Huddersfield Town head coach André Breitenreiter says there will be changes to his all-but-relegated Terriers side when they visit Portman Road on Saturday for a final-day game that should see the Blues promoted back to the Premier League, but not too many as he knows his team need to remain professional during such a big match.
The second-bottom West Yorkshire side can still finish level on points with Plymouth in 21st but would require an unlikely turnaround in goal difference to remain a Championship club next season.
"We were all sad because it’s over now,” the German, who took charge in February following Darren Moore’s sacking, said reflecting back to last Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with third-bottom Birmingham City.
"Fifteen goals to score, it’s not really realistic. Most of the people were really sad but we arrived [back at training] on Monday and experienced a good atmosphere.
"It goes on and now we have the last game and we have to present ourselves as good possible.
"It’s a massive game, especially for Ipswich. They need one more point and we want to end the season as good as possible, maybe with a very good performance and if it’s possible, also with a win.”
Asked whether it’s important for him that Huddersfield’s intentions going into the match aren’t questioned, Breitenreiter said: "It’s the last week now, so we concentrated in the first half of the week on recovery and on trying some exercises, then Wednesday we were off and today we prepared the match plan.
"Ipswich is a team with good play in ball possession, they play well, they’ve scored a lot of goals, 90, I think, they won on Tuesday at Coventry 2-1 and it’s a massive game because it’s sold out, it’s a good atmosphere and it should be special, also for our players to give their best and to show everyone a good performance.
"So we prepared the plan and now the players know about everything, will train on Friday and then we leave to go to Ipswich to give our best.”
Terriers fans appear ambivalent at best regarding the final day, knowing the Blues claiming a point would deny their West Yorkshire rivals Leeds United an automatic promotion place.
"I understand our supporters, they don’t like their neighbour club,” the Huddersfield boss laughed. "In Germany, it’s not allowed to speak the name of the neighbours.
"When we have the derby, I understand this, but we are all professionals and it’s our task and our job to do the best every time and many players maybe want to show their best performance to show they are the right person for next season or maybe they want to shine for a new task at another club.
"I’m sure that everyone will try to give his best and when it means that we also finish the season with a good result, then the fans also deserve that we give our best, and we’ll try to give our best.”
Breitenreiter was very critical of his players following the draw at Birmingham, questioning the commitment and work ethic shown by some in his dressing room, feeling there were those more disappointed than others regarding the club’s relegation, some leaving early, as he says they did every day.
He was also damning regarding the pre-season programme during Neil Warnock’s time in charge - Moore took charge in September - in which he had been told "the team trained once per day and the focus was on playing golf and maybe staying in the pub”.
He says conversations regarding the future of his squad - and also whether he remains in charge - will take place next week, believing the Terriers "need a reset” and that "many things need to change”.
"You can be sure that we take just the players to travel with us to Ipswich who we think are right because some players are on loan or some players are thinking maybe in their heads that they’ve left the club,” he said regarding Saturday's match.
"We also want to give players a chance who every time give their best in training sessions, maybe it’s time for them to get a chance, but not so many changes because we have to be professional because of the massive game. We can speak about the whole thing later.”
Despite his critical comments regarding his players, Breitenreiter wasn’t particularly unhappy with last week’s display and confirmed one of the changes he’ll make on Saturday with keeper Chris Maxwell, sent off at Portman Road while playing for Preston in Paul Lambert’s first game in charge, coming into the XI for the first time since December.
"I spoke directly in the press conference after [last week’s] game, the performance last week was absolutely OK, the players gave their best, many players blew up after a few minutes, after 60. But that we have to accept because they tried their best,” he said.
"For Saturday, one change I can tell you, we change the goalkeeper because Chris Maxwell deserves to start one game when I’m in charge because he was professional the whole time, he is absolutely clear and he had with Lee [Nicholls] the whole season, so he deserves to play in the last game.
"We spoke today to Lee and to Max and both are fine. This is one change that’s nothing to do the behaviour because Lee is absolutely a good character.”