What Henrik Pedersen told Ike Ugbo in private moment Sheffield Wednesday fans spotted
Sheffield Wednesday striker Ike Ugbo shared a tender moment with his manager when leaving the pitch in their goalless draw at West Brom on Saturday.
The Canada international came off at the 80-minute mark having started the match in place of youngster Bailey Cadamarteri to be immediately embraced by the Danish coach, who was animated while speaking to him for an extended period, pulling his head close to that of his striker before patting him on the back.
The Hawthorns clash was Ugbo’s fourth Championship start of the season and though his goal drought in league football continued with a couple of chances missed, though he did earn post-match praise from his manager for his defensive commitment in a match that saw Wednesday cede 61.9 per cent possession. The embrace between the pair was noticed by Wednesday supporters in the ground and was also picked up by Sky television cameras.
Speaking to The Star, the Owls boss explained what had been said: “I told Ugbo he played a great game today defensively. We played away at West Brom, we cannot expect to have the ball 60 or 70 per cent where we are dominant all the time and he has the easy job to stay up near the goal and be served. No. He worked so hard for all the basic defensive things. And this is the basic for our team, he did a good job for the team today.”
Pedersen has previously spoken about the need for intensity from Ugbo, who cruelly is yet to score in the league since making a white-hot loan stint permanent last summer. It appears he feels he is now getting that from him - along with the rest of his side. The Owls boss has often spoken about looking ‘behind the result’ and was glowing in his assessment of the 27-year-old’s wider contribution to the away point.
“Ugbo is in a better place than he has been for a long time and he is working really, really hard,” Pedersen continued. “But the other guys also work hard and this is making me very proud. He was one part of a very hard-working team today, but you see Svante and how he is working, Jamal, Barry and Yan in the central. You see how much courage our back five start to play with now.
“You need courage. You need to invest a lot to do the pressing against West Brom, a lot of play in the first phases of the build-up. You cannot press with one, two or three players, you need to press with five, six, seven. To keep this compress when you go from medium to high press, Dominic and Yan and Liam, this is the best defensive game they have played. Harry and Sean, the two young guys, they did it really, really well on both of the sides.”