What to expect from Wycombe Wanderers head coach Michael Duff – The view from a Huddersfield Town Fan

Michael Duff is now at the wheel. Following a tumultuous and often dull spell under Mike Dodds, former Cheltenham Town, Barnsley, Swansea City and Huddersfield Town manager Michael Duff has taken the reins.

To get a glimpse into what we can expect from Duff, we spoke to the Huddersfield podcast ‘And He Takes That Chance’ to find out what Duff will bring to the Chairboys.

On the formation and tactics:

“Duff ideally likes to play 352. He wants the defence to push a high line which condenses the space in midfield and allows 2 of the midfielders to push a little higher and wider into the half spaces.“

The issue he had at Huddersfield was that he was given legacy defenders who wanted to stand on the edge of their own box which meant you could then drive a bus through the space to midfield or from midfield to attack. So pace at the back or a willingness for the centre backs to play a high line is incredibly important or else it’ll all fall down”

“I think whenever you play a back 352, the wingbacks are very important.”

Writers Note: Interesting to note that Duffy plays a similar formation to what Dodds changed to at the end of his tenure, a 5-2-3 with Fred and Bell wide

While Wycombe certainly would have the depth to play with 3 central midfielders, it would raise questions over the plan for natural wingers James Tilley, Fred Onyedinma, Junior Quiturna and loanee Sam Bell.

It’s interesting to note that it’s not a typical 5-3-2, where there are two deeper midfielders and a more advanced one, but where one holds the space between the attack and defence, while two attacking midfielders go forward.

Such a team sheet could look like:

GK: Van Sas, LCB Hagelskjaer, CB Taylor, RCB Grimmer, LWB Harvie, RWB Huggins, CDM Abbott, LAM Lowry, RAM Westergaard, LST Fink, RST Woodrow

He did also note as injuries occured at Huddersfield, he shifted to that more traditional 5-3-2 as mentioned above to try to stem the bleeding.

It would also give free rein to attacking wingbacks such as Dan Harvie and Niall Huggins, who could excel with the freedom to roam and maraud up the pitch. However, he did note that injuries to the starting wing-backs could make the team much more ineffective going forward, which could be an issue with the injury histories of Dan Harvie, Niall Huggins and Fin Back.

On Duff Leaving Huddersfield:

“Reading between the lines there was a disagreement over the signing of Dion Charles in the January window with Duff preferring an alternative.”

*At the same time we suffered what must have been the worst injury crisis that the EFL has ever seen (or so it felt like). We had 34 players injured last season at one point or another and we had a particularly bad spell from January onwards of around 13/14 out at one time. The system suffered because all of the wingbacks were injured. Kasumu got injured who was the energy in midfield and we became a lopsided mess. We didn’t score a goal at home for 7 matches and dropped out of the playoffs.”

“We were 10 times worse after Duff left”

Writers Note:

Dion Charles scored 0 goals in 18 games for Huddersfield last year after joining in January. For context, Caleb Taylor scored 2 in that same period.

Injury crisis difficulty can hit any team, Wycombe fans may remember a start to the season with David Wheeler at Right Back and even Striker under Gareth Ainsworth.

A glance at the Wycombe squad would suggest the team has enough strength in depth to deal with injuries, with multiple players capable of playing in each position and a high degree of versatility in the team.

However, Duff’s run of 4 defeats in 5 games, ending with a 1-0 loss to Bristol Rovers and seeing the team drop out of the promotion playoff races doesn’t install a degree of confidence.

However, caretaker manager Jonathan Worthington record of just 2 wins and 8 losses suggested a squad in dire need of rest, recovery, and revitalisation.

Huddersfield saw a massive 14 players join in the summer, including Wycombes Joe Low, while 17 players left. Duff may have been working with a stale, aging, injured team with little gas left in the tank once it got to the dog days in February and March.