During the 2020/21 Championship season, Huddersfield Town manager Carlos Corberan brought in Richard Keogh to bolster their struggling defense with his experience. However, despite playing 21 games, Keogh didn’t have a significant offensive impact and couldn’t replicate his success from his time at Derby County.
While Keogh’s presence helped Huddersfield avoid relegation, his performance with the Terriers didn’t showcase his best abilities as a player. This season marked Corberan’s first at Huddersfield, and despite their challenges, they managed to secure a 20th-place finish in the league. Keogh’s previous stint with Huddersfield was in 2007 on loan from Bristol City, but his most successful years were with Derby County.
Richard Keogh’s time at Derby County
Keogh’s football journey began at Ipswich Town before he moved to Stoke City in 2003. He then had stints at Bristol City, where he was loaned out several times, before eventually joining Carlisle United in 2008. Following two years at Carlisle, he signed for Coventry City and later made the move to Derby County.
During his seven-year spell at Derby, Keogh played a crucial role in the team’s Championship campaigns, although they fell short of promotion. He featured prominently in their four playoff appearances, except for the 2019/20 season. As a center-back, Keogh made 356 appearances for Derby, scoring 12 goals and providing 14 assists.
Huddersfield Town didn’t see the best of Richard Keogh
While Keogh was a firm success with Derby and became a modern-day legend for the club, the same cannot be said for his time with Huddersfield.
As mentioned, Keogh had two separate spells with the Terriers, both of which were quite short, with them in total adding to just nine months of football.
In his first spell at the club, Keogh joined the Terriers when they were playing in League One in the 2007/08 campaign.
The defender arrived in August 2007, but he didn’t stay too long, as in October of that year, his loan ended, and he returned to Ashton Gate.
From there, he went on to play for the likes of Coventry and, obviously, Derby. So, Keogh probably thought he wouldn’t get a chance with Huddersfield again, but come January 2021, the Terriers decided to snap up the centre-back from MK Dons.
Keogh joined the club on a short-term basis, but he was able to have more of an impact this time around than in his previous spell.
| Richard Keogh’s 2020/21 Championship stats for Huddersfield Town | |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 21 |
| Minutes per game | 87 |
| Goals and assists | 0 |
| Touches | 63.7 |
| Passing accuracy | 46.5 (85%) |
| Key passes | 0.2 |
| Clean sheets | 4 |
| Interceptions per game | 1.0 |
| Tackles per game | 0.7 |
| Average rating | 6.72 |
| Stats as per Sofascore.com | |
The experienced defender played 21 times in the Championship that season for Huddersfield, with all those appearances coming in the starting XI.
In the second half of the season, Keogh was averaging 87 minutes on the pitch per game, playing regularly but not really posting any groundbreaking numbers.
Keogh failed to score or register an assist for the Terriers, with him not being able to have that impact at the top end of the pitch, as he did with Derby.
He did average a single interception per game, but was only making 0.7 tackles per game. Keogh was part of a defence that also kept four clean sheets, and he finished that season with a Sofascore statistical rating of 6.72.
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