Sheffield Wednesday will see some immediate change as Dave Challinor highlights problem area
Dave Challinor’s first match as Sheffield Wednesday boss will come on Sunday.
It’s hoped that supporters of Sheffield Wednesday will see some swift technical changes to how the Owls go about their business under Dave Challinor, but any grand sweeping alterations will be part of a process.
The new Wednesday boss is approaching back-to-back cup matches in the next week, the first a televised FA Cup first round tie at Oldham Athletic on Sunday before an EFL Trophy run-out against Accrington Stanley on Wednesday. Their match-up with Plymouth Argyle is subject to postponement owing to the international break, meaning his first league outing could arrive at Oakwell on November 20.
The 51-year-old has built a career out of non-league football and brings a CV of success to S6, having never finished outside the play-off places when managing a full season with any of his four previous clubs.
Stuttering performance levels ultimately cost Henrik Pedersen the job Challinor has taken on and there are areas he and his coaching staff will seek to address quickly having taken their first training session ahead of a day of media duties on Tuesday. Wednesday have been allowed a great deal of possession by opponents this season and have been susceptible to conceding goals on the transition. Challinor immediately pointed that out as a problem to solve.
“It will be a steady process, but I think you'll see some things that are different,” he told The Star. “I think it's important that the stuff we get across has an immediate impact because we're in the middle of a season or partway through a season and we want to try and turn the draws into wins and get some momentum and build on that. Structurally, there'll be some little bits, just clarity and simplicity around what we want to do in certain areas of the pitch.
“Again, without going into too much technical detail, you look at goals that have maybe been conceded. A lot of them have been in transition. Is that because we haven't got players in certain areas of the pitch at certain times? Hopefully, you'll see a change... Everyone will look at it and talk about different shapes. How we do it is different in terms of different parts of the pitch. It's not particularly a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2.
“We're pretty standard in terms of how we'll build in certain areas. We need to get some excitement into this place (Hillsborough). That comes from being positive, playing forward, being purposeful with our possession, making the other team defend for long periods and getting the supporters off the seats. Hopefully, we can see that immediately.”
The Wednesday job surely serves as a career-high opportunity for a manager who has risen through positions at Colwyn Bay, AFC Fylde, Hartlepool United and Stockport County with seven promotions and an impressive 53 per cent league match win ratio. With coaching lieutenants Clint Hill and Anthony Sweeney on board there will be an outline plan for how Wednesday can improve in the here and now, but he says the team with be adaptive in how they go about their Owls mission.
“I think you always evolve and adapt as a football manager,” he said. “How I did it when I first started is different to how it is now. I suppose the unique thing around football is every direction you go into is different because every character, every personality is different in terms of how you have to manage them.
“Ultimately, wherever you go in, you want to set things in place that will allow you to be successful in the long term. In the short term, it's about going and understanding what you've got and working with that and adapting that to be able to meet the ambitions of the football club.”