Stability remains the key for Huddersfield Town coach Carlos Corberan

The coronavirus-delayed start meant a shorter than normal lead-in, and it has been broken up by two two-week international breaks and a transfer deadline which means the squad will only be finalised at 5pm this evening.

On the other hand, the Terriers have only played once a week, whereas now they head into a prolonged period of twice-weekly matches. Corberan believes the last fortnight on the Canalside training pitches have put his squad in good shape physically and tactically.

“That’s how it’s felt to us, without doubt,” said the Spaniard, when asked if the first phase of the campaign felt like a pre-season as he tried to impose a new style of play on his squad. “With the injuries, with the problems we had when we arrived, we didn’t have enough time (before the season started) to create something and work together so the last two weeks have helped us a lot. Saturday will be a test to see if we have used this time well.”

But Corberan will be careful that the greater volume of matches does not lead him to overdo the rotation – although with a small squad his options are anyway fewer.

“Stability in football is key and when you are making a lot of changes you are not creating stability,” he argued.

“It is important for me that players know they are in the first XI. When you change a lot of players they start to wonder what their role in the team is and for me their role is important.

“But at the same time we need to manage fatigue so it will be a mix of these things because sometimes you train very well and play in a game and it can affect you. Injuries can affect the players and so can Covid, although we hope not. But it’s always important for the players to have continuity.

“We are going to have less time to train the team because we need more to prepare the team. The moment you finish a game you need fast feedback and you can’t work to correct everything you need to and do everything you want to because you need to focus on the next game.

“You need to make it easy for the players to recover because we know every game is a high level of effort for every team. Every game is demanding for us, we know we need to work a lot to get something but this is our mentality.

“That’s why we brought a nutritionist to the club and all the physical coaches will be very focused in this period because it’s going to be key how we manage the high intensity of the games to continue this type of effort in consecutive games.

“When we arrived here we tried to replicate the intensity of a normal game (in training) but it’s never possible. We tried to replicate in the middle of each week a game situation so the players had to adapt. Now it’s a very good test for us to see how we are playing consecutive games.”

Huddersfield go into this new phase with four points from their opening four Championship games, and 42 to play. Their injury list is at least easing, with summer signing Danny Ward the only senior player not training, with the exception of medial and cruciate knee ligament victim Tommy Elphick. Ward is yet to make his second league debut for the club having picked up a hamstring injury in the opening match of the season, a League Cup tie. It is not healing as quickly as Huddersfield hoped.

“Danny Ward’s recovery is going a little bit slower than we were thinking,” revealed Corberan. “I don’t think we will have him for the next two weeks but I know the medical staff are working very closely with him to accelerate this process because he has to be an important player for us.”

Lewis O’Brien, Christopher Schindler and Alex Pritchard are in contention to play at Swansea having trained over the international break.

Young goalkeeper Ryan Schofield returned to training with the group this week, and Rarmani Edmonds-Green is to undergo a scan to decide if he is ready to do the same.

Last night, striker Karlan Grant completed his expected £15m move to West Bromwich Albion and when the transfer window closes there will also be clarity over the future of Terence Kongolo, a £4m target for Fulham, with the possibility of £3m add-ons.

Corberan says recruitment plans are already in place.

“The situation hasn’t changed since I arrived because we haven’t played those players,” argued Corberan.

“We are always thinking about the (transfer) market until the market is closed. We are going to be focused on any possibility that could appear.

“I’ve had it in mind that these deals (for Grant and Kongolo) were close to being done.

“As a coach you need to be focused on trying to get the best performances from the players you have.”

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James Mitchinson