Sheffield Wednesday plans revealed for added fixture as rhythm mission continues
Sheffield Wednesday are at the start of a three-week break from League One football.
Sheffield Wednesday intend to take part in a behind-closed-doors run-out late next week as they look to continue working towards a rhythm in the early days of their grand rebuild mission.
A goalless draw in a home clash with promotion challengers Stockport County meant the Owls headed into the break in second place in the early season table. Admissions have been made on a lack of fluency in their week-on-week performances, with 18 new players still bedding in to life at Wednesday and aspects of their game still to be tuned.
An unusually long international break has seen their next two league fixtures postponed, with three weeks to have passed by the time they make the trip to another promotion hopeful in Huddersfield Town on October 10. With the search for true rhythm ongoing, manager Henrik Pedersen confirmed to The Star that the club are seeking an extra ‘test game’ outing towards the end of next week, to fall between EFL Trophy matches at Salford City and against Sunderland u21.
“We will have a good game on Tuesday then we will have a few days rest,” he said ahead of the Stockport game. “Then we will have a training week and hopefully a test game at the end of the next week.
“Then we will have a weekend off and then we will have a preparation week where everything goes into Huddersfield. So, three different weeks but three weeks where we have to use in the best possible way to bring players back from injuries to increase the physical level for some players and to get some basic clarity in some basic principle for how we want to play. So, we have a lot to do in those three weeks.”
Asked on what sort of opposition the Owls might seek to take on in the extra run-out, Pedersen confirmed it would be an external side and not an 11 v 11 taken in-house. He said: “We are searching right now. We are in conversation with more teams to find a team we can play against.”
The trip to Salford is likely to see a marked turnover in the squad that has played the bulk of their seven League One matches so far, with fringe players set to get minutes alongside senior figures new to the club. Di’Shon Bernard may well play a part having staged a long recovery from injury suffered in February last year. Pedersen said the club would be taking the competition seriously - but suggested changes are inevitable.
“We will use the game to train who we want to be,” he said. “I know we have a lot of games but right now we need training time together and we need experience together. There are some players who have not played so much who will get some game practice. We have new players who have not been here for a long time who also need game practice. So we will use it very seriously and in the best possible way.”