Huddersfield Town announced their second summer signing yesterday evening. Not Alfie May, the Charlton striker we’ve been linked with for weeks but are now likely to lose out on to Birmingham after they turned on the money hose and we were shut out of the deal. The new signing is Mickel Miller, a left wingback who arrives as a free agent after running down his contract at Plymouth.
The twenty-eight-year-old arrives on a two-year contract after turning down a new deal at his previous club and rejecting interest from others, reportedly including other Championship teams. In terms of his credentials, he’s won promotion from League One twice, with Rotherham and Plymouth and then played a good number of games last season in the Championship too. There are, however, a few question marks about this signing, which is almost inevitable with any free agent. In this article, I’ll take a bit more of a look at our new boy.
What is Mickel Miller’s history?
Miller started in non-league football in 2017 at Carshalton Athletic, which looks like a horrendous misspelling of Charlton Athletic but seems to be a real football team who are currently in the Isthmian League (also a real thing – the league below The National League South). He then went from the seventh tier of English football to play for Hamilton Academical in the top tier of Scottish football in 2018. Was this a step up or a step down? Hard to say, but he did well enough in the barren northlands to earn a move to the relatively cosmopolitan big city of Rotherham in the summer of 2020, where he struggled to make an impact initially, so was farmed out to Northampton on loan in January 2021.
On his return from loan he got more game time at Rotherham but was still released at the end of the 2021/2 season. He got snapped up on a free by Plymouth, where he’s been ever since, though he missed a lot of the 2022/23 promotion season through injury and only played more games last season due to very careful management.
While this isn’t a ridiculous number of clubs for a player to have had, he doesn’t seem to have settled at any of the clubs he’s played at. The 68 appearances he made for Hamilton Academical is the most he’s ever managed for any of the teams he’s played for, so he feels a bit like a bit of a journeyman from looking at his history.
What sort of a player is he?
Mickel Miller has played as a winger, left midfielder and a fullback but I get the feeling he has been specifically signed as a wingback for Michael Duff’s system and will be drilled exclusively on that system. The clips that the club put together of him were not exactly show-stopping, given they’re meant to be the highlights of his career but they did show that he’s got plenty of pace and has an eye for a pass forward to the strikers from deep. Whether these clips are just showing the one in a hundred times those passes come off is unknown but I like that he seems to win the ball and look to release it quickly.
With him playing more as a winger than a fullback in his past, I suspect he’s more of an attacking wingback than a defensive one, which is probably going to be what we need in the coming season. While both defending and attacking are key parts of the role, hopefully, we’ll be doing more attacking than defending in most games and the three central defenders will play high up enough to cover the space behind the wingbacks. This is all wild speculation though, until we get a good look at what this Town team looks like under Michael Duff.
What do Plymouth fans say about Mickel Miller?
There were quite a few threads on Twitter after this signing was announced and it was a mixed bag of comments. None were wailing and gnashing their teeth about losing their favourite ever player but plenty thought that he was a decent enough player that should do well at Town in League One. They were also keen to recognise the part he played in their 100-point League One season and staying up in the Championship, so he’s contributed to two successful seasons with them.
Others weren’t so sad to see the back of him, with a few comments about his tendency to blast crosses far too hard into the box and often hit them straight at defenders. There were also several remarks about his tendency to get injured regularly, which is something we’re used to with new signings at Town. Others pointed out that he lacks an end product, which his career stats show too, with goals and assists only coming regularly during his time in Scotland, which is a poor standard of football.
How does Mickel Miller’s arrival affect Huddersfield Town’s squad?
Jaheim Headley and Ben Jackson are the obvious left wingback options at the moment. Both had very up and down 2023/24 seasons, so I suspect Miller is probably going to go immediately ahead of them in the pecking order. In the final run of games last season we frequently played Brodie Spencer, a right-footer, on the left side too, though I don’t think that’s his natural position despite him also playing there for Northern Ireland. There’s also Josh Ruffels, who missed most of last season due to injury but is a traditional leftback rather than a wingback, so may naturally fit better into Duff’s system on the left side of the back three rather than in the wingback position.
