Danny Cowley Explains Why He Dropped Terence Kongolo for Saturday Clash With Birmingham

24 November 2019 03:20

Given Huddersfield Town's current defensive injuries, Terence Kongolo's omission from the starting XI for Saturday's 1-1 draw with Birmingham raised a few eyebrows. 

However, Terriers' boss Danny Cowley revealed after the game that there was good reason for the Dutch defender dropping to the bench.

Tommy Elphick, Danny Simpson and Jaden Brown were all ruled out for Blues' visit to the John Smith's Stadium, and Cowley cited Kongolo's recent performances as the reason why he wasn't drafted in to deputise.

Danny Cowley

Cowley revealed that: "Terence played left-back in the Sheffield Wednesday game and did ok, then he found it more difficult in the West Brom game and, again, more difficult against Preston" in his honest post-match comments, as reported by ​Examiner Live.


He added: "To be fair to Terence, he is playing out of position and he is just coming back from injury as well in the Preston game. He didn't look right or feel right. He is a defender and left footed, but he is not a left-back."


Kongolo, however, might have a case for feeling hard done by - especially as midfielders Lewis O'Brien and Juninho Bacuna were drafted in to play out of position as ​Huddersfield's full-backs on Saturday.

Terence Kongolo

Cowley was glowing in his praise for O'Brien, who obviously adapted better than Kongolo to the task in his manager's eyes.


He added: "Lewis O'Brien is just a whole-hearted kid who will do anything for the team. We spoke in Dubai and again in the early part of this week and I thought he did great.


"We have done a hell of a lot of work this week and I thought he did great, considering this is his first year in the ​Championship. If that isn't tough enough we are then asking him to play left-back."

Source: 90min