The Terriers academy graduate started out as a left-back but has been called into action in numerous roles to the point he has picked up the double-edged ‘utility man’ moniker
For the greater part of a season and a half, Ben Jackson has been the Terriers’ go-to utility player. He came up from academy football and many loan stints to cover holes in the team wherever their different managers found them.
Jackson was originally traded as a left-back; however, this season he has filled in as Huddersfield Town’s stand-in right-back on a few occasions. Although the outcomes have been inconsistent, on Saturday afternoon he played arguably the best role he has ever played for the team with an impressive defensive display. Is Jackson going to have a future in that role, not just now but in the long run, with competition heavy on the left and light on the right?
Chicken: “He’s an interesting player, because I think more than a lot of players that have come through that academy, you look at him and you think he’s got a bit of technique, he’s got the passing range, he’s very athletic, he’s genuinely two-footed, he can shoot… he does have a bit of everything, but we’ve spent years waiting for him to put it all together.
“You just hope if he can get a run in the side now, even if it is in that right-back role, just to allow Sorba to push further forward then, or even a wing-back role if they went 3-4-3… I think he’s got all the raw ingredients; he just needs a bit of egg to bind it together. [laughs] Give Ben Jackson an egg; that’s my conclusion! Or a bit of royal icing, if you want a nicer analogy.
“I believe that occasionally you get these players that, up until they’re about 23, 24, 25, seem quite average, and then all of a sudden something just snaps. Jamie Carragher was a similar type of player to that, in my memory. He played defensive midfield, central midfield, right back, and left back in a similar manner. People would say things like, “Oh, he’ll always be a squad player, but he’ll never be the first choice; he’ll just fill in for whoever’s injured.”
Rafa Benitez abruptly said, “No, you’re a center back now,” and during the following ten years, he developed into one of the top center backs in the Premier League. Though you get the idea, I’m not saying Jacko is going to start playing center back immediately!
“Sometimes a player who seems relatively like… ’Where’s his role? What is he going to do? Is he just going to be a squad player for his career?’…they can suddenly become, overnight, this almost undroppable player in a particular role, and perhaps that can happen for him. I think he’s definitely got, as we say, all the tools for it, but it’s just putting them together.”
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