venue was famously where the Terriers kick-started their season with victory in 2019-20 and another three points would potentially represent another significant moment in their campaign today, with Corberan’s side having won just once in their past five matches.

Corberan said: “As soon as we finished the seven games in a row we were playing – in the game against Luton – we took advantage of the next days to try and recover. The players had the opportunity to recover over three days.

“The players that were playing the majority of the games with some injuries or who could not have the continuity with the squad, were working because this is what we want and what they want, too.

“The key is to find this balance because, first of all, the recovery after seven games in a row was necessary. It is impossible to work without the recovery.

“At the moment we came back to train, we started to increase the number of training (sessions) and tried to recreate a lot of game situations and continue to develop the team as in football, you can never stop thinking what you are going to need.

“We are always going to be challenged in game situations, so the idea is to use the time we have to keep improving as a team.

“Always in life when we play football, you need to. But especially as we had a lot of opportunities to train and now we are playing a lot and not training (a lot).”

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