Danny Cowley putting processes in place to restore Huddersfield Town’s fortunes

Cowley’s first outing as Town manager ended on a losing note, with Huddersfield suffering their sixth successive loss in all competitions in a 2-0 derby reverse to Sheffield Wednesday – extending the club’s sequence without a win to 18 matches.

While conscious of the morale-boosting qualities that a win would provide, Cowley is acutely aware that transforming the club’s fortunes will prove a much longer-term task.

He said: “Everybody is desperate for a win and the world would be a better place on the back of one. But it’s not just a win that would have help this club.

“It is getting the process and we have to be process-driven and get a game plan which suits the group and the players to be successful. We then need to get players to understand. That will take work on the training pitch.

“Once you get that understanding and alignment, the players are then able to act autonomously and build their confidence.

Cowley has defended his decision to play top-scorer Karlan Grant in a wide-sided role on the left on Sunday – as opposed to down the middle.

Grant has scored four of Town’s five Championship goals this season, with Trevoh Chalobah being the only other Huddersfield player to score.

Cowley said: “He can play as a nine and a 10 in a 4-3-3. Liverpool play that and (Roberto) Firmino is a visible ‘nine’ and comes off and (Mo) Salah and (Sadio) Mane stretch teams. If you look at Karlan’s career, when he went on loan to Crawley, he did all of his work on the left.

“Charlton played a diamond and with outside forwards and he did a lot of his good work in that left channel.”