Huddersfield Town have signed Terence Kongolo on loan for the rest of the season from AS Monaco. He moved to Monaco from Feyenoord for £13.5m in the summer but has only played six times so far this season, so is coming to Huddersfield to get regular football.
He can play at either centre-back or left-back but has played more games as a central defender in his career. He’s 23 years old and has a handful of caps for Holland.
Unfortunately, his loan deal doesn’t include an option to buy at the end. It seems it’s a genuine loan rather than the hire purchase types of deals we’ve done for Lössl and Hadergjonaj where we can buy them at the end.
This post will look a bit further into who he is, where he’s been and what we can expect from our new loan signing.
What does Kongolo bring to Town?
YouTube clips are notoriously misleading, but the video below shows some of his better moments while playing at Feyenoord. He’s a tough-tackling defender, looks comfortable on the ball, and gets forward to support attacks.
He looks particularly good at defending one on one, with exceptionally good timing. (Though obviously, his highlights clip won’t show all the times he mistimed tackles.) He regularly uses his pace to cover for fellow defenders’ mistakes and catches attackers unaware.
The most interesting thing to me about this signing is whether he’s been brought in as a left-back or centre-half. Given that left-backs in Town’s system are expected to play almost as auxiliary wingers, I think he’ll be more likely to play as a central defender.
If my suspicion is true it makes me wonder which of Schindler or Zanka would make way, as both have been very good this season. It may be that Wagner wants to play three at the back, or he wants high-quality cover to allow rotation.
Kongolo’s playing history
Kongolo has only played six games so far this season for Monaco, three in Ligue 1, once in the Champions League, and twice in domestic cups. He moved there in the summer for £13.5m as a replacement for Benjamin Mendy, who left Monaco for Man City.
He’s played the rest of his career at Feyenoord, after working his way up through their youth system. He played 138 games for them, winning the Dutch Championship title last season with them.
David Wagner’s view on the transfer
The club’s announcement of the signing included a brief interview with Wagner and he pretty much confirmed my suspicions that Kongolo is here primarily as a central defender but provides cover at left-back too. It sounds like he was a player we’ve been after for a while, but Monaco’s big offer last summer meant we couldn’t compete.
One thing Wagner didn’t mention, but Kongolo talked very briefly about in his interview, is whether we’ll potentially switch to three at the back now we’ve got more options in this position. Kongolo doesn’t expand much on it, but he says Wagner talked about the possibility of him playing in a two or a three-man central defence.
We’ve struggled against teams that play three at the back this season, so it may be on Wagner’s mind. We tried it against Arsenal with Craine joining in, but it didn’t work. Kongolo looks far more mobile than Cranie, so may be better suited to such a system.
TerrierSpirit.com’s opinion on the signing
I was a bit surprised to see us bring in a left-sided defender as it seems like an area of the pitch we’ve got covered. However, our squad is a bit thin and the transfer fee paid for him in the summer suggests he’s a decent player.
The Premier League is fast-paced and physical, and Kongolo looks to have the attributes to thrive at this level. It may take him time to adjust but he’s played recently for Monaco in the French top flight, so his fitness should be more or less where it needs to be.
My only slight fear about this transfer is that he could have been brought in as a replacement for Schindler if a big-money offer comes in. This is wild speculation rather than informed opinion, so we’ll have to wait and see.