In Andre Breitenreiter, Huddersfield Town have found a comfortable, confident communicator

It is crucial for how he plans to lead the relegation-threatened Championship side because the 50-year-old sees himself as a players' coach.

"When I watch their eyes I know everything – well, maybe 90 per cent!” boasts a man who has already picked the brains of captain, longest-serving and most influential player Jonathan Hogg.

"My door is open for them all the time so they will go into the fire for me.”

It makes communication a big part of his job, which might raise concerns when for the first time in his career the German will no longer be able to lean on his first language.

When the cameras and microphones began rolling in the Canalside press conference room – and they had to wait because with stereotypical German efficiency, Breitenreiter and sporting director Mark Cartwright arrived more than five minutes before the internet stream was due to start – it was clear that would not be an issue.

We had been warned he might struggle with our northern accents and twice in his nearly 40-minute conference he had to ask for questions to be repeated, but that was it.

A year earlier in the same room Neil Warnock set the gold standard for a manager's first press conference performance – that was the only way to describe it – and whilst Breitenreiter was never going to emulate that, there was the fluency, the chuckles and the clarity to make it obvious this was a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it across in English.

After his interviews ended he lingered longer to tell a story about the relentless training methods of one of the coaches he played under.

This was a confident man comfortable in his own skin, happy with what and who he is working with and what he is working towards.

All the talk since long before Darren Moore was sacked in January was about the Terriers' playing style, so it was only natural to ask Breitenreiter what he was offering.

"I was a player for many years in the Bundesliga and I wanted to play football and score goals," he explained. "Defending is important but when you play football with your child, you want to score goals.

Sign up to our new Sports Editor’s TeamTalk newsletter available this week

"It's attractive for supporters to see vertical passes, not playing backwards the whole time, I don't like this. I want to play forward and see deep runs, I want to create chances and see five to six players in the penalty area. I don't know if it will be possible on Saturday (at Watford) but in a few weeks, 100 per cent."

Huddersfield owe caretaker manager Jon Worthington a huge debt. His four games – two won, two lost, but honourably – bought them time to, as Cartwright put it, "ask longer questions" but also showed Breitenreiter he has inherited players who can play the "front foot" football Moore talked a lot about but did not deliver anywhere near enough.

"It (Worthington's tenure) has shown it's possible for this team to press high and play attractive football," said Breitenreiter.

"There have been a lot of mistakes and it's not possible to destroy them in a few days or a few weeks but it's the start of what we want to see."

Cartwright believes Breitenreiter can buy himself yet more time.

"Given how Andre plays and the fact that giving 100 per cent is incredibly important, I think that will resonate," said the man who led the search for Moore's replacement.

"If you can see what someone's trying to do and you can see the effort, I think that buys patience.

"It's about staying in the league, but it's also about enjoying what you're seeing and I think Andre has exactly the right alignment with Kevin (Nagle, the owner) and the club and what we're trying to establish as the Huddersfield identity.

"I think if we deliver that, the patience comes naturally."

All the talk of style should not hide the substance of the former Schalke and Hannover coach’s ambition.

"I'd like to work in the Premier League as quickly as possible but it would be crazy to speak now about the Premier League," he said. "The highest priority now is to stay in the league and it needs really hard work.

"When we achieve this we can speak in the summer about new goals and talk about the next step."

Other crowd-pleasing lines further underlined how well he knew his audience.

"There are not so many coaches who have the chance to work in England, the motherland of football – high intensity, attractive football, maybe honestly more (attractive) than in Germany," he said.

He scooped up extra brownie points with his theory that "because of David Wagner many people (in Germany) know more about Huddersfield than Leeds."

Not for the first time, Huddersfield have a German coach who can talk a good game in English. How he walks the walk remains to be seen but the early signs are promising.