It’s amazing how quickly things change in football. Less than two weeks into the new season and the cautious optimism surrounding Huddersfield Town’s Championship campaign has dissolved into widespread animosity towards the manager and chairman.
It’s been a poor start to the season and tonight’s game against Fulham at home could be Jan Siewert’s final chance to prove that he’s got what it takes to lead Huddersfield Town. Three sub-par performances so far this season have led to many questioning the German manager’s ability to stablise Huddersfield Town after last season’s relegation.
Here a few of my thoughts of the situation…
Siewert needs a result AND a performance to turn the tide
Like many fans, I’m pretty sick of hearing the talk about “that winning feeling” returning to Town. Now is the time to turn the talk into results and register a much-needed win. It’s not about the league table at this stage of the season, it’s about showing that we are able to win football games. The confidence within the squad is paper thin at the moment and a victory against one of this season’s most fancied teams will build up some belief.
I genuinely don’t think a win is enough to take the pressure off Siewert if it isn’t matched with a good performance. If we snatch a scruffy goal early on and then cling on to a 1-0 then it proves nothing about Siewert’s ability to get his team playing the right kind of football.
Jan Siewert sounds like he’s got some good ideas about how Town should be playing football and generally talks a good game. Sadly it’s hard to think of many times in his tenure that you can point to a performance where his vision is clearly articulated in the way the team played. A fluent and tactically astute performance against Fulham could be a turning point. Is that likely? Given the recent performances it’s hard to see it happening.
Does Siewert have the player’s backing?
Every struggling manager is rumoured to have “lost the dressing room” in the build up to their dismissal and similar rumblings have been coming out about Town’s squad not respecting the manager anymore.
The Fulham game is an opportunity to see if the players want to be led by Siewert of not. If they’ve had enough of him then they just need to turn in another hapless performance to twist the knife on their boss. If they want him to survive then they need to battle and fully commit to the game plan.
How much more is Phil Hodgkinson willing to take?
There is a growing clamour from fans for Siewert to be sacked, but the decision is in the hands of Town’s new Chairman, Phil Hodgkinson. We don’t yet know enough about the way the new owner operates to tell if he’s the type to give managers a chance to turn things around or if he’s someone who likes to put them out of their misery.
After Town were dumped out of the league cup by Lincoln on Tuesday there was a strange situation where the press were left waiting over an hour for Siewert to come out for his press conference while Phil Hodgkinson paced the touchline on his mobile in a heated phone discussion.
I’m not sure what the call was about, but it gave the impression that Phil was talking to someone about whether to give Siewert the sack. It may be that the person on the other side of the phone was talking him down from a knee-jerk reaction. But it looked to me like Big Phil was posturing in view of the press to make a point because he’s fed up of the (somewhat unfair) criticism he’s been getting from fans on social media.
How much more time Hodgkinson will give Siewert isn’t known but I get the impression that his patience is starting to wear thin.
Is it already too late for Siewert?
The Lincoln post-match and Fulham pre-match press conferences from Jan Siewert both showed a pretty miserable looking man. He looks like someone who is either aware that they’re about to lose their job or at least has resigned themselves to the possibility.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Hodgkinson has decided that he’s had enough of Siewert and has started putting out feelers for a replacement. This is what Dean Hoyle did when David Wagner replaced Chris Powell. The interviews and discussions all took place under the radar while Powell was still manager, meaning that there was a quick transition between mangers. It could be the same thing is happening to Siewert as happened to Powell.
TerrierSpirit.com opinion
I think I’m in a minority of fans that would like the see Siewert given more time.
I can’t defend either the results or performances that Town have produced under Siewert. Obviously he’s had a tough job to follow David Wagner and he inherited a dysfunctional squad with low morale and some bad attitudes. But so far he’s underperforming even when you account for the circumstances.
Despite the poor start to this season, I’d like to see Jan given more time to show that he can get these players fulfilling their potential. Getting rid of him now will mean that we’ve thrown away all the work done in preseason and the new man will have to hit the ground running to avoid a relegation scrap.
I think it’s a bad idea to blindly back a manager if they clearly can’t command the respect of their players but I also don’t think sacking managers is the miracle cure that many supporters believe it is. If Siewert can pick up a couple of unlikely wins in the next few weeks then it could ease the pressure and give him more chances to show what he wants to do at Huddersfield Town. If he doesn’t turn it around then it’s probably best for everyone that he moves on.
Spot on results matter but we need to see game plans working and Terrier spirit. If he can’t do that he has to go
I said it following the unfortunate departure of Herr Wagner and I will say it again; hand over the reigns to Messrs. Hudson and Whitehead to get back to basics and a sense of reality (in the same way as Jackson and Yorath did, all those years ago).
Tonight is a musty must x 10 win game, one win in 6 months is pathetic imo. Feel sorry in a way for him.
He inherited a very poor side and they just were not good enough to win games.
He lost his best players through no fault of his own and he has not been allowed to spend very much. I do think his tactics need to change to get more players in the box.
He also needs to get a player who can cross a ball, Hadergjonaj hasn’t found a man in 2 years. Would l sack him not yet.
Steve Australia
The players he inherited were not that bad. They all arrived as pretty good players. All initiative and enthusiasm was knocked out of them by Wagner who persisted with a system which never scored many goals and his defensive methods were useless – see the goals against! Towns “identity” as he called it was always suspect and there never was a plan B when plan A didn’t work. Siewert never gained the players respect from day 1 which is why 7 senior players wanted to leave (and did!). He operates now like a school teacher, shouting instructions at naughty children from the touchline, which everyone ignores. He must go now, not leave it until it’s too late in 6 months which is what happened when Wagner destroyed the team.
I dont think he should have more time,if the players have lost respect,they’re not just going to change overnight and the longer this dire goes on the further down the league we’ll drop untill before we know it we’ll be in a relegation scrap,i think he’s had a fair amount of time to prove that he has what it takes to guide huddersfield,.
Do I think Jan Siewert is a good coach /manager, not really, but please do not be surprised at what we are watching at the moment. The club went back to Dortmund for a second time hoping that we would get lucky a second time, that is not the case it is simply more of the same. If we do change the manager it will by and large remain the same squad is it possible for them to improve? I hope so but can anyone guarantee that.
Now we know the pressure is no longer on Siewert. It’s focussed entirely on Hodgkinson. We are about to find out how he reacts to pressure. Has he planned for this change. Does he have a replacement lined up and a strategy to give the new manager a better chance of success than we gave Siewert? Or is this just panic stations? The next managerial appointment will give us all a clue. Patience ended has been in very short supply since last February. It looks like we Town supporters will now need to be remarkably patient until at least the end of this season.