Carlos Corberán leans forward ever so slightly, pinches his thumb and index finger together and begins to make a rather compelling case. He is fielding a question about Huddersfield’s players being weighed before training and whether his meticulous ways were inspired by two years working alongside Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds. For Corberán, a perfectionist and almost obsessive head coach, there is no such thing as a marginal gain. “There aren’t any small details,” he says. “Every action can be the key one. We don’t know which one is going to be the key one. We have to place the same importance on every one.”
Corberán rattles off a few examples – “driving one more yard can be the difference between allowing the opponent to counterattack, because you lose the ball, or getting past a defender and passing to a teammate to score” – and cites Danny Ward’s hat-trick – and winning – goal at Reading last month when the striker won an aerial duel five seconds before blasting a shot into the top corner. Ward opened the scoring in victory at Championship leaders Fulham on Saturday and after 45 minutes in Corberán’s company it is easy to understand why Huddersfield are flying. They are fifth in the league and face Nottingham Forest for a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. First, however, they will attempt to extend their unbeaten run to 16 matches at home to Cardiff on Wednesday.
