David Wagner has spoken ahead of Brentford match
- Wagner spoke ahead of Brentford match- Town’s opening game of the season on Saturday
- Head Coach urges fans to come and support his players
David Wagner has spoken ahead of the Terriers’ opening game of the 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship match of the season at home to Brentford on Saturday.
Town’s Head Coach believes his players will be motivated against the Bees because of their hard work this pre-season - and not because of the 5-1 defeat back in May.
“I can only speak for me and there’s no motivation (from that game). It’s a different team, different season and different moment; the only thing that’s the same is the club, Brentford.
“We won’t use it to motivate anybody. We have worked unbelievably hard in the last six weeks, we left our comfort zone, and now we are prepared.
“Brentford is a good side, especially in the offence - they have good quality - but in the end three points at the beginning will make it much easier to come into the season.
“But it’s one game, one of 46 we have to play. We are very happy to start with the supporters backing us and we will give everything and show our ‘full throttle’.”
It’s been highly documented that Season Card sales exceeded the 15,000 target and extra tickets have been sold for the Brentford match as the Club tries to break the record for an opening day gate.
Wagner urged Town fans to keep coming to matches and giving his players support on the pitch.
“Large crowds are huge for every player and every single member of our team and the Club. Everyone will enjoy it more if the crowd is big and the stadium is full.
“This was one of the things we said at the end of last season when I was together with Dean (Hoyle) and Stuart (Webber).
“Now we have a good atmosphere, we need to create something with it. With this of course we had to make sure we got some good signings early, some good pre-season performances, and the Liverpool game helped for sure as everyone enjoyed playing with a big crowd. Now we have to deliver.
“This is the start and hopefully it will always be like this in home games because this will help the team and the players massively. Hopefully we can take an advantage of this.”
Ahead of the match, Town’s Head Coach revealed the extent of the injuries picked up against Austria and the availability of Nahki Wells.
“Unfortunately we have picked up some injuries from our Austria camp. Phil Billing (ankle) is out as is Harry Bunn (hamstring).
“They will probably be back in two weeks and I think for Nahki the Brentford game is too early. He’s back in training and our target is that he is back in the squad against Shrewsbury, but nobody knows what happens in the next two days.
“We are happy that he’s back but he has to catch up from what he’s missed in the last two and half to three weeks, so we will see if Nahki is with us on Saturday.”
With the game just a day away, Wagner revealed he will decide which team faces Brentford after the player’s final training session today.
“I cannot know my starting 11 for Saturday as we have more training practices until then. For example Jason Davidson missed training yesterday due to illness, so no-one knows what happens until Saturday.
“I’m happy with all of my players. We had a pre-season where we can be confident because we had our squad together very early.
“We have our little problems like you have in pre-season but not the biggest ones so in the end, pre-season is always pre-season, everything is ok.
“We are good, we are prepared and you have the feeling that no-one knows what will happen. This is always the same at the end of pre-season at every Club.
“In the end we have a good feeling. We gave them all our ideas and input that we wanted to give them and now we are fully prepared for the season and hope the players can develop over the campaign.”
After being predicted 23rd, 12th and 4th within a week by various media outlets, Town’s Head Coach isn’t putting any limits on what his side can achieve this season.
“We shouldn’t give ourselves any limits; it doesn’t make any sense. For sure we would like to finish better than last season, that’s our ambition. I don’t want to give us any limits.
“I got some information that one guy said we will get relegated, one newspaper said we would be fourth then another said we will be twelfth. I think we should go in this season realistic, humble without limits and show we have ambition.
“If everyone has the feeling ‘OK, this is the next step’ and a positive atmosphere is still there, then everybody - the supporters, who are very sensible, and everyone in the Club - will accept where we are in the table.
“I think the most important thing for me is to be realistic and have ambitions. We have ambitions for sure because we’ve worked unbelievably hard. We have very big ambitions but we are realistic as well. This is what we have to bring together.
“I can promise that this team will work as hard as they can, I cannot promise the results – this is football. I can promise we will try to bring our identity and work as hard as we can. I know together the group has ambitions but we are realistic and humble.
“We are still Huddersfield Town, but we are Huddersfield Town with our own ambitions and we have to make sure we are happy at the end of the season.”
Tickets are still available for Brentford – click here to buy for just £3 in the FM Upper Tier!
Tweets by @htafcdotcom
