Wagner happy with the performance today
- David Wagner reviews win over Wolves
- Head Coach proud of HTAFC's performance
- Wagner praises impact of subs Matmour & Manu
Huddersfield Town Head Coach David Wagner was proud of his side’s performance in today’s 1-0 Sky Bet Championship home win over Wolves.
The Terriers had to stay patient against a well-organised opponent that also threatened at the other end, but that focus was rewarded by Nahki Wells’ 79th minute winner.
“It was a very hard game. Our opponent was excellent in that the played aggressively and made the pitch tight; they didn’t offer us many spaces. Today was really hard work for everybody,” Wagner told htafc.com post-match.
“It was very nice for me to see how hard the lads worked. They never gave up and tried to stay focused on the game. They did a great job against a very organised team.
“Anyone connected with Huddersfield Town who saw this game can be proud of this performance. It is easy to play football if you create chance after chance and score goal after goal, but if it is tight and hard work you must concentrate for every single second and it isn’t easy.”
Town’s top scorer Wells – who now has 13 for the season in all competitions – missed a great chance to open the scoring around a quarter of an hour before smashing home his goal and the Head Coach praised his attitude.
“Nahki has a very strong mentality. He knows that, in this team, he will always get chances and so if he misses one, he has to stay focused for the next one. He did that today. I thought it was a great goal.”
Substitutes Karim Matmour and Elvis Manu – the latter on his home debut – both had hands in the goal and David admitted he was pleased with their impact:
“It was important again today that our bench gave us a positive influence; I thought our substitutes were very strong and helped us to score – and then keep the clean sheet.
“Elvis was very good in training yesterday and it was great for him to show his ability in 15 minutes on the pitch today. Most of the players need three weeks to adapt to our idea and the training schedule, but everybody knows he has quality. We have to be patient with our players and give them all the time they need to develop.
“In my opinion, Karim is getting stronger and stronger with every game and every day. He had a very good week in training last week and it was a tight decision not to start him today. After the game, we can say we did it right as he had an important 35 minutes for us. He created a great opportunity for himself and had other good moments.
“Everybody knows if you are fit, healthy and know what you have to do, we can rotate. We must keep doing that in the upcoming weeks, as we need everyone on the pitch to be as fresh as they can be.”
That’s back-to-back clean sheets for Wagner’s side after the concession of two late goals against Preston North End a fortnight ago and David is happy to see his young charges learning.
“They did a great job, especially in the last 10 minutes after we scored. I’ve asked myself if this squad simply needs experience to get better and today gave us a small answer. We had exactly the same situation at Preston two weeks – 1-0 in front in the last 10 minutes – and we made too many mistakes, not changing to a style that would get us three points. Today, we showed what you have to do; keep the ball, win corners, free kicks and get the ball away from your goal.
“The only dangerous situation came when ‘Huddy’ had what wasn’t the best idea in this moment! We had Jed in our goal to save him. This was another heart attack situation for me though!
“For me, the experience is important to get better. We have a very young team together and this was another good step on our way. It is important that our players not only know that they are able to play, but that they can stay focused when it’s hard work.”
Town’s win saw the Club climb to 15th in the Sky Bet Championship ladder – but the German couldn’t care less!
“For me the table is absolutely, totally unimportant. Since I arrived I have said the most important thing is our performance on the pitch and our second view is on the table. It is important that we work step by step to develop our game.
“We’d like to play on Tuesday and take this confidence onto the pitch. We have to build our game up with a strong defence, which we did today with a second clean sheet in a row. Our team is always able to score, so we have to make sure everybody feels a responsibility for defending.”
