Since taking over as manager of Huddersfield Town in place of Neil Warnock, Darren Moore has had a difficult first 11 games in charge, with just two victories.
Owner of Huddersfield Town Kevin Nagle has backed Darren Moore even though he acknowledged he is “not happy” with where his team is currently sitting in the Championship table.
Before tomorrow’s trip to Swansea City, the Terriers are currently fourth from the bottom of the division with 19 points from 18 games played. On Wednesday night, Town defeated Sunderland to record their fourth victory of the year. It was just Moore’s second victory in his 11 games as manager.
Nagle maintains that his manager shouldn’t be solely blamed for the lacklustre start to his rule, even if he has only averaged one point per game since taking over.
The owner of the Terriers said to BBC Radio Leeds that “people would not necessarily be happy with the overall performance because of where you’re sitting right now (in the table).”
“I’m not happy, but by no means am I blaming Darren for it all. It is unrealistic to expect a manager to leap into action and make drastic adjustments after just 11 games.
You have an entire organisation, and that is precisely what we are looking at and changing right now—we’re looking at every aspect of the company. They occurred this week, and they happen every day. That’s to strengthen and improve it, enabling Darren and the team to play better as a whole on the pitch.
When asked if he had considered terminating Moore’s employment, Nagle said, “No, that is not even a consideration.” I realise that in the UK corporate world, if someone asks that question and gets a prompt response, it could mean the end, but that’s not the case here.
“Darren, you’re witnessing the beginning of something that I think will be really fantastic. I have faith in you. It will require some time; in order for him to succeed, we need to provide him with some of those building blocks.
He and I both have the same level of accountability, as does Jake Edwards, Mark Cartwright, and the entire recruitment team. We are all fighting for and on behalf of the Huddersfield supporters, and we are all in this together. Before his team won their first four games in charge, 2-1, at home against QPR in October, Moore’s team had a losing record. That triumph was followed by two crushing losses to Cardiff City and
Since then, the defence has tightened considerably; in the four games that have followed, three goals have been given up. The Terriers climbed six points clear of the drop zone on Wednesday with their 2-1 victory at Sunderland, despite their recent struggles to score goals.
Nagle gave Moore’s tenure a first evaluation, saying, “Darren has done everything that we’ve asked of him.” We all knew it was basically going to be his pre-season when he entered the game seven or eight games into the season. Despite the season, he would still need to conduct his own assessment, which would need time.
We anticipated that it would take him some time to figure out what kind of play would be best for the guys he has, but I believe he has done so now.
“He took about eight or ten more games to really get the hang of it, and I believe he managed eleven in total.”
“I’m not happy with where we are at the table; we want to move up, but I believe that answering the longer question—”what are we going to do?—is the longer game. That is the course of action we will take.
It won’t last for a short while. We want to make sure that we back Darren because he’s our guy, but it won’t be a “we’re going to do everything for the here and now” situation because then next year will be deja vu all over again.
