Sheffield Wednesday urged to be more aggressive as horror season rolls on
Sheffield Wednesday players have been urged to show more fire in the way they go about their business - as they continue to navigate the season of all seasons.
The Owls have been tasked with navigating a horror set of circumstances, with a squad pulled apart in the last two transfer windows and left some way short of the quality required to consistently claim points at Championship level. A run of 25 matches without a win in all competitions has sparked debate, however, about how Wednesday can go about claiming that long-awaited victory.
In what is a tiresome mental task, manager Henrik Pedersen has explained the importance of being aggressive in their actions and earlier in the campaign refused to pushback on questions around a brutal and bad-tempered second half display against Derby County. Asked whether his side could show more aggression in how they go about their work generally, the Owls boss agreed it was something he felt he could see more of.
“In the last game against Wrexham I think we saw that,” he said. “The first half against Wrexham was fantastic pressing, the intensity, the aggressiveness, everything. We were tough to play against. (At Blackburn) I missed that in the first half. Second half I think we started to show it again. This is a big part of things to win football games in the Championship.”
Despite their disadvantages and a run of eight matches without a goal, Wednesday have been competitive between the boxes in most matches in this campaign - evidenced once again by a 1-0 scoreline in defeat to a poor Blackburn Rovers side on Tuesday evening. The addition of players with dynamism in the January transfer window has offered encouragement that the side can be brought closer to ending a wait for a league point that has now stretched to six matches.
Pedersen said: “There are a lot of games this season where we finish and I think 'argh', because with just a little bit more up front, a little bit more somewhere.. We have played so many equal games this season, so many equal games. But it is the last pass, the last touch. Today I think it was a game that we could have scored one or two. It is so tight.
“Against Wrexham, we had the first chance and didn't score. They scored. We have a chance again, we missed them. We are starting to create chances. We want to win football games. With a little bit more luck, we have to be better in this phase of the game. Of course we can take more in the games.”