David Wagner believes this week’s international break has come at the right time for his Huddersfield Town squad – despite the impressive start to Premier League life.
Back-to-back wins against Crystal Palace and Newcastle United were followed by a hard-fought scoreless draw with Southampton on Saturday.
It means the side remain unbeaten in August and sit third in the table, only behind giants Manchester United and Liverpool.
However, the German head coach feels his side need a breather after promotion to the top-flight via the SkyBet Championship play-offs meant last term was a lot longer than most other teams.
“We are happy with our start (to the season) because of our results, the clean sheets and because of the performances we have put in,” said Town’s head coach.
“The players can see now that if they follow their ideas and their identity, even in the Premier League, they have a chance.
“It’s a perfect start for us and now I am very happy for us to have the international break because we had such a short off-season; the players now need their rest.”
During the two-week break a number of Town’s players will be away on international duty for their respective nations as qualification for next summer’s World Cup begins to gather pace.
Aaron Mooy will be in action for Australia with the side needing at least four points from their final two games to book a place in Russia without relying on other results.
The Socceroos travel to Saitama to face Japan on August 31 before playing Thailand five days later at AAMI Park in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Jonas Lössl and Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jørgensen are in the Denmark Squad for the qualifiers against Poland (September 1) and Armenia (September 4).
Midfielder Philip Billing will also be joining the duo, albeit it on Under 21 duty for their forthcoming European Championship qualifiers.
The rest of the Town squad, including new signings Florent Hadergjonaj and Abdelhamid Sabiri, are expected to travel to Hamburg to face Altona 93 in a friendly.
They will face the fourth tier (Regionalliga Nord) German side on Sunday, September 3, at Altona’s Adolf-Jäger-Kampfbahn Stadium (kick-off 5pm local time).
And boss David Wagner was quick to underline the importance of the encounter before Town’s next Premier League clash, against West Ham United on Monday, September 11.
“We need this friendly against Altona because we have some new signings and some players who haven’t had many minutes,” explained Wagner.
“The only place we were able to go was Germany for it and that’s why we chose Altona; the club played West Ham in pre-season and we will take this game to make further steps to help us progress.”
