Huddersfield Town boss Andre Breitenreiter has sent his side a clear warning after their heavy defeat at home to a Swansea City side with little to play for. The Terriers were hit for four by the Swans as they look to beat the drop in the final games of the season, leading to chants of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ from the home fans.
With Sheffield Wednesday defeating Blackburn Rovers on Sunday, Huddersfield are now three points from safety with two games remaining, facing relegation rivals Birmingham City this weekend and play-off hopefuls Norwich City on the final day. First they must cast the Swansea defeat to the back of their minds, but not before a stern telling off from head coach Breitenreiter.
“The performance was poor and not good enough for this league,” he admitted after the game. “The fans were disappointed and frustrated and that is totally understandable. But we have two more games and are two points behind and next week we play Birmingham and it’s done for today.
“I can understand everyone who doesn’t believe in the team after the result and performance from today, but the team can show a different performance next week. I experienced in the last few weeks with this group that anything is possible, things I have never seen. We have to prepare and then go for the next game and three points.”
Pressed on the result itself Breitenreiter added: “It was a hard result for sure and unnecessary in the last few minutes. It was the same reaction as WBA and Coventry and I was so disappointed. You have to keep clear (heads) over 90 minutes.
“We started not good and we knew about the quality of Swansea and the identity, but we didn’t stop it well. The distances from the defenders to the strikers were too big and we didn’t press as a team and the individual players didn’t do the plan we discussed before.
“The will was not near to 100 per cent as a group, we have to be honest about this and it was not good enough, but it was 0-0 at half-time. We spoke openly and honestly and said we had no chance to win if play like that in the second half. With the substitutions, it changed and we created three 100 per cent chances at 0-0 and then we have to score a goal and hadn’t the quality like in most of the games in the last few weeks.
“The final pass let us down. Josh Koroma was totally free from 11 metres from Delano Burgzorg and you need the quality to score a goal when the game is close. When you don’t score, it’s hard. The goals we conceded were too easy. They were really bad individual mistakes and 4-0 is hard.”
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