David happy to see his side battle against fatigue
- David Wagner comments on 2-0 win at Oldham Athletic- Head Coach happy to see players battle against tiredness
- Pre-season is sponsored by Hirsche Automotive
Town Head Coach David Wagner was delighted to see his side work against the fatigue that comes with hard pre-season work in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Oldham Athletic.
Despite a double session on Friday and training again on the morning of the game, it was Wagner’s side that dominated at SportsDirect.com Park and showed greater staying power to score two goals in the final 20 minutes.
“I was pleased, especially as everyone is healthy. This is always the first target after a pre-season game,” David told htafc.com.
“We saw that the lads were very tired, but how they worked against this tiredness was good. This is exactly what we have to do; step outside your comfort zone.
“It is easy to play games when you are fresh, but playing when you are near your red zone changes your limits and that’s what we’re trying to do. We did a double session on Friday and trained on Saturday morning.
“We tried to keep the ball and moved a lot without it, but in the final third – where you have to be fresh to beat somebody or you have to change the tempo – we were not fresh enough.
“This is OK. We have another three weeks to go to get fresh. How we tried to bring the ball into the final third was OK and in the end we scored two wonderful goals and kept a clean sheet. I like that they never gave up and they kept trying to create something; this was important.
“Oldham was very physical and tried to close the pitch aggressively, but we worked against that.
“You always like to win, but results are not important in a pre-season match. The most interesting part is that players stay healthy.”
One big positive for Wagner is his side’s early attacking prowess, with nine goals in total against Guiseley, Accrington Stanley, Rochdale and Oldham Athletic.
He continued: “Harry scored for the first time today and Jack (Payne) got his second. We had different players with the assists too; Jordan Williams and Dean Whitehead.
“We are dangerous from different areas at the moment, but we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of things worked at Oldham and a lot didn’t, which is totally normal for a pre-season.”
Now Wagner’s players have Liverpool FC to look forward to on Wednesday evening – alongside much more hard work!
“We will have a double session on Tuesday and train on Wednesday morning before the Liverpool match, so once again the lads will have to work in uncomfortable moments. It is part of our training schedule, so we will not miss any other work for the Liverpool game.
“We have three pre-season games left against good sides and it is important that we get a feeling for tight spaces and how to work against strong teams.
“Our focus is on the Brentford game. The other games are steps we have to do; one of many that we must do and already have done.”
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