The Terriers’ midfield was in particularly bad shape at the weekend, as Darren Moore was missing two of his most influential players, but two players chosen stepped up admirably.
Darren Moore praised Rarmani Edmonds-Green and Ben Wiles for solving his biggest problem by putting together a solid midfield partnership on such short notice in Saturday’s goalless draw with Watford – despite never starting a game together before.
The pair had previously played as part of a midfield trio, with Edmonds-Green coming off the bench to join Wiles and Jack Rudoni against Rotherham, Stoke, and Ipswich; however, Jonathan Hogg’s suspension and injuries to Jack Rudoni and David Kasumu left Moore with few options other than to play Wiles and Edmonds-Green as a pair.
Moore admitted that the midfield dilemma had been his main concern heading into the Watford game, saying, “You’ve identified probably the most problematic situation we had going into the game there, in terms of them two coming together as a combination and working together over probably the space of three or four days.”
“However, I thought both of them were outstanding. I thought the way they got up to the ball, how they got back into shape, how they moved across the pitch: I thought they worked extremely well together as a pair, so credit to them.
Wilesy, I thought he was fantastic. I just thought he could have pulled the trigger a lot earlier in the first half, because what people may not see and know about him is that he strikes the ball well off both feet – technically, he’s a really good gifted player in that area. Certainly as a midfield player, he’s definitely got goals to his game, but in the role that he had to play, he had to play a disciplined role, and I thought him and REG done a really really solid job for the boys in front of those defenders.
