This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

FLW’s Huddersfield Town fan pundit Graeme Rayner believes new signing Yuta Nakayama will feature on Friday night.

The Japanese defender is a new arrival for the Terriers, who face their opening game of the Championship season on July 29.

Danny Schofield’s side take on recently relegated Burnley to raise the curtain on a new season of English football.

The Huddersfield supporter believes that Nakayama will be thrust straight into the thick of things on the opening weekend of action, with the defender impressing during pre-season.

His standard of training has even caught those at the club by surprise, so there is a lot of expectation on his shoulders to deliver good performances from the get go.

“What I’ve heard is that although he can play at centre half as well, he’s been bought to play at left-back and that’s what I’ve heard,” Rayner told Football League World.

“Whether that’s right or not, I don’t know, time will tell.

“I’ve also heard that people inside the club have been blown away by his impact in training and that he actually looks even better than perhaps people expected.

“He’s clearly been brought into the club to be a starter.

“He’s a Japanese international wanting to go to the World Cup in a few months’ time so he’ll want to be starting.

“There’s no reason why he shouldn’t.

“Having said that, if he doesn’t start, then I think that Ruffles at left-back is a decent option.

“It may even be that Nakayama starts at centre half, I wouldn’t be surprised by that. 

“But yeah, I expect to see him play and I’m looking forward to seeing him play because I’ve heard really good things about him.”

 

 

Huddersfield have had a turbulent summer with the shock departure of manager Carlos Corberan dominating proceedings.

Schofield has picked up the pieces to take charge of the first team squad in Corberan’s absence.

This will be his first competitive game in charge, with a lot of decisions to be made on who will make his initial starting lineup.

He will be without key players such as Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo, who both departed for Nottingham Forest in recent weeks, as well as Levi Colwill who returned to Chelsea following the end of the previous season.

The Verdict

Burnley will prove a tricky first opponent, with Vincent Kompany also having a transformative summer at Turf Moor.

But if Nakayama is as impressive as is being shown in pre-season, then he could prove to be a brilliant signing for the team.

In that regard, it sounds like a no-brainer decision for him to start Friday night’s game.

Getting a good result to start the season could be crucial to Schofield’s tenure in charge of this team.