Sheffield Wednesday are ‘making strides’ as Josh Windass offers look behind the curtain

Windass will be a key figure for the Owls this season following their return to the Championship after his goal sealed the deal at Wembley back in May, and as one of the more experienced members of the group he is playing a big role off the pitch as well.

The attacker, who speaks Spanish himself, insists that their new manager, Xisco, will get things right eventually, explaining that having limited possession as they did against Southampton and Hull City is not by design.

While acknowledging that the first two games of their season have been tough, Windass is confident that a change is around the corner, saying that everyone has bought into the Spaniards ideas since his arrival at Middlewood Road over the summer.

Speaking to The Star ahead of the visit of Preseton North End, the 29-year-old said, “In house we know what we’re working on every single day, and we are making strides with it on the training pitch, but obviously we’ve not shown that yet on a match day. Selfishly as a forward it’s tough with such little possession, you want as many chances and as many attacks as possible - and that’s not happening at the minute.

“The Gaffer’s style of play is not limited possession, but the first few games have not been completely unexpected because we’ve been practicing stuff and trying perfect what he’s been asking us to do. But he’s very good, and once we get his plan fully into place and understand fully what he wants then I think it’ll be good.

“We’ve been playing a brand of football for two or three years that all the players have been used to every single day, and we’ve signed 10 new players with that style, and people don’t know each other. There are also different nationalities.”

He went on to add, “It’s not as easy as just understanding a new style of play, we’re also working every day to understand the Gaffer’s messages and what he wants, and obviously he speaks a different language.

“But he’s constantly asking us if we understand, saying that if we don’t then we should ask questions. All the lads are genuinely buying into what he wants, and hopefully we can see fruits of that in the upcoming performances.”

Windass needs two more goal contributions to hit the 50-mark in terms of goals and assists for the club since his arrival, originally on loan, in 2020, and he’ll be hoping to try and do so this weekend when Ryan Lowe’s Lilywhites make the trip to S6 this coming weekend.

The two sides face off at 3pm on Saturday for the first time since 2021, a game in which Liam Palmer scored the winner in front of an empty Kop during the Covid-19 shutout for supporters.