Saturday 25 August 2018 19:22, UK
David Wagner believes that Harry Arter was "more clever" than Jonathan Hogg after the Huddersfield captain was sent off for clashing with the Cardiff midfielder during the goalless draw on Saturday.
Hogg was shown a red card after 63 minutes when Michael Oliver deemed he had committed violent conduct by head-butting Arter after the pair had a disagreement from a corner.
Cardiff manager Neil Warnock suggested Hogg had been unlucky, but Wagner was less forgiving saying the midfielder should have shown greater control and stepped away from the incident.
"First of all, I think it was soft but Hoggy has to solve this problem much more cleverly, he has to go away. Both players were aggressive but one player was more clever than the other one and the clever one was not my player," Wagner said.
"In this situation, you have to step away and not invite your opponent to have the opportunity to react how he reacted. Hoggy can solve this problem if he steps away from it, this is how I see it.
"It was unfortunate because he's an experienced pro and he played a very good game for 60 minutes but in this situation he has shown what he usually wouldn't."
That decision certainly had a bearing on the game as Cardiff gained the upper hand while Huddersfield retreated deeper in order to try and protect their point.
Wagner acknowledged that Huddersfield have not hit their top form so far this season but he praised his players for showing the character to see the game out.
"Overall I think it was a good point. For 30 minutes the players fought showed the right attitude in keeping the ball out of the net, we were lucky in two situations as well," he said. "I think 60 minutes long, we controlled the game, we were the only team who really wanted to do something offensively without really the end product
"We are far away from the peak of our performances at the minute but this is normal at this stage of the season. We now have the first point on the board and the first clean sheet which is important so we can take a lot of positives from this game.
"The character and attitude that the players were able to show in front of our home crowd is back again so there are a lot of positives even though we know we have a lot of work to do."
Wagner was forced into an early change after goalkeeper Ben Hamer limped off with a knee injury but he suggested the summer signing from Leicester will not be out of action long-term.
He said: "Hamer looks like he's fine. He took a knock - it was a heavy one - but we will make further investigations and see how long he will be out but it doesn't look like weeks or months."
