Huddersfield Town's Andre Breitenreiter not for turning despite worrying statistical trend

It is, of course, the stuff of fantasy, but that would be the situation had the Terriers held all the points they had at half-time in the last six matches.

In that time they have seen 1-0 leads over Leeds United (where, it must be said, they played the second half a man down after Jonathan Hogg's red card) and Stoke City wiped out, and a 1-0 advantage over West Bromwich Albion turned into a 4-1 defeat.

In coach Andre Breitenreiter's defence, he started as Terriers coach with a 2-1 win at Watford where all the goals were scored in the second half but since then it has been seven costly points dropped.

In the real world it leaves Town in the Championship relegation zone, a point behind Plymouth, who sacked manager Ian Foster late on Monday.

It calls into question whether the injury-hit Terriers have the personnel to play the energetic high-pressing, front-foot football Breitenreiter demands. He insists he does, and will plough on with it.

Thursday marks only seven weeks since Breitenreiter took over at Huddersfield, a tough ask for any coach, let alone one new to English football. It was almost exactly a year to the day since Neil Warnock returned as manager, and it took the Championship's finest firefighter until the game before the international break to record his second win.

Danny Rohl has rightly been feted for the transformation he has brought at Hillsborough, but his first seven weeks brought five defeats in seven games.

So whilst Hull City took their players to Turkey for a training camp in the international break that was as much about rest and relaxation as hard graft, Breitenreiter put on double training sessions in an attempt to get his players up to speed.

Monday's 1-1 draw with Stoke City showed there is more to do.

Bojan Radulovic's well-taken first goal for the club put them ahead at the end of a well-managed first half but the second was a different story. Radulovic was substituted after 58 minutes physically and, judging by his emotional celebration, probably also mentally exhausted.

Stoke, on the other hand, were bustling with vitality.

"We tried to play with a bit more tempo and energy,” said their manager Steven Schumacher.

Right-back Ki-Jana Hoever epitomised it, scoring an excellent 50th minute equaliser as visiting players stood off him.

The second half became one-way traffic – Huddersfield lucky Stoke are so impotent as to have only scored 15 goals in 20 Championship home games this season – until a late flurry in the final minutes.

Delano Burgzorg had two chances, Ben Wiles volleyed over and top-scorer Michal Helik headed over at a corner. It was probably not coincidence the first two were substitutes.

Despite that, Breitenreiter was not for turning when asked by The Yorkshire Post if he might need to consider toning down his physical demands in light of what he has to work with.

"I don't think so," said a coach without the injured Hogg (shoulder), Radinio Balker (thigh), Josh Ruffels (groin), Ollie Turton (knee), Danny Ward (back), Tom Lees (calf), and Yuta Nakayama (knee).

"We pressed high and because of the pressing we had a lot of ball wins but we couldn't capitalise too much. The boys want to play this style and it's the style that leads you to success, I'm sure.

"We have the players for this style but it's not possible for 90 minutes with the same players so we need early substitutions to improve."

Strikers Radulovic and Rhys Healey joined in January on Darren Moore's watch, and both were troubled by niggling injuries before scoring their first Terriers goals over the long Easter weekend.

"You could see he was really exhausted after 60 minutes but it's okay," Breitenreiter said of Radulovic. "When we have a lot of players like this they have to accept it and give their best over 45 or 60 minutes, then we can make substitutions.

"We cannot change the past, we have to do the best with the situation and every player has to give his best for 30, 45 or 90 minutes."

It is, though, far from ideal as Chris Wilder has often complained, when a manager's game-changing options are restricted because he must make what the Sheffield United boss calls "physical substitutions".

Huddersfield have access to reams of data telling them just how big if at all the physical drop-off from first to second halves is. Hopefully come May Breitenreiters will be vindicated, Town safe, and with a transfer window and a pre-season to lay the platform he needs, they can move forward playing football more in keeping with what fans want to see.But in the here and now the basic sniff test and the bald half-time/full-time statistics tell a worrying story.