Iké Ugbo and the ‘red zone’ as Sheffield Wednesday boss praises on-fire forward

The forward has been a revelation at Hillsborough since joining on loan in January, and his winner against Rotherham United on Saturday afternoon made it six goals in five games as the Owls’ survival push continued at the New York Stadium.

Ugbo played 20 Championship games for Cardiff City in the first half of the 2023/24 season before his loan was cut short to join the Owls, and in a couple of months he’s already bettered his return of four goals for the Bluebirds.

Röhl is delighted with his impact since coming on board, but insists that it’s not just his influence that’s been pleasing.

He said after the 1-0 win in Rotherham, "When you look to some players you look at what they can do and you have a little bit of an idea in your mind… I know what my players did before, and I recognised the areas we can improve in.

“I am happy we got these players, not just one of them, and it's good to see. He deserved it, he worked hard against the ball, it was not easy in his first role pressing and knowing he would not get the ball, it was about forcing the long ball. He did well, and that’s why he deserves his goal. Now it’s about good recovery, and then we go again on Tuesday.”

The Owls boss had to change things in order to gain the edge against the Millers, making a triple substitution early in the second half, and saw immediate reward as all three of them combined to set up Ugbo’s winner. Röhl said it was about the striker and the ‘red zone’.

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Speaking to The Star he said, “I had the feeling that Ugbo needed a bit more freedom in the red zone, and that was the reason why I put Michael Smith in there to have in front as a target player. Dom, with his speed, could overlap and then we scored immediately.

“After that it was about bringing the game back home, so we switch again to a back five and brought Bambo in.”