If Ruffels is seen as a wingback then we’re massively overstocked in this area, with four options for one position. So at least one of Headley, Jackson or Ruffels are likely to be moved on in the wake of Miller’s arrival. It’s probably too early in preseason for even Michael Duff to know what his plans are for the squad until he’s had a good look at them but it may become clearer over the next few weeks who is likely to be the first choice and backup for which positions and therefore which players won’t be needed.
TerrierSpirit.com opinion: A transfer that could go either way
There are some worrying signs about this transfer but also some good omens too, so it’s not clear if we’ll look back on it as a good bit of business or a silly piece of speculation. Connor Mahoney arrived with similar doubts (probably slightly more) and was a complete flop, whereas Tom Lees and Matty Pearson both arrived as free agents without a lot of fanfare but have been good servants to the club and made a much bigger impact than flashier arrivals.
I worry that Miller has a poor track record with injuries and that he’s never played a huge number of games in any single season. He’s also not a massive contributor of goals or assists either. And while he’s talked about being an ambitious person in his club interview on YouTube, turning down Championship offers to drop down to League One suggests money was the motivating factor for this move rather than career ambition, which also could be an issue. Unless he really did hear about the project at Huddersfield Town and was so excited he turned down thousands of pounds a week more and the prospect of playing at a higher level because of The Project at Huddersfield Town. I don’t blame him for being motivated by money (if that is the case), everyone in any line of work goes to where they can get paid the most, but I find it a bit daft that players get asked such silly questions when they’re interviewed and they have to scramble for an answer to “Why did you choose Huddersfield Town” that isn’t “They offered me the most money” when that is so obviously the only correct answer.
Anyway, on the positive side of things, we’ve picked up a player that is good enough for the Championship, as proven by the number of games he played last season and the fact Plymouth seemed to want to keep him around – alongside other teams at that level fancying him too (Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke were rumoured to be sniffing around but that might have been agent talk). So if he’s good enough for the Championship, he should be more than good enough for League One.
He also stayed fit for most of last season and I read somewhere that managing his minutes meant he avoided picking up new injuries, so he’s learned how to stay fit by the sounds of it. So maybe the injury problems are a thing of the past for him now. It’s quite possible that even at 28, he’s not yet peaked because he’s never been injury-free for long enough to put together a decent run of games. While that would make him a very late bloomer in football terms, it’s possible there may be more to come from him. Plymouth fans seem to believe that when he’s fit and at his best he’s a decent player.
We did need quality options in the wingback positions and, just about, Mickel Miller is better than those we currently have. Or at least he’s competition for Headley and Jackson. He’s also got two League One promotions under his belt already, so having someone with that experience in the dressing room can only be a good thing.
I’ve been accused of sitting on the fence in the past, but I don’t think there’s any other position to hold with this transfer. I can talk myself into thinking it’s a bad move but actually, he does seem to fit the bill of what we are looking for in terms of his experience and he didn’t cost anything either. We’ll have to wait and see but hopefully we’ll look back on signing Mickel Miller as an astute bit of business.
If goals and assists were the only parameters in a player, Hogg would never get in anyones team with 6 goals in about 400 appearances. Then you could say he was doing most of his work defending but Helik managed 9 goals in one season! None of our existing “strikers” are exactly goal scoring machines either. It seems that Miller was bound for Sheffield Wednesday before Town signed him, but it looked like he would have spent more time on the bench there as a backup so he may have chosen it’s better to go to a club where he’ll actually get to play. There are a lot of clips on YouTube going back as far as 6 years and he looks pretty decent and fast. Obviously these are only going to show the good bits so like any other player, you won’t know what you’re going to get until you see him play. A big part of how a player plays is not just the players skills, it’s the style of play and the quality of the team around him. Harry Kane wouldn’t have scored in Towns team last season.
All good points. I think I was just hoping the assist number would be higher for someone who has been playing in various positions up the flanks. The reports that his final ball is often a bit of a let down may explain that. He does look rapid from the clips though, like you say, and that’s something you can’t fake for YouTube.
