Enjoying the club's best season in a generation, Huddersfield fan David Siddall tries to shed some light on just how David Wagner has got the Terriers going for LFW.

Assess Huddersfield's season for us - beyond your wildest dreams presumably...

DS:I did not expect us to be competing for a spot in the play offs and even dreaming of sneaking into the automatic spots at the start of the season if I am honest. I thought a top ten/top half finish would represent a realistic goal and sign of progress given the summer recruitment and the fact that David Wagner had a pre-season to install his style of play into the players. We had a blip around October/November but have shown great character to come back in December and January picking up some very good wins along the way. At the moment, I am just enjoying and seeing what this team can achieve.

How has it been done?

DS: A lot of hard work both on and off the pitch. The groundwork was done last year with changes to the training regime and improvements to the training ground with regards to sports science and player recovery etc. We did a lot of recruitment very early in the window so the bulk of the squad had the entire pre-season together and that has certainly helped. The manager has come in with a clear style of how he wants to play and everybody has brought into that from the players, directors and the supporters. The pre-season was very important, the players went on a survival camp in Sweden as part of a bonding exercise, and then it was double/triple sessions a day on the training pitch to work to get ready for the season ahead. On paper, we had a tricky start with trips to Newcastle and Villa so to come out of those two matches with four points and to finish August on top really helped to create a belief that has carried on throughout the season so far.

Wagner was a left field appointment that seems to have transformed the club, what's his secret? Presumably you're fearful of him being poached...

DS: He was but I think there was a feeling at the club that we needed to do something different. We were very much in a rut prior to the appointment of Wagner, attendances were down and there was a real feeling that we were not really going anywhere and just treading water in the Championship. We could not compete financially with most teams in the division so a decision was made to try something different.

I think director of football operations Stuart Webber was key in this appointment. I am not sure what his secret is but he has come in and tried to create a whole club identity from the youth team up to the first team and create a style of play throughout the club. He has turned offers from Aston Villa and most recently Wolfsburg so I am not too worried about him being poached this season. The summer will always bring up speculation and I hope that he will stay with us if we get promoted or not as there is a real bond between David Wagner, the players and the supporters. However if a ‘Big’ club were to make an approach you couldn’t blame him if he wanted to further his career but I think it would take a real ‘Top’ level team for him to consider leaving as has been proven by him turning down Wolfsburg in December.

Stand out performers and weak links...

DS: There have been a few standout performers so will try to keep this short. Aaron Mooy in midfield has been brilliant, his range of passing and ability to control the game has been key to how we play. I think that Jonathan Hogg alongside him is just as important a workhorse in midfield who gets about the pitch winning the ball back and setting a platform. Tommy Smith at right back has come on so much this season and is a great source of assists for us from right back players like Elias Kachunga, Kasey Palmer and recently Isaiah Brown on loan from Chelsea have looked very promising. I would say weakness wise we can struggle at defending free kicks and balls played into the back post; we have also struggled to kill teams off when we have been dominating games it took us until January to win a league game by a two-goal margin.

Can you go all the way and get promoted?

DS:I certainly hope so and after the last two matches, there is a real belief we could actually go and do it. However we are also realistic enough to know that there is a long way to go and a lot of Football to be played between now and May, we have a very tricky run of fixtures coming up starting on Saturday (four of our next five games are away from home). If the squad can stay fit and with a bit of luck I do not see why we cannot achieve a play-off spot so I would say, cautious optimism would be the best way to describe our mood.

What happens squad and manager wise if you don't? Is a break up in the summer possible? May this be a one season wonder or is it more sustainable than that?

DS: There will be a bit of transfer activity in the summer whatever happens I suspect. We have five players on loan at the moment including Aaron Mooy who I do not foresee us being able to afford, as well as the Chelsea pair of Kasey Palmer and Isiah Brown and our goalkeeper Danny Ward, I cannot see us being able to afford to keep any of those unless we get promoted. They are key players who will not be easy to replace in the summer if we are not promoted. I have faith in the manager and structure behind the scenes to bring in suitable replacements. Nahki Wells is also coming into the final year of his contract if he does not sign a new deal it is likely he will be sold and finding a Championship striker is not easy. It is hard to say if we will be ‘One season wonders’ I would like to think not but we have very little recent championship history to support anything else. I do however think we have the recruitment policies and a strong enough identity and succession structure in place to carry on as we are doing next season, hopefully with Wagner still in charge.

The Twitter @DavidSiddall86, @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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TacticalR added 22:05 - Feb 9 Thanks to David. It sounds like Wagner has made a lot of individual improvements rather than adding a single magic ingredient. It looked as though Huddersfield had gone off the ball in November, which I assumed was due to Wagner's high-intensity game, but as they have picked up again that obviously wasn't the case.
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