There is much more to come from Aaron Mooy and Philip Billing as Huddersfield Town’s creative force, according to David Wagner.
The head coach gave 21-year-old Billing the nod to partner £8m Aussie Mooy in the opening 3-0 defeat of Crystal Palace.
Many had expected Danny Williams to perhaps make the starting line-up following his display for Reading against Town in the play-off final at Wembley, especially with the experienced Jonathan Hogg sidelined by an ankle injury.
But Wagner explained: “It was no surprise to me they (Mooy and Billing) did so well.
“Aaron has had only three weeks training in his legs because he had a longer off-season because of the Confederations Cup, so I was very pleased and very happy he was able to perform as strongly as he did.
“He will need more training, more weeks and more game time to come back to his best, but he is still at a very high level.
“The partnership with Phil Billing is strong, as was shown in the Championship a few times last season.
“I told them that they have worked hard to get to this level – this is the next stage and the next level – and I just told them to do their jobs.
“I think they were very aggressive to make the difficult yards in defence (at Palace), as well as being comfortable on the ball to create some moments for us.
“I think we were stronger in the middle against Crystal Palace. We limited Crystal Palace and then created opportunities from the centre for our strikers. They played a very good game together.”
Mooy had assists with a flicked-on corner and cross at Selhurst Park, highlighting Town’s willingness to get the ball in the box more than perhaps at certain stages last season.
“That we are able to get more crosses and high crosses into the box with the players we have is something we said before the transfer window,” said Wagner, alluding to the aerial threat of Steve Mounié and Laurent Depoitre.
“We wanted to find players who are able to finish crosses and who were stronger in the air than the players we had.
“We also needed taller players because while Elias Kachunga and Nahki Wells score goals, they are not the tallest.
“Everyone knows that Crystal Palace’s quality is in the offence, so if you can stay on top of that you can cause them problems in defence. That’s what we analysed and that’s what we did.”
