Danny Röhl calls for individual responsibility in killing matter that has Sheffield Wednesday fans concerned
Sheffield Wednesday head into tonight’s Yorkshire derby clash with Leeds United hoping to bounce back from the shock of heavy defeat at Sunderland.
Although expressing the requirement for improvement, Owls boss Danny Röhl gave a philosophical view on the defeat and reiterated the need for those in-house - and across the wider Wednesday machine - to remain on an even keel with regard to results fluctuating one way or another. So far this season his side have seen the full spectrum of results; a 4-0 win over Plymouth Argyle and a 4-0 defeat at Sunderland coming either side of a 2-1 Carabao Cup win at Hull City.
One of the concerns that sparked from the Stadium of Light defeat was the fact that two of their four conceded goals came from set pieces, the first saw Dennis Cirkin head home unchallenged after the home side swelled their numbers at the back post. Röhl spoke after the match to hint at the need for players on the pitch to take responsibility and in his pre-match press conference.
“If you recognise that you stay on the second post in a one against three then it would be helpful that you tell your teammates that we need more bodies on the second post,” he said with a smile, not-so-subtly referencing Cirkin’s effort at Sunderland. “It is not one guy, we have a guy who can see everything as the goalkeeper, you have guys that have to organise the wall, our positioning. For this we have 11 players on the pitch and a lot of coaches off the pitch. With all of us, we take responsibility for the next action.
“This is what we do, we analyse this and hopefully we learn from this. It is always easy to say, everybody knows what happens and what we talk about in the pre-match meal and all of this. But this is football, if you make no mistakes then all the games would be a draw, a nil-nil. It's a process, we have to learn and this is a key message.”