Why Danny Rohl must stick to his principles at Sheffield Wednesday

Sounds contradictory, but the reason Sheffield Wednesday lost heavily at Ipswich is also the reason why they have won so many other games lately.

It’s also why Danny Rohl will - and must - hold firm on his attacking strategy for the rest of the season.

Especially now they have got rid of games where it could backfire as spectacularly as in Suffolk.

With hindsight, it’s obvious Rohl went in too gung-ho against one of the promotion favourites. Maybe it was even apparent before the start with a midfield of effectively only Barry Bannan and Will Vaulks. Yet, even after a 6-0 drubbing, you can understand why he did it.

Playing catch-up still, Wednesday can’t be in the business of grinding out draws. The young boss gambled on taking the game to a superior side and lost heavily. Put that down to a steep learning curve and the occasional need for horses for courses.

But essentially I imagine he didn’t want his players to deviate from an aggressive mindset, without which the Owls wouldn’t have given themselves a chance of staying up.

A good chance too as it now stands. They have seven clubs above them within five points and only have to overhaul two. All are struggling, none pulling clear.

So, glancing at the rest of the programme, I’d still back Wednesday to edge out of it - providing their self-belief hasn’t been undermined by the Portman Road pasting.

Most games look winnable on recent standards. A couple are particularly tricky, the visits of in-form play-off hopefuls Norwich and West Brom. But the real key games are those with relegation rivals QPR, Stoke and Blackburn. Winning those would go a long way to safety.

So, to sum up, I can’t see Rohl changing from being ultra-positive and nor should he. And by and large, his approach has seen off teams Wednesday have a realistic chance of beating. You can add Easter opponents Swansea and Middlesbrough to that list, although realistically one three-point haul wouldn’t be a bad return. It’s single points that are the enemy; too many of those and the Owls could fall short.

Rohl’s approach will clearly risk trading wins for defeats, which has to be the way to go considering Wednesday’s vastly inferior goal difference to all their rivals.