Sheffield Wednesday comment: What high-flying Owls must improve in order to stay among the promotion pace-setters

The stat arrived at a time when Garry Monk was still very much feeling his way into his new surroundings. The Owls boss made it clear that his was an offensive way of doing things that would ‘play to the strengths’ of his Steven Fletcher-inspired squad, a pragmatic approach that would tick them over while he focused on shoring up the defence and building a stronger, more battling mentality at Middlewood Road.

An incredible job he and his side have done. Fifth in the division, unbeaten in league games at home, just four goals conceded in Monk’s eight Championship matches in charge. In testing circumstances, Sheffield Wednesday have elbowed their way into the centre of a crowded early-days promotion conversation. Not many saw that coming.

That challenge for a long-term shot at Premier League status could well depend on what else Monk and his men have up their sleeve in an offensive sense, however. Since that sunny 4-1 win at ‘Boro, the Owls have yet to score more than one goal in a match. In fact, they’ve bagged two goals in a game only twice since the middle of August.

Not one of their post-Riverside goals have come from a header and they are no longer the aerial kings of their division, let alone Europe. Both Bristol City (eight) and Birmingham (nine) now have more headed goals than Wednesday’s seven in the Championship. Wednesday’s neck-craning aerial domination of the league has passed and the numbers suggest they may need to find another route to goal.

If you were to rather unfairly overlook that Boro blitz and an opening day triple-salvo in a 3-1 win at Reading, Wednesday have scored only 11 goals in 12 matches.

All this is not to say that Wednesday haven’t shown promise going forward of course; far, far from it. Of all the teams in the division they have recorded the sixth-most shots on target (62) and it’s not a major exaggeration to say that Owls fans have witnessed sustained periods of offensive domination in every one of their league games so far.

Chances have been fluffed, saves have been made. The fact is that Wednesday’s ranking as the second-best defence in the league, with more clean sheets than any other side but Leeds, has meant that that the absence of a game-settling two-goal cushion hasn’t really mattered. But one day it surely will. Sheffield Wednesday need to be able to put games to bed.

Since his first week at Hillsborough, Garry Monk has been open and honest about the fact that sharpening his attacking tools was a task better tackled down the line while he built from the back. It’s not been easy given the relentless nature of a busy Championship fixture schedule, but task one appears to have been ticked off.

Where defensive class, a never-say-die attitude and a hard-to-beat reputation are breathing from every pore of Garry Monk’s Sheffield Wednesday, cutting edge in front of goal is yet to become part of it’s DNA.

Whether it’s an offensive re-shuffle or a dip into the January transfer market, if the Wednesday boss can do half the job in getting his forwards firing that he has in moulding his defence, Sheffield Wednesday’s volume in the Championship promotion conversation will get louder and louder.