Town record a landmark gate in Shankly Trophy match
- David Wagner drew positives from Liverpool FC match- Record gate for Huddersfield Town friendly recorded
- Town travel to Austria on Friday for final pre-season friendlies
Head Coach David Wagner drew a lot of positives out of Huddersfield Town’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool FC in the Shankly Trophy at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Huddersfield Town had a record gate for the friendly as 21,266 supporters attended the game and David thought it was a great occasion to commemorate Bill Shankly’s career.
“I liked that we worked, especially in defence. I like that we tried to adapt as quickly as we could on the speed Liverpool offered especially in the first half,” said Wagner.
“I liked when we tried to build up the game and in situations we were brave enough on the ball and to keep the ball. Maybe we have to be a little bit braver in the last third in some situations, but it was a nice evening.
“We had a sold out crowd which was great, I think we tried our best and at the end Liverpool deserved this result, but as always in friendlies for us and for me the result isn’t the important thing.
“It’s important we get a new level of speed from our opponent and tried to adapt.”
Despite all the positives, Town’s Head Coach admitted there are still things his side need to work on.
“I’d like to have more shots on goal, we shot six or seven times and that gave the goalkeeper an opportunity to show his potential.
“I think we had a lot of opportunities to shoot on goal but we never hit the target and gave the goalkeeper the opportunity to show his ability.
“This was what I thought we could do better and of course we have to build up our fitness.”
Philip Billing left the pitch with minutes remaining, but Wagner confirmed the injury wasn’t as bad as he first thought.
“This was a good step today for everybody, 45 minutes at this speed. I’m happy and I’m very happy that everyone is healthy.
“Phil Billing doesn’t have a bad injury it’s only a little bit on his ankle, nothing big.”
This was Town’s final friendly in England before they fly out to Austria for another training camp.
Wagner insisted this camp is not for the same reason as the one in Sweden.
“This will be totally different to Sweden. Sweden was only to bring the group together, this is a part of Austria as well, as we are there for a week but we have to spend a lot of time on the training pitch, a lot of time in the video meetings.
“We can use the time for individual meetings, group meeting so it’s a completely different training camp that we had in Austria.
“We have more good friendlies against good opponents, this is our next step. We have to make sure we are quicker in the first meter, a little bit quicker in our head and this will come when we lose our tiredness.
“When we are fresher we will be able to adapt to the speed and this is what we have to make sure of in the next two and a half weeks.
Only Joel Coleman has played a whole 90 minutes in Town’s First Team squad this season, but David insisted this will change in Austria.
“This is our plan, that after Austria every player has played 90 minutes in one game and a few other minutes in the other game.
“This is our plan for Austria and I think everybody will have enough minutes in his legs to start this season.”
Nahki Wells missed the game through injury but he should be fit for Town’s trip to Austria.
“Hopefully he will be with us in Austria and can start the full programme with us there and then he will get his minutes in the friendly matches in Austria.”
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