Your point about Harry Kane is right and it’s why the most important signing this summer has to be a creative midfielder to make everything else tick. Without a ball player we’re going to keep on struggling to break teams down. It’s been missing from the team for years. Hopefully this is the window when that gap is filled.
Plymouth fan here you have got a very good player in miller his only problem is that he’s injury prone but if you keep him fit you’ll see how good hi is good luck for the season hopefully see you next season👍
Thanks Graham. That’s reassuring to hear.
And now we’ve got another midfielder, Herbie Kane.
Looks like a good signing! Hopefully I’ll get time to do a writeup on him for tomorrow.
I think we’ve seen (Trippier for England) just how lopsided a team becomes if you play a right-footed player at left wing back. You wouldn’t play a left-footed player at right back (I can’t immediately think of any player where that combo has succeeded, can you?). So that, for me, negates any thoughts of Brodie Spencer playing left wing back.
There’s no doubt Miller is very one-footed – a tell-tale sign is how he even goes into a slide tackle from the right leading with his left foot (you can tell I’ve closely analysed the video!); but that left foot does look pretty darned good.
Great shame to lose out on Alfie May; but it does demonstrate some intent which is positive.
As you rightly say, it is too early to see what Duff’s first choice XI will be. But if there was any doubt about playing 3 at the back, I think the first 2 signings have removed any doubt.
I thought I’d be as miserable as sin at this time pre-season – a lower division and a probable exodus of our better players (note – I don’t say ‘good players’) – but with Duff has come and given me some hope, seemingly backed by the Chairman allowing him to sign players before a high number of sales (albeit they have pocketed £5m for Rudoni), and when I look down the fixture list, I think “surely we can beat them?” We might even end up with a team worth watching which hasn’t been the case for many seasons.
Right footed left backs can look ok until you realise they will nearly always cut back in to their preferred foot and make themselves very easy to defend against. Much better to have a natural left footer to balance it out. Ben Jackson is the only exception to that rule as he can play either flank as he’s dominant with his left foot but genuinely two footed. Not just ok on his weaker foot but can ping 50 yard balls forward with decent accuracy with both feet. Shame he’s not more consistent generally.
It’s a good point about signing players for Duff’s preferred system. He obviously wants to play with wingbacks. I’m glad to see us recruiting to a specific plan almost regardless of the plan after years of approaching recruitment a bit like a kid on a sweet shop. Jordan Rhodes is a good example of our ill-though-through recruitment. He was a good signing but we played with a lone striker when we brought him in and he couldn’t do that role. At least now we seem to be thinking through who we sign and how we’ll fit them in to the team.
But but. Had high hopes of ambitious signings with the approach for May but as usual Town bottled it despite the profit from Rudoni. We sign a free agent with a very average record.
Will our recruitment staff ever match the ambition of the fans and hopefully Mr Nagle or is this the usual poor recruitment we can expect from Edwards/Cartwright on the cheap and who have no concept of recruiting a striker WHO CAN SCORE GOALS as a priority.
Will stand to be corrected if they come good this window but if not they have to go.
I am full of hope for Mr Duff but he needs support from the recruitment two. Mr Nagle if you are reading this I suspect you don’t want to keep having to keep coming to Town simply to sort out the what appears to be a mismatch of ambition by your two main men. I feel they are letting you down badly and should have been let go at the end of last season. You should be coming to Town because they are winning and up at or near the top of the table for you to enjoy happy times.
Time is moving fast and no memorable signings yet. I don’t expect us to sign Harry Kane but there must be good players out there who we can afford. Bargain basement isn’t where we should be.
I’m a bit worried about the number in the squad. Only 22 allowed plus under 21s and goalkeepers in League 1. We must be near (if not over!)
I did this article before we made a signing: https://terrierspirit.com/are-huddersfield-town-already-over-the-limit-of-league-ones-squad-size-rules/. We were one under the limit then, so are now two over, I think. But High and Hudlin seem to be out of the picture and Harratt might be too. I think there’s going to be a significant amount of churn with the squad before the list gets submitted to the league too. I’d be swearing a bit though if I was one of those fringe players.
Maybe they will be swearing but I think you mean sweating!!
Yep, that was autocorrect but I’m going to leave it anyway. 🤣