Alan Biggs: The 11 games that will define the course of Sheffield Wednesday's season

Impotence and teams managed by Tony Pulis are a contradiction in terms.
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Will Sheffield Wednesday’s new boss, never relegated, be powerless to halt this one’s slide? Has he met a greater challenge?Certainly, for all my pleas for patience here last week, he has to keep the Owls in the Championship for starters; now looking a far taller order than when he launched a self-assessed “tough gig” that shows no win in six games.And the next five are a huge worry, to be encountered before Pulis even gets a chance to address obvious weaknesses in the January window; another six before it shuts amid the usual flurry of late deals.Those eleven games will have a huge bearing on Wednesday’s fate.Meanwhile, the early strategy is under duress. Be pragmatic, stay in games, get the maximum out of them up to the New Year.That has been my reading of Pulis’s approach to his first opportunity to level the playing field.Right now it is heavily sloped against him by the lack of even one striker who automatically selects himself.This feeds, of course, into the “Pulis-ball” stereotype that what we are seeing is the way he prefers to play. I’m sure he’d take an impish delight in proving that at least partially wrong - both the perception and the reality.Initially, you couldn’t fault him for trusting his grinding instincts as he faced four teams riding high in the table, competing well against all of them, knowing he couldn’t fight fire with fire.But drawing, or being edged out, intensifies the pressure when you collapse 2-0 at Huddersfield.It was never likely to be pretty or popular. Regimented a better word. This is a manager who likes, if possible, to keep a settled team and a system in which everyone is drilled on their exact role.Pulis is a formidable firefighter and I have no doubt he will be on a lavish bonus simply keeping Wednesday in the Championship.Doubtless the future of this management depends upon it.Looking past that, Pulis would hope in the summer to take the job much further based on contractual arrangements that have been kept secret. Why otherwise would he have talked about overtaking Sheffield United at his unveiling?But that’s way distant beyond as big a bare-knuckle fight as he has encountered.Essential wins and how to get them are the worry. How?From what I’ve seen, this team doesn’t press high, particularly against the better opposition. The tendency is to sit off, pack the defending half and get to grips closer to goal, while trying to spring a counter-attack from there.Added to which Pulis hates to let opponents “get in behind.” While Wednesday have some resolute defenders, pace isn’t a strong point.Not the football anyone prefers to see, though understandable why Pulis has felt it necessary.His unenviable dilemma now - acknowledging his dubious inheritance - is that only wins and plenty of them will see the Owls safe.I don’t doubt more substantial funding from the owner, probably by prior pledge, for January signings. Somehow - don’t ask me how - Pulis has to get the team into a position to make them meaningful.