Andre Breitenreiter spells out Huddersfield Town plan as Terriers plot Coventry City downfall

Huddersfield Town head coach Andre Breitenreiter has praised his players for the way they have trained over the international break as they get set to embark on their end-of-season run-in.

The Terriers return to action tomorrow afternoon as they welcome Coventry City to the John Smith’s Stadium for a 3pm kick-off, the first of eight games over the next five weeks that will determine whether they can avoid relegation from the Championship this season.

Town last took to the field for their goalless draw at bottom-of-the-table Rotherham United on March 16, but Breitenreiter has been pleased with the work his side have been able to put in over the last couple of weeks.

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“A really good time. We had a mix of recovery days and also hard training days,” the head coach said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“For the first time in the season I heard we had double sessions per day, and the boys did it really well, and then they deserved their free weekend. Also this week, the boys trained with high mentality and with focus for the next task, so I’m happy with the training’s week and with the last ten days.

“To be honest, it should be a normal thing, during the international break or in the pre-season (double sessions). I don’t want to speak too much about the past, so we concentrate on the things that we can influence now.

“They did it well, but they asked after the third session what will be the content of the training, because they were a little bit tired, but it’s absolutely normal, and a signal for the future.

“We used the chance to have long sessions, to train in detail, on defending and also in attacking and final pass. We need a little bit more quality, we saw the last matches we created many opportunities, so we also need the last passes and to finish so that we can score goals, and these were the main themes in the last ten days.”

Breitenreiter believes his side have shown signs of improvement since his appointment despite that not being reflected in their points return. The Terriers have registered five points from Breitenreiter’s five matches in charge to date, a return that has seen them drop two places in the table and into the relegation zone.

“In my opinion, I’ve been here for six weeks, and we’ve improved and developed in many things in the game, and all the stats show that, but it’s not reflected in the results,” the head coach added.

“We saw many positive things also in the Rotherham game. I know many supporters and also the players and coaching staff, they were disappointed after the 0-0, but to be honest, to play with 10 players over 35 minutes, normally you should be happy to take a point with you.

“The boys, they played so well that no-one could see that we played with ten players, and for me this is absolutely positive. We tried to build up, we are so much better in ball possession game, we create chances in our attacking play, and we have many more opportunities to score goals, but we have to score.”

Town host Coventry in the first of a double-header over the Easter weekend, with a trip to Stoke City following on Monday. Breitenreiter reiterated his optimistic approach to matches, as his side chase the victories they need to remain in the division.

“We want to be active, we want to win the game,” the head coach said. “This is for me always the thing I tell the players, because when you think too much about losing, you cannot win. We want to win games, and we want to try every time the best.

“Sometimes the opponent’s better, then we have to spend them applause, but it must be really hard to be better on one day against us. I’m sure the boys will do their absolute best on Friday to win this game.

“Coventry is a good team with quality, but we showed the last few weeks again and again, against teams like Watford or in the home game against Leeds that we can beat them. Also West Brom first half, over 60 minutes we were fantastic.

“I see this in the training session, we make some more steps and so for this I’m really hopeful that we can see a good performance from our team on Friday and hopefully a win.”