Wagner confident Terriers can hold their nerve
The Championship playoff final is sometimes barely a football game. It's less a test of skill, technique and tactics and more an examination of nerve, and it's almost impossible to predict who will cope. The last two finals have seen one team freeze, their poise understandably falter at the prospect of the massive pile of money waiting at the end of the match.
In 2015 Middlesbrough arrived late at Wembley, something that Aitor Karanka denied was a factor in their subsequent limp performance, but two goals in the first 15 minutes were more than enough for Norwich to easily win and enjoy a pleasant day in the north London sun. Last season, Sheffield Wednesday showed up
at Wembley like a team who'd been expecting to play four hours earlier, all the adrenaline drained from them and Hull had to be little more than competent to take the spoils.
A non-performance is perhaps thus the biggest fear for any side approaching the game. David Wagner doesn't seem too concerned though. Speaking ahead of Monday's final against Reading - the winner of which will take a place in the Premier League and at least £170m, possibly north of £290m if they survive for a season - the Huddersfield manager barely blinks at the prospect of his men freezing on the big stage.
“I was a little bit unsure before the semi-finals, against Sheffield Wednesday, how they would react because we hadn't played one of these 'live or die' games before,” Wagner said. “They handled it absolutely amazingly. There isn't such a big difference between Hillsborough away and Wembley.
“We've spoken about how we must make ourselves independent of everything around us, and circumstances we can't influence. We have to confirm this again on Wembley. It isn't something new, but we must speak about how we need to be independent of everything else and focus on ourselves.”
Wagner's confidence that his players won't be overawed could be down to one of the most concerted attempts at expectation-dampening you're likely to see. It's certainly true that not many expected Huddersfield to be challenging at the top end of the table, but Wagner's consistent assertions that this would be as big a shock as Leicester winning the Premier League are a little fanciful. “I think we're 18th or 19th in the budget table,” Wagner said. “I think the gap between us and let's say Newcastle, is bigger than the gap between Leicester and Chelsea, if you like to compare these two fairytales.”
Still, the more he paints them as the underdogs, the more the pressure moves away from the Terriers. Or the 'small dogs', as Wagner calls them, snapping at the heels of the richer and more muscular hounds.
“We are a small dog, we are still a small dog, and this hasn't changed over the season,” Wagner added. “But we are ambitious. Just because you're a small dog, it doesn't mean you're not able to be quick, to have endurance, to be mobile, to create other weapons. I think we've found our weapons over the season, and now we have a job to do.”
Their opponents Reading are hardly Great Danes either. Most anticipated the likes of Norwich, Aston Villa or Derby to be making plans for the Premier League, not a Reading side who took something of a gamble by appointing Jaap Stam as manager in the summer. Stam's reputation as a coach was not exactly stellar in his home country, particularly after quitting a coaching badge because he wasn't happy with its theory element. But much like Wagner at Huddersfield he has fashioned a collection of broadly unflashy and low-profile players into one of the division's better teams.
Unlike Wagner, though, Stam didn't show much interest in being cast as the happy-go-lucky, just-pleased-to-be-there type this week. “I don’t pay any attention to being written off,” he said, with that military stare which makes him look like an advanced Terminator, ready to take your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle. “I don’t want to talk about being underdogs.” In which case, we won't.
Reading's previous playoff record is, shall we say, less than stellar. They've been at three finals since 1995, and lost them all, most recently in 2011 when Brian McDermott's team were swept aside by Swansea. “I'm not really interested in what happened in the past. I'm interested in what happens now and what we need to do to get a result. We haven’t thought about the past and the bad results. We focus on working hard. Finals are there to be won and we need to give it our best shot.”
This is a particularly interesting final if only because it may represent both teams' best chance of promotion for a little while. The trio of clubs coming down from the Premier League are all in various forms of flux, but there are a number of teams already in the Championship for whom anything but challenging at the top next term will be unacceptable.
Villa will continue to spend and Steve Bruce's record in the Championship is almost spotless, Norwich have just appointed Wagner's fellow Dortmund alumni Daniel Farke, Derby will get it together one of these days and then there's the two sides defeated in the playoff semi-finals, Fulham and Wednesday.
“Usually Huddersfield Town players have no chance to be involved in the Premier League,” said Wagner, “but now they have a real chance. Now we're in the final. It's come from a dream or a vision to a real chance, and now a reality. We are desperate to play this match and get over the line. We're one step away.”