Huddersfield Town manager Carlos Corberan has insisted that the Terriers have to approach their opening Championship fixture against Derby County as seriously as ever despite the Rams’ contractual issues.

The Rams head into their opening game of the campaign against Huddersfield with major issues on and off the field.

Wayne Rooney’s side have been preparing for the campaign by fielding several out of contract players on trials during pre-season to make up the numbers and are desperate to get those players signed on permanent deals.

It has been reported that the likes of Sone Aluko, Sam Baldock, Ravel Morrison, Tom Carroll, Ryan Allsopp, Phil Jagielka, and Richard Stearman have all been handed contracts by the Rams without information on what their wages will be.

That comes with Derby still uncertain about how many players they can sign and how much they can pay each of them in wages.

Despite all of those off the field issues, speaking to Huddersfield’s official club website, Corberan has insisted that his preparation for the game against Derby has still been at the highest level possible. He therefore urged his players to prepare in the right way and not take the Rams lightly.

He said: “They still have many players that were important players for them last year.

“I understand that their situation is not an easy situation for Derby as a Club, but my target is to analyse their squad at a high level.

“Our preparations still need to be a high level and a high concentration.

“My concentration is to create an atmosphere where our mindsets are ready to be the most competitive team that we can be because this is the thing that we can control.”

The verdict

Given all of Derby’s off the field issues and on the field issues in terms of their player contracts situation, you could understand Huddersfield perhaps taking a more relaxed view on their opening game of the campaign than they might have done had they been playing anyone else.

However, that is a dangerous approach to take and Rooney might be able to gather his small squad together and get them believing that they have nothing to lose on the opening day of the season.

That might be able to galvanise them enough to put together a strong performance to test the Terriers in the first match of the season.

As Corberan alludes to here the Rams still do have some good players within their squad, but if Huddersfield have prepared in the right way then you would have to fancy them to deepen Derby’s woes by defeating them in their opening match of the season.