Sorba Thomas, Delano Burgzorg and Jaheim Headley missed Saturday’s trip to Ipswich Town
For their Championship final against Ipswich Town, Huddersfield Town’s Sorba Thomas, Delano Burgzorg, and Jaheim Headley were absent from the matchday roster.
Prior to the match on Saturday, Terriers head coach Andre Breitenreiter stated that Town will “take just the players to travel with us to Ipswich which we think are the right [ones], because some players are on loan, or some players are thinking maybe in their head that they left the club.”
In his pregame press conference, the German also criticised the squad for lacking unity at a time when Town’s relegation was all but certain. Earlier in the season, after the Terriers lost 4-0 to Swansea City and were on the verge of relegation, the German had questioned some players’ “heart and passion.”
“You gave the answer, yes for sure,” Breitenreiter said in response to a question from BBC Radio Leeds about whether the exclusion of Thomas and Burgzorg was a “punishment for their lack of engagement against Birmingham and previous games.”
“We displayed the team and squad lineup for this match. We attempted to play with other players since we wanted to focus on the younger players. I also wanted to see Tom Iorpenda because other players hadn’t been playing at their best in a few weeks or months.
“You can form your own opinions about individual players when they are not in the squad; I never discuss individual players with the media, except in private conversations.”
When Breitenreiter decided to bring on Jack Rudoni after the half-hour mark of Saturday’s loss, just after the midfielder had been taken out of the game prior to the Tractor Boys’ opening goal, it also raised some questions.
The head coach gave this explanation for his decision: “We played well against the ball in the first half, demonstrating a compactness unit.” It became challenging when we lost the ball in an easy-to-lose manner.
“We defended not as aggressively as we needed from certain players at times because it was too simple, which is also why we substituted guys in the first half. We attempted it with Alex Matos since I wasn’t happy with Jack Rudoni’s performance, and he did a great job.
After the 1-1 draw with Birmingham City the previous time around, Breitenreiter made four changes, giving Chris Maxwell, Ben Jackson, Ben Wiles, and Tom Edwards an opportunity to show their mettle. The on-loan Stoke City defender, who started the game on Saturday for the first time since October, was singled out by him for special praise for his contribution.
Breitenreiter remarked, “I thought he was one of our best players; he played really nice flat passes.” “We are all aware of the harsh things that have been said about him due to a few games at the beginning of the season, but he always gave his all in the gym, and for that, he deserved to start. Some players started because of this, and they were able to take the risk today.
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