Huddersfield Town boss Liam Manning on playing style, transfer business and an admission

Manning takes charge of Town for the first time in Saturday's lunch-time's derby with Bradford City after the club made a swift decision to appoint him after parting company with Lee Grant following the club's 3-1 loss at Burton Albion last Saturday.

The former Norwich and Bristol City chief, 40, who left his last post at Carrow Road in early November, admits to having no inclination about the Town job possibly coming up, prior to last weekend.

Having been contacted by Town officials in the early part of the week, he, equally, had no hesitation in accepting the club's offer.

He said: "Obviously, in this industry, things happen and move extremely quickly. I was a little surprised over the weekend. And obviously, as I said, things move extremely quickly.

"So you sometimes don't have too much time to reflect on what's happened in the previous week. It's been pretty full on, pretty intense, but one that I've thoroughly enjoyed and looking forward to tomorrow."

On the group he has inherited, Manning, whose side occupy the final play-off place, added: "I think when you look at it, there's a huge amount of experience at this level, a huge amount of success. I think there's some really exciting lads that I think can hit levels higher than what they might have shown so far this season.

"So I think that'll be my job to challenge them on that. So I think there's a lot of potential still to achieve and still to come. So, yes, that was one of the biggest attractions was the current playing group and what I think we can get out of them."

Asked about his playing style, Manning confirmed that he is adaptable, despite being perceived largely as a possession-based coach.

He added: "I think I've just spent a few years working with The City Group, so this perception gets built up around possession, etc.

"But I think if you look at the groups I've worked with, especially Oxford and Bristol, where we had a decent amount of success, it starts with the behaviours.

"People that are honest, people that are hard-working and people that show a level of intensity and aggression, a real purpose to all their actions.

"Does it mean they're always going to get things right? No. But I think in terms of there's a starting point, it's that.

"And then after that, for me, it's about how do you attack? And there's different ways to do that. You can be direct, you can go in behind, you can go through. It's finding different ways to attack to hurt the opposition and ultimately being hard to beat without the ball.

"It's winning your duels, winning your battles and being organised as a group."

On the prospect of incoming business ahead of the transfer deadline on February 2, Manning confirmed that, ideally, he'd like to bring in a couple of players to potentially add to what he currently has.

He said: "I'd like more.

"We've got strength in depth, we've got good numbers. (But) I think there's a few profiles that I think will definitely improve the team which I think we haven't got in certain areas. So there's obviously conversations behind the scenes that will be happening on that.

"I don't think it's going to be a huge, huge amount of business, but I'm hopeful that maybe they'll be able to do one or two before the end of the window."