"That is my gut instinct" - Claim made on Michael Duff's Huddersfield Town future | OneFootball

FLW's Huddersfield Town pundit gives his take on whether Michael Duff is still the right man for the job.

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…

Huddersfield Town have fallen out of the automatic promotion picture with a run of four defeats in seven games seeing Michael Duff's men fall nine points behind second-placed Wycombe Wanderers.

This has led to mounting pressure on the Terriers' manager, with the John Smith's Stadium faithful growing increasingly expectant of a team that were relegated from the Championship last season.

Saturday's defeat was particularly poor as they lost 1-0 to a Peterborough United side, who hadn't won away since August. Not only did it mark the fifth home defeat of the season, but it also meant that home supporters had now gone five games without seeing a goal, when former player Michal Helik scored a late equaliser against Burton Albion on the 29th of December.

While they are still in the play-off picture, fan frustration with Duff is growing, with supporters particularly disillusioned by his style of football.

Nonetheless, these patterns of play are often typical of teams promoted from League One, but when results aren't forthcoming, it can understandably lead to discontent.

Huddersfield Town urged to keep Michael Duff

To get a Huddersfield Town point of view on Michael Duff's position at the club, Football League World spoke to their resident Terriers pundit, Graeme Rayner, who revealed that, while disappointed with their current run, he believes faith should remain in Duff.

"I am not a fan of changing managers as often as we have done in recent times," said Rayner.

"We are at the end of February and, realistically, have ten weeks of football left until the end of the season. My fear is that if we change it now and the new manager doesn't hit the ground running, we miss out on the chance of going up via the play-offs.

"We are still in fifth - we have to remember that.

"Nobody was calling for his head when we went on that 16-game unbeaten run. We have now had an indifferent run of games since then and, as someone who has been to home and away games in that time, the football is woefully lacking in creativity and quality. It is frustrating and depressing to watch."

Injuries have forced Huddersfield into a crisis

Voicing reasons as to why Huddersfield and Duff find themselves in a period of crisis, Rayner said: "We have to remember the number of players he has got out. We have got something like ten first-team players unavailable to him at the moment.

"A lot of those are players that he has brought in or have been brought in during his reign to play the way he wants to play. For example, not one but two of his left-wing backs are out.

"All of our first-choice centre-backs are out, and we made what now looks to be the ridiculous error of selling Michal Helik and not replacing him."

"We finished the game on Saturday with a right-wing back at full-back, a right full-back at centre-half, a central defensive midfielder at centre-back and a left-back at left-back.

"I like some aspects of his personality. I don't like the football he plays, but I think what I saw on Saturday as I left the John Smith's Stadium is that the fans are turning or have turned. In my experience, it will take an awful lot to fix that now.

"If we don't get a win at Wigan tomorrow night, I don't think he will be in place for the weekend. That is my gut instinct."