"It is a bit weird" - Claim dropped on Dion Charles situation at Huddersfield Town | OneFootball

Our Terriers fan pundit believes Dion Charles' shortfalls so far have not been his own doing

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...

Our Huddersfield Town fan pundit has urged fellow supporters to stick with January signing Dion Charles, and believes that the lack of service from Michael Duff's creative players is the main reason why the £750,000 man is yet to score for the Terriers.

It has been pretty clear that adding firepower in the final third was a top priority for Michael Duff over the last month, and with the winter window now closed, he will feel confident in his current strikers' abilities to help the Terriers win an immediate promotion back to the Championship.

Joe Taylor was the first striker to arrive at the John Smith's Stadium from Luton Town in January, and his capture was closely followed by that of Bolton Wanderers frontman Charles, who put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half year deal for a reported fee of £750,000.

Charles has been a top striker in the third-tier for a number of years now with the Trotters and Accrington Stanley, but while it is still very early on in his time with the Terriers, he is yet to score for his new club in four starts and over 300 minutes of football.

Fan pundit offers positive Dion Charles verdict despite tough start

Charles joined Town on January 15, and he made his debut for the club with a start in a 2-2 draw away at Blackpool three days later as strike partner Taylor netted his first goal in blue and white.

He then faced former club Bolton in his home debut at the John Smith's Stadium, but was unable to stop the visitors coming away with a 1-0 win, while he has since started up front in losses against Birmingham City and Northampton Town, and is still without a goal contribution as yet.

Our Terriers fan pundit, Graeme Rayner, has praised Charles' determination to score goals and fashion chances of his own in his first four games as a Huddersfield player, and believes the reason behind his slow start is down to his teammates' lack of creativity and poor efforts at chance creation.

“Dion Charles...there has been lots of effort from him, but we haven't really created anything for him in the way of chances," Graeme told FLW.

“Any chances he’s had have been half-chances that he has created himself.

“I like his attitude, I like his hunger, but it’s almost like because we had a real lack of quality striking options before he joined, we’ve almost forgotten how to create chances.

“It is a bit weird, because before we signed Charles and Joe Taylor, we were saying that we kept putting balls into good areas and there was no one on the end of them.

“Now that they're there, we aren’t putting the balls into those areas.

“If I were him, I’d be very frustrated, but he shows enough quality that I’m sure he’ll come good in the long-term.”

Charles should come good for the Terriers given his impressive League One record

Preston-born Charles began his professional career with Blackpool, but was unable to force his way into their squad and so moved to non-league side AFC Fylde, before he joined Fleetwood Town in 2016, and then went back into non-league two years later with Southport.

His impressive spell in the National League North saw Accrington Stanley move to bring him back to League One in early 2019, and he became an instant hit at the Wham Stadium, then went on to net 19 times in 42 third-tier games in the 2020/21 campaign.

The 27-time Northern Ireland international soon moved to Bolton from Stanley in 2022 for a reported fee of around £320,000, and has proven himself as one of the most prolific scorers in the third tier in recent years at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

He bagged 21 times in 52 appearances in his first full season with the Trotters, then followed that up with 20 goals in 44 games last season as Bolton missed out on promotion in third place and then lost out to Oxford United in the play-off final.

Charles had registered seven goals and three assists in 15 starts this term under Ian Evatt, so clearly still has the power to be a force in League One at 29-years-old, but just needs to get his first Terriers goal for confidence before he can kick on to help them win promotion over the next few months.

With that said, he does need to get up and running in blue and white soon under Michael Duff, as the boss' options up front other than him and ex-Luton man Taylor are poor, with the likes of Bojan Radulovic, Freddie Ladapo, Rhys Healey and Danny Ward all massively out-of-sorts in front of goal this season.