Inside the press conference that saw Bayern Munich mentality hit Sheffield Wednesday
A point from behind in a game that saw Sheffield Wednesday go four unbeaten. A point that pushed them to ninth in the league table. And yet hard truths were delivered in Danny Röhl’s post-match press conference. Our Owls writer Alex Miller takes you inside the Hillsborough press room.
After 19 matches of the Championship season, Sheffield Wednesday are in a paradox. League position? Very good. Relegation concern? Minimal. From a team that survived in the Championship on the final day just a few sunny months ago, it’s a very solid display of rapid progress. And yet there is a gnawing feeling that they can produce something more.
A 1-1 draw at home to Preston North End was no disgrace. The Owls were poor for great swathes of a game played in swirling weather conditions but managed to claw a point from a down day, once again coming from a goal down to do so. In the end, they could have won it. Preston had the better of the chances and wandering into the Hillsborough press room to kick off the post-match parlay, Lilywhites assistant boss Stuart McCall was right to feel aggrieved at having not taken a win.
And then, soon afterwards, came Danny Röhl. He shook hands with the room as he tends to and having shifted the portable heater to a more advantageous position sat down behind the desk with a smile creeping from the corner of his mouth.
Röhl is a manager who rarely seeks to hide his mood. Wednesday’s performance was far from good enough, he said. He pointedly admitted could have easily made more than the three half-time substitutions he plumped for, such was their first half showing. Ninth they may have gone, but in terms of where he stands on the paradox, the post-match reaction of the German boss was clear; he wants more.
“Maybe I am today a little bit more critical than a lot of people,” he said. “They say ‘Oh yeah the fightback, another point’, but for our and my ambitions it was not right, the performance today.
“I was very direct today with my team. You can look now and say we took points from our four games, it’s not bad. But the performance especially today was not what I want to see from my team. The second half was just a little bit better. We have to change quick. Our strength last year was our home performance. You change the two away wins to two home wins and you take the draw away and you think ‘Oh yes it is fine’.
“But I am ambitious, my team is ambitious and we have to stop talking about the table. We have to speak about the performance, our identity, our journey and what we have to work hard on.”
That these words arrived just a couple of days after Röhl spoke about the elevated expectation levels of supporters at S6 was interesting and prompted some deeper thought. The link, perhaps, between the two threads of back-to-back press conference conversation centres on performance. The Owls boss had spoken about the need for his side to start well in matches, to shake off their home form limp and give fans plenty to shout about. When both team and terrace are working in unison, Sheffield Wednesday can provide a powerful force.
Where last season’s adrenaline-bathed run to safety saw every tackle and pass roared by desperate home supporters at Hillsborough, the reality of life in midtable to date has seen a natural slide to the more morose. The feeling seems to be that midtable probably works for most, all things considered. Saturday’s post-match showed it’s a feeling that Röhl wants to scrap at ground level.
Wednesday may well have moved into ninth, but a reading with more cynical eyes shows that may have been helped with Millwall’s postponement and that the three sides ahead of them have a game in hand with which to stride ahead. Besides, Röhl made crystal clear he was in no mood to discuss their placing in the league table. At this still formative stage of the campaign, it’s points and performance he’s after.
It’s a tight division plagued with draws and after 19 games last season, Wednesday’s current tally would have them positioned four places lower in 13th. In 2022 they would have been 17th, as they would have been in 2021. Somewhere on the walls of his office at Middlewood Road there is a chart measuring the Owls’ progress against a target points tally. You couldn’t help but wonder after his post-Preston press engagement how far his side are behind his projections.
“It makes no sense to speak about this,” he said when asked about going ninth in the table. “We are on 26 points, that will achieve nothing. This is what you need to understand. We must collect points, take the advantage with the basics right. I was really disappointed today. At the half-time I could have subbed more than three players and I think this is a shame. Some players got the chance to start and I do not want to see this. We have Tuesday, two days to recover, we prepare and go again.”
A few weeks after his arrival at Hillsborough, Röhl began speaking about wanting to instil a ‘high performance culture’ at Sheffield Wednesday. He has spoken about the mindset and drive cultivated at places he has worked before; at Bayern Munich and with Germany. Ninth and unbeaten in four after a comeback draw, many managers would have chosen to speak about the positives - Röhl made public demands.
“There are so many teams around,” he continued. “If you win you take positions, if you lose you drop. Even today, we drew and we went into ninth. In this process we could be happy that we take points and we are now unbeaten four matches in a row. I am a young manager, I am ambitious to push and push and push. This division is really special, it’s a crazy league with a lot of difficult moments.
“I love my team, I love my players and I love what they are doing, but sometimes I am not happy.”
He signed off with a smile and a nod, seemingly aware of the shift in the room. Sidling back into the corridor, he left reporters to discuss the content of his press conference between themselves. “I’ll see you soon,” he said.
That he will. He’s a man of high standards. Wednesday’s next opportunity to impress comes against Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday.