Ok, its early days , but Huddersfield are sitting pretty at the top of the Championship 4 points clear of team in 3rd place with 5 wins and a draw, including 4 away points v Newcastle and Villa.
David Wagner is acknowledged as being the architect of their success, not having much money to play with, but recruiting the 'right' players in the close season.
A short while after taking over from Chris Powell in November 2015, on 20th November,according to Statto 'Udd were 19th in the table with just 2 more points than us.
Jealous?, you bet i am . But another situation where recruitment, if done professionally, can bring results and happy fans.
I bet Wagner doesnt have some hippie sitting in a shed in Dortmund emailing him telling him who to buy.
3
Comments
That said Slade played a much more attacking midfield yesterday, it'll be interesting to see if he sticks with it. We can't keep Lookman on the bench and Ulvestad is here to play. Can't see Holmes being dropped either.
By contrast, you could see that Fleetwood were setup to play a high pressing game. Their front three were quick, agile and would interchange throughout the game to keep us on our toes. I believe Rosler has been in the job the same amount of time as Slade.
The problem is I don't see how we can control a game without a stronger central midfield so I guess our best bet is a counter attacking approach using Holmes and Lookman on the break.
Big difference between an owner identifying a talented foreign manager that could adapt and do well over here and just picking one he knows that might do ok and will give young players a game.
Yet Wagner was a huge risk from Huddersfield as he's never been a Manager before and was only ever understudy to Klopp... Luzon would probably have been a safer option had they signed him direct from Standard Liege
There's been a big feelgood factor about the place since he came in, though - knocking out 10,000 season tickets for £179 has helped. A big gamble that could just come off...
A legend at Charlton, a Parky type figure at Huddersfield...
I agree with the rest, all good points. I would personally go as far as to argue we get managers stuck to a rigid 4-4-2 who don't play exciting, possession-based football because we have English managers but that's just me.
Also note, he came into the job just before the season started and these "aren't his players" and yet they're flying high in the league. Also, there are changes, but not wholesale ones to a team that finished 19th last year.
Maybe English managers are more likely to play that type of football though there are some that have a more attractive style such as Eddie Howe.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070hz6/episodes/downloads
For anyone who wants to download the podcast the DT call is on 1hour 15minutes.