Lonely Henrik Pedersen image leading to the inevitable - but Sheffield Wednesday onus must be shared
Anger enveloped Sheffield Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers. Alex Miller was there.
Football management can be a lonely and vulnerable occupation. Sat in the Doncaster Rovers press box on Saturday, not 20 yards from the back of Henrik Pedersen’s head, that much was clear.
They say a week is a long time in politics but what of Sheffield Wednesday, where a seven-day swing kicked off with a riotous 5-0 thrashing of AFC Wimbledon that suggested the Owls were to leap towards bolder performance. With games in hand, they could have even gone on to regain top spot. Two powderpuff defeats to lowly opposition since have rapidly pulled the walls further in than ever before.
Once a boss loses the fans to the point of sacking chants, it’s brutally difficult to come back. Pedersen’s role as manager has been one hotly debated ever since The Star reported he would be the man to lead the side into Arise’s Owls rebirth way back in April.
Though always expectant, that Wednesday away support isn’t traditionally one so quick to jump to the sort of chanting we heard at Meadow Lane and at whatever it is they call Donny these days. Though the grumbles of social media were never far, Darren Moore never got to the point of terrace chanting, Garry Monk went deep into his reign without it and even Xisco Munoz received a few games’ grace far beyond the point it was clear his appointment was a horror show. The chanting at Donny, though far from unanimous, feels significant.
Through whistling wind, Pedersen heard it as we the entire ground did. Stood on the edge of his technical area, rain gathering on his shoulders and fingers placed to his chin, his expression was telling as the chants rose-up after Rovers’ second goal came in the 16th minute. A lonely place indeed and a difficult watch.
This may well prove to be the week that sealed his fate and his decisions bear a brunt for that. Decrying a lack of intensity from the off at Notts County was a fair observation but came after he’d named an unchanged side from one that had played just a few days before - with tired bodies brutally evident. A flip-flop from a back three to a back four after just 20 minutes at Donny was an admission of error and he admitted they weren’t prepared for the tactical switches the home side had employed.
Where performance question marks against Bradford City, Stockport County and at Huddersfield Town came with the caveat that in reality those are better teams than the newly-assembled Sheffield Wednesday, the same argument could not be said for County and Rovers.
While Pedersen stands as a lone figure in the crosshairs of fan anger, his contribution to this sorry week is not unaccompanied. Far from it. Experienced campaigner Liam Cooper fronted up to the media post-match to encourage his teammates to stand up and take responsibility for where things have got to and from the press boxes of this season so far, there have to be questions asked of how robust they chose to be in these last two matches.
Swaggering wins at home to Bromley and Wimbledon are one thing. The scrap to grab hold of cold and windy outings at unfashionable venues is another. Wednesday have been praised for battling back in matches of mixed performance to get results, but those admirable efforts have come only after the momentum of the matches had been ceded. Taking control from the off is a different brand of courage.
Elements of Saturday’s performance were cringe-inducing. Simple passes went astray and defensive responsibilities were shirked. The body language of some players towards the end of the first half was bordering on sulk; shoulders southwards and faces sullen. Duels were lost against a group of players that were fiercer in the fight.
There’s no doubt this squad isn’t the all-conquering machine some had optimistically hoped for. In a manic summer beset with recruitment restrictions and an apparent mid-window shift in circumstance, it was perhaps never going to be. Sporting director Simon Wilson forecast messiness right at its outset and with six loanees, players of similar profiles in the central attacking positions and little width, it feels lacking in balance.
Talented though they are, youngsters with only a couple of dozen senior appearances are having to play important roles in a difficult setting and a host of senior men are either injured, returning from injury or are having to be managed through a brutal schedule. The loss of marquee signing Louie Barry feels all the more damaging as weeks go by. Cooper’s valiant admission that mettle is needed feels well-timed and the expectation levels at that club in that division are clearer than ever.
These battles were forecast by many. Just 12 months of from administration, Sheffield Wednesday is growing through the very early stages of a mammoth reinvention and it will take six, seven or eight transfer windows to bring it back to anything like the sort of health it had before Dejphon Chansiri’s bin fire caught light. CEO David Bruce reiterated the point this week that ‘football isn’t linear’ and it’s a point well-made. Vast progress off the field continues.
Watching on from behind the dugout on Saturday, Pedersen at one stage jumped and shrieked with anguish as another pass went astray. His technical area conferences with staff looked more stressed than usual. For all its foibles, there is little doubt more can be brought out of this squad and that talent resides therein. The points tally has outstripped performance level for some time and after 11 matches the hope would be for signs of improvement rather than decay, no matter the circumstances.
Pedersen didn’t shirk the responsibility of facing the away supporters but naturally hung back from the frontline as they made their feelings clear. Some clapped, but the overwhelming mood was one of anger. Returning to the tunnel, he marched through the bellow of a group of Wednesdayites who had got tickets in the home end and post-match he reported for media duties with an air of sorrow not seen before.
The position of the ownership is unclear and based on gut feel, any change in the immediate term seems unlikely. The decision is perhaps more complex than some supporters would have it in that this first big decision draws a line as to what is an acceptable performance level for a manager under their stewardship. The fact is that given the upheaval of what came before, many would have taken their current league standing at the season’s outset. Football isn’t linear.
Another fact is that once supporters begin chanting for a manager’s removal, it’s a road that rarely leads far. An international break looms. The matches continue to arrive fast and Cooper’s rallying cry will have reached his teammates, so who knows.
But it will take a special run for Pedersen to turn this around. Saturday was a brutally difficult watch.