Boss on why he resisted making attacking subs when down to ten
| Published date | 19 March 2024 |
| Publication title | Huddersfield Daily Examiner |
However, Town faced an uphill task to claim all three points in the second half of Saturday's clash after Sorba Thomas was sent off for two yellow cards in quick succession shortly before the hour mark.
The setback didn't result in a noticeable shift in momentum in the hosts' favour, but following some initial chances for Jack Rudoni and Delano Burgzorg, Town were unable to fashion a clear-cut opportunity in the closing stages.
The away end was heard singing Danny Ward's name as they called for his introduction, who had netted a game-changing brace as a secondhalf substitute in Breitenreiter's first match in charge at Watford, but the head coach opted to stick rather than twist in attack late on.
Ben Wiles had been brought on for David Kasumu at half-time, while Tom Edwards replaced the injured Brodie Spencer at rightback in injury-time.
The German explained afterwards that he was happy with how his side were performing despite being down to ten men, and recognised that the red card had proved costly after the Terriers were unable to find a winner.
I think people worked, we excellently ten Andre "Both players are important for the team (Ward and Josh Koroma), and they showed, especially Danny Ward in Watford, that he can score goals," the head coach told BBC Radio Leeds.
"There we were 11 on 11. Normally I'm a head coach that will do every possibility of changing five players, but today I think all the people who watched this game saw that we worked, we worked excellently with the ten players. Then it's maybe not the right decision to make a change.
"I asked many players if they feel good, and they are really in shape and they wanted to play, because we had short distances, we had positive behaviour, positive opinion that we can score the first goal, also with ten players. For me, it didn't make sense to make a change, this is the reason.
"We spoke so many times about frustration, about negative things, I don't like this. We play with ten players, it was a tough game, they did it well.
"Sometimes, it is like it is. We have to concentrate that we have to finish a game with 11 players, so then I'm sure that we [would have] won this game today, but when we are always minus one player, it's difficult.
saw we worked with men...
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