Huddersfield Town suffered defeat on the opening weekend of the Championship season, losing out to an impressive Burnley performance at the John Smith’s Stadium on Friday night.
It was hardly the perfect start for Danny Schofield in the Huddersfield dugout, although it’s worth not getting too down on Friday’s performance given the standard of the opposition on the day.
Fixtures will come thick and fast throughout August and Huddersfield have opportunities to turn things around.
They’ve also got just under a month of the summer transfer window left to make necessary changes to the squad where they see fit.
With that in mind, we take a look at THREE players that should be on Town’s radar as we approach the end of the window:
Alex Smithies
Jordan Rhodes and Will Boyle are two players that have returned to Huddersfield in recent transfer windows, having left the John Smith’s Stadium earlier in their careers.
Smithies is another former Town player and someone that could be a decent option for Huddersfield to keep track of this summer.
Lee Nicholls has the gloves locked down in Schofield’s starting line-up, but there’s a very young goalkeeping department supporting him. Jacob Chapman was on the bench on Friday and, following Jamal Blackman’s release, you’d think Huddersfield might consider a senior deputy to Nicholls over the course of a long season.
Smithies, now 32, played 29 times for Cardiff City in the Championship last season and is very capable at this level.
As a free agent, it’s not a deal that’s going to cost Huddersfield a fortune and they might as well keep tabs on his situation.
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Alfie Mawson
Matty Pearson is facing “months” on the sidelines with a foot injury, with the centre-back seen hobbling around the John Smith’s Stadium on Friday with crutches.
Schofield indicated to Football League World in Friday’s post-match press conference that the injury to Pearson could force Huddersfield into looking for a new centre-back in the remainder of the window.
A player they could consider, then, is Mawson, who was released by Fulham at the end of 2020/21.
The 28-year-old never quite hit the heights expected of him at Craven Cottage, yet there’s known quality there given he was once deemed good enough to splash £20m on.
Huddersfield have taken a chance on centre-backs of this ilk in the past: Pearson, Tom Lees and Naby Sarr, which has worked for them.
As they look to combat the loss of Pearson, it might well be that they pull back towards the free agent market.
Sam Greenwood
Right now you’ve got to assume that Greenwood isn’t available from Leeds. The youngster has just signed a new four-year deal at Elland Road and feels like he will be part of Jesse Marsch’s matchday squad against Wolves on Saturday.
However, Greenwood is embarking on a big season where he needs to be playing extended minutes of first-team football. We are likely going to be given an indication of his role at Leeds in the opening month of the season.
If he’s not playing regularly enough under Marsch, it might be that he looks for a move.
That scenario playing out should alert Huddersfield and they can do far worse that monitoring the 20-year-old, as he’s exactly what they need.
Greenwood can play as either a No.9 or No.10 and would be suited to Schofield’s hybrid systems in and out of possession, pressing alongside Danny Ward and also dropping into the space behind him quite naturally.
There’s the added bonus that Greenwood can play even deeper as a No.8, full of energy and a good range of passing.
As we’ve pointed out, though, he’s going to start the season with Leeds and look to earn his minutes there. It might just be worth Huddersfield monitoring how the first few weeks of the season go for him at Elland Road, with the hope he becomes a late option in the window.