Tom Lees relishing Huddersfield Town reunion with 'safe but never dull' Neil Warnock

He will have to, with caretaker coach Narcis Pelach in charge of Wednesday's game at Stoke City before the new manager returns from a holiday to start work the next day.

No English football fan needs an introduction to the 74-year-old, least of all Huddersfield supporters old enough to remember him taking them the 1994 Football League Trophy final at Wembley, and promotion via the third tier play-offs there the following year.

Centre-back Lees has also has first-hand experience from their time at Leeds United in 2012-13.

Before this press conference, when you googled Tom Lees and Neil Warnock, the first things to come up were stories about the manager calling his young centre-back "stupid" for a red card at Ipswich Town, but the now-32-year-old only has positive things to say about an expert in getting the best out of footballers.

"I started playing for England Under-21s when he was my manager and there was only two of us in the Championship doing that so I was obviously playing all right football," said Lees, with Danny Ward one of only two Town players to have worked under Warnock.

"I really enjoyed it. There's never a dull moment when you come into work, he keeps you on your toes.

"He's got a different way with each player. Some it might be an arm around them to make them feel like the best player in the world, some he might get onto them a bit more.

"He probably got onto me a bit when I was a young lad because I like to think he saw I could be a good player and he wanted to improve me. I was probably making mistakes that reflected my age and he wanted to get that out of my game.

"Over the last 10 years I've taken a lot of messages I got from him forward with me.

"When it got announced I was just looking forward to getting to work with him because I know exactly what I'll need to do for him if selected on a Saturday. That will be the case for every single player."

With the Terriers winless in seven 2023 matches but only a point from safety after 30 games, Lees thinks Warnock's experience is just what is needed.

"It's probably one of the safest options you could do at this moment," he said. "Hopefully he can get that 10 to 20 per cent more out of us.

"You're not going to get anybody more experienced, he knows what it's all about. It's not an experiment in any kind of way, you know exactly what you're going to get.

"I think he'll simplify everything, go right back to basics and make us start doing the fundamentals properly that it takes to win a game."

But Pelach warned his players they cannot wait for Warnock's arrival to start picking up points.

"Neil is going to help us a lot but he's not here until Thursday so now is the most important thing," he said ahead of the trip to Stoke.

"To think about the future is just a waste of time.

"As the professionals we are we have to try to win this game because it's massive for the club, massive for the team, massive for everyone. The news doesn't need to confuse us."

Goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik's groin injury will be assessed ahead of the game but versatile defender Ollie Turton has been ruled out for "six to seven months" with a knee problem.

Last six games: Stoke City DLWWLW; Huddersfield Town LDDLDL

Referee: J Linington (Isle of Wight)

Last time: Stoke City 2 Huddersfield Town 1, September 11, 2021, Championship