German hails hard work as the key to success
- David Wagner previews Bristol City game
- Head Coach focused on performance from his side
- Wagner says hard work is the key
Huddersfield Town Head Coach David Wagner has explained that hard work is the key to his side keeping up the level of performance seen over recent weeks when Bristol City visits the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday.
Speaking to the press on Thursday evening, David first commented on the arrival of Elliott Ward back at the Club; explaining that the defender needs work on the training pitch after his knee injury:
“Elliott has two weeks left with us. He will be part of the squad, but he needs time to develop his fitness after the injury. Today he wasn’t on the pitch with us – he was in the gym after a hard session yesterday – so he is not in my mind for the weekend.
“I don’t know what will be in the future; first we have to build up his fitness. I am very satisfied at the moment with this position; Martin Cranie has done very well as has ‘Huddy’; Murray (Wallace) is very good in training and Joel Lynch has completed his first full training week. He might need more time, but we are very good there at the moment.”
However, Wagner did hint that he may shuffle his pack for the visit of the Robins this weekend:
“I think it depends on the last viewing in training tomorrow. A few players looked a little bit tired after the great game last Saturday, which is normal. We have to be careful with everybody as we will need them over the next few weeks.
“I think we can find the right team that will be fresh on the pitch on Saturday.”
The side comes into the Bristol game on the back of a first win under Wagner at Bristol City last weekend, but David was adamant that changes nothing:
“To be honest, it wasn’t much different to the last weeks. We were confident in the weeks before like we are now.
“It was important and excellent that we could confirm our performance and get three points, but in the end we didn’t change anything in the week. We trained hard and worked hard again.
“It is very important for us that everybody knows what we had in the last three weeks wasn’t a fluke. The reason behind that is hard work and that is what we'll do on Saturday again. One thing I know in football is that you will get results if you work hard, for sure. That is the only thing I expect from my team; that it works hard.”
After four weeks under his tutelage, Wagner believes the players understands what is required:
“I think the key points of our game – we call it the ‘Terriers Identity’ – are clear to everybody in the squad after the last four weeks.
“I think everybody knows we want passion, play at ‘full throttle’, to try and play on the pitch, to be good at reaction pressure and have a good transition game.
“How well we bring that on the pitch on a Saturday depends on many other things that we have to build up; our self-confidence and fitness. We have to develop these points and make them better and clearer.
“There are a lot of things we have to work on. We are on our way – everybody knows we have made our first steps – but I get the feeling that nobody is satisfied. Everybody knows were are at the beginning and we have to work.”
Despite performances being good under Wagner, he stressed that the side must not be complacent:
“I have never heard that a positive atmosphere has won a game!” he laughed.
“We must bring on the pitch what we had in the past – maybe a little bit better. It is very important that we are hard on ourselves. We know it will be a tough game and when Saturday comes, we must like pain; if we do, we will be successful.”
On Saturday’s game against Steve Cotterill’s side, David continued:
“Again, I have big respect for Bristol and its manager like I have had for the opposition in the past. I have all the information I need to prepare the squad for Saturday and hopefully we will find some areas where we can hurt them, but in the end the most important thing will be ourselves.
“Before our first three games, we always spoke about the other teams and showed the players things from them. Now we can show then clips of ourselves and if you see them, I think it is easier to understand what you have to change.
“I have to be honest; I haven’t thought about the opponents in the last three games and for me, there is no reason to change it now. We don’t think about them more than before. For me, it is not interesting if we are the underdog or not. For me, it is interesting to see if our team can bring our idea onto the pitch and that we work very hard.
“We have lots of targets for ourselves on Saturday again; our first home goal together and our first home points through a first home win. For this, we have to work very hard and I feel the squad knows this.
“I don’t think it is fun to play against us at the moment."
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