Huddersfield Town right-back Florent Hadergjonaj has outlined his ambition to return to the starting lineup following his snub in favour of Danny Simpson recently.

Hadergjonaj has seen his first-team opportunities limited in recent weeks under Danny Cowley, following the free transfer signing of Danny Simpson. In this time, Huddersfield have gone six games unbeaten, with no team in the league picking up more points in that time than the Terriers.

Danny Cowley has managed to spark a revival at the John Smith’s Stadium since his arrival in September which has seen Huddersfield move out of the bottom three at the expense of Middlesbrough. Cowley hasn’t made wholesale changes to the lineup or how the time play, but has made minor ones which has paid huge dividends so far. One of those changes has seen 25-year-old Florent Hadergjonaj dropped to the bench in favour of new arrival Danny Simpson. 

Since then, Hadergjonaj has had to be patient to earn playing-time for the Terriers, he commented to The Examiner on his frustrations of not playing much, he said: “The manager has spoken with me, it’s not an easy situation for me.

“The team is doing well and I have to wait for my chance.

“For sure, I am not happy, I want to play, this is normal for a professional football player, you want to play every game. But at the moment, that’s the situation and we will see later on.”

When commenting on his aims to regain his starting spot, Hadergjonaj added: “We need competition, you need that everywhere,” he said. “Competition can make you better. We have competition in our squad. I think this is good.

“We want to make the life of the manager very hard so he has to think about who he has to pick on the weekend. Competition is here and it is very good and at the end the manager decides.

“I want to come back as soon as possible in the starting 11, this is my aim. I train hard and I want to show the manager that I am ready. In training games and when I come in for games I want to help the team as well.”

The Verdict

Given the form of Simpson and Huddersfield in general, it is completely justified for Danny Cowley to be reluctant in handing players starts in favour of players who have helped to build this strong momentum.

Hadergjonaj understands the situation he finds himself in and will have to be patient for the chances he is given, and will be hoping that he can have an impact in Huddersfield’s next game when they face a test away at in-form Brentford.