David Wagner believes a couple of days off will help refresh his Huddersfield Town squad ahead of key festive fixtures against Preston North End and Queens Park Rangers.
The players will return to work with two Tuesday training sessions as they look to their Boxing Day home Championship clash with Simon Grayson’s Preston.
Town, in 19th, head to QPR on Monday, December 28 (both games kick-off at 3.00) and head coach Wagner wants a bright response after Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at Brentford.
The German admitted his players’ self-confidence took a kicking as they conceded three goals in the first half at Griffin Park, where he was taking charge for the sixth time.
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There was an improvement after the break, when Town scored through Joe Lolley and Kyle Dempsey, but Wagner admitted: “We lost because of a very bad first half.
“It was the worst 45 minutes we have played together. We had no control over the game, we weren’t able to keep the ball, our first touch was bad and our passing was bad.
“They scored very early and our self-confidence wasn’t the best. The biggest problem was we didn’t trust enough in ourselves and our system.
“There was improvement in the second half, and I was pleased with the reaction, but the first half wasn’t good enough and meant we didn’t deserve anything from the game.”
Wagner was without Jonathan Hogg (hip) as well as Emyr Huws (hamstring) and admitted his decision to play Duane Holmes alongside Martin Cranie as anchor midfielders and Ishmael Miller up front backfired.
He replaced Holmes and Miller with Kyle Dempey and Nahki Wells at the break but insisted: “Our poor first half was not just down to two players.
“The whole team were not able to bring to the pitch what they normally do, and I will think about whether I made the best decisions before the game and what we can do to make things better.”
