The winger was sent away from the John Smith’s Stadium after falling out of favour under Mark Fotheringham last season and is now determined to show his new gaffer what he can do
Sorba Thomas admits he was left ‘beating himself up’ more than he would have liked last season, but can already feel his mindset being refreshed since returning to the Terriers and starting to work under Neil Warnock.
The Welsh international was exiled from Huddersfield Town in the January transfer window after falling out of favour under then-head coach Mark Fotheringham and spent the rest of the season on loan at Blackburn Rovers.
Thomas is now back at the John Smith’s Stadium and keen to show he can still be the kind of hugely effective influence he has been during his better spells at the club, however. He had been crucial in helping Town unexpectedly reach last year’s play-off final, and started last season with seven assists in 14 games.
“For me, I was always the same player,” Thomas told the club’s YouTube channel. “I feel like I was beating myself up a bit more and there was a bit of [instability].”
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Thomas reiterated that he will be more selective about whose advice and criticism he listens to this season, but one person he is enjoying learning from is his new gaffer Warnock.
The winger added: “He tries to be a bit strict with me at times but we all know what he’s like. Off-season he’s been talking to me and showing how much he rates me as a player. It’s only a bonus for me really.
“Him and Ronnie [Jepson, assistant manager], I’ve got a good relationship with both of them now, and for me it’s just about showing him why he should put me in the team week in week out. He’s kind of just told me ‘just believe in yourself more’, and it’s kind of the same thing: focus on myself and focus on helping the team however I can.”
Part of that is putting his international aspirations out of mind, at least for the time being. Thomas was left out of the most recent Wales squad, the first time he has been omitted since earning his first call-up in September 2021.
It won’t have been lost on Thomas that some Town fans speculated his dip in form may have been down to his being distracted by the prospect of playing in last winter’s World Cup – an ambition he went on to achieve.
Thomas rejected the notion that getting back into Rob Page’s squad was any more or less of a motivation for his work at club level, however, saying: “To me, it’s about focusing on where I am now, international or not international. For me, I just focus on my thing. Not two years ago I wasn’t an international and my name wouldn’t even be in that conversation.
“Like I said, I’m not really going to listen to other people on the outside. I’m just going to focus on what I do and whether that puts me in the squad or it doesn’t, I’m still going to sleep good at night like I do every night.”
The 24-year-old is now just keen to get the new Championship campaign under way, saying: “We’ve come back and everyone is hungry and motivated. We’ve come back faster than we were last year, stronger, quicker, and for us it’s about learning from each other.
“There’s a new gaffer, new style of playing for us, and it’s just about focusing on ourselves. We don’t need to put unnecessary pressure on ourselves – we just focus on us and who knows what can happen.”
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