Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Röhl honest on why he dropped Liam Palmer, Akin Famewo and two others

The Owls took the lion’s share of possession for the second match running and took on 14 attempts at goal to the Millers’ six on a day the away side were not able to register a shot on target. Two gals from Michael Smith, an ex-Rotherham hero, did the business as Wednesday slid into cruise control in the second half.

Wednesday registered Marvin Johnson in the week, bringing their number of registered first team players to 25 plus players under the age of 19. With only Momo Diaby and Juan Delgado missing through injury, it means boss Danny Röhl has a large squad to choose from - and that senior players will miss out on being involved in the matchday squad from week to week.

The club’s long-time vice-captain Liam Palmer was missing from the squad for the Rotherham game, as were Akin Famewo and Jeff Hendrick, both involved in Röhl’s opening two outings as manager. Mallik Wilks, Tyreeq Bakinson and Ashley Fletcher were also absent.

“We have just 20 positions in the squad,” Röhl told The Star. “It was a very hard decision, I know it is always difficult for a manager when you have a big squad and I have to decide this. The reaction from Liam was great, he trained hard again in the morning and this is what I need. It is a long season and until the end it is a hard race. It’s important to see the direction of the players that didn’t play.”

Famewo had previously played every minute of Röhl’s short time with the club at left-back, with the team shifted to a fresh system for the Millers game and Reece James preferred wide left.

“I spoke with Akin,” the German said. “His performance in the two matchdays was not amazing but he made good things. Today I decided against Akin, he was a little bit maybetired from the last two games and it’s important we don’t overload to handle this. For sure he was a little bit disappointed, but he is open-minded, he understood this and next week he is fresh and can go in the next training sessions.”