Sheffield Wednesday preparing for Oxford United curveballs in must-win game for hosts
Wednesday’s next opponents are fighting for survival in the Championship
Owls boss Henrik Pedersen is preparing for all scenarios when they take on an Oxford United side who must win otherwise they will be joining Sheffield Wednesday in League One next season.
The U’s have got to win both of their last two matches and hope that Charlton Athletic don’t pick up a single point. Even collecting maximum points might not be enough for Matt Bloomfield’s men because they have a worse goal difference than Charlton. Although their chances of avoiding the drop are slim, Bloomfield has said they will ‘keep fighting’ as they aim to take it to the final day of the Championship season.
With Oxford desperately needing a victory, it could make for an open game at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday. If the scoreline is level or close going into the latter stages then Pedersen, who said it is a ‘big game’ for his team and not just Oxford, is expecting the hosts to throw in some curveballs.
“We know they will come very, very quickly,” he told The Star. “We know they will be very, very direct. We know they will try to put big pressure on us. But of course, as the game goes into the second half, if they need a result, then of course they will maybe make some changes that they normally do not do.
“I think in the beginning it will be a very tough, physical game, and then maybe they need to make some choices if they need to go a little bit more offensive, a little bit more open than normally.”
As well as potentially being quite an open match, there could also be a lot of tension and nerves in the air from an Oxford perspective, something Wednesday could take advantage of. But Pedersen’s focus is building on their performance at Middlesbrough and having something to show for it at full-time.
“For us, we have so much focus on how we can make the next step,” he explained. “At Middlesbrough, we were all very disappointed that we didn't get anything from this game. We were speaking a lot about our well organised press. But how can we be more aggressive when we're winning the ball? How can we play with a bigger belief when we win the ball? How can we speed up the game when we win the ball in a better way so we have more offensive runs in front of the guy who wins the ball when we are in the build up and we have the ball a lot. How can we progress? How can we speed up the game more in the side area? How can we get more crosses? How can we bring more players into the box? This is where we have all our focus right now. So nerves, for me, it's very concentrated for what we want to have more of.”