Vital context and a big need - The view from up-close as Sheffield Wednesday complete Eurotrip
Sheffield Wednesday closed-out their European training camp with a heavy defeat against Stoke City - but only so much of that scoreline actually matters, Alex Miller argues.
Look, a 6-0 defeat is going to sting a wee bit no matter the context. But context there most certainly is. It’s important context - and from a seat in the empty stand looking down on the OFB Campus, it proved a couple of things.
Sheffield Wednesday ended their European tune-up in Vienna with a defeat by that scoreline to a Stoke City side that made the most of some silliness in the Owls’ back third. Four of those goals came in a second half in which Wednesday’s side was made up of youngsters, with all but one of the defensive unit unlikely to feature much this League One season. And the fact of the matter is that it all went a bit farcical after the senior men in that second unit were substituted and left the kids exposed. They were necessary and pre-planned switches.
What Henrik Pedersen and his coaching team will focus most on no doubt as they come to pick the bones out of that one is the first 70 minutes; a closer reflection of what it is that will take Wednesday into their league campaign at Leyton Orient in a few weeks’ time. A 2-0 defeat saw both goals lost to a bout of that silliness and on another day they could have scored a couple themselves.
History would suggest these results matter nish. It’s great for a striker to take confidence into a season after a bustling pre-season and it’s important that players pick up an understanding and deliver on what has been worked on that week. But teams have been promoted on the back of defeat-heavy summers and have been relegated on triumphant ones.
On that second note, the signs were there. The left-hand side of Max Lowe, Louie Barry and Barry Bannan worked nicely and created overlaps and in moments seemed to be developing the sort of dangerous left that saw Bannan dovetail so effectively with Marvin Johnson and Josh Windass in years gone by.
The Owls have worked hard on transition and pressing in Hungary this week and time and again they were able to recover possession in the Stoke half. Good chances fell to Jamal Lowe and Callum Slattery, who was an excellent standout in a pleasing first public outing in blue and white. The play after recovering possession was at times slick and speedy. You could see the benefit of their time in Telki. Against a side in the division above, 2-0 felt harsh and had the scoreline fallen the other way, it wouldn’t have been a shock.
What rubbed dirt on the occasion was the second half and the scoreline capitulation in a mis-matched 70 minutes of football. If you are going to take anything out of it, it was a confirmation of what we already knew; that more depth is required in the Wednesday squad.
As signposted by Henrik Pedersen in the days before the trip to Austria, key positions need strengthening - a bustling, goalscoring nine, more thrust on the right side, numbers throughout. And at this stage of a window that has already seen a net gain of six senior players, it’s hardly a surprise there is still work to do given the base from which they were working.
Wednesday are approaching their limit on transfer and loan fees and will have to be savvy in the market to get what they desire. Interest in Championship number nines might well prove difficult to push on with in their circumstances, though the trump card of being able to pay decent wages at League One level will help in the loans market. There doesn’t appear to be any sense of panic and speaking post-match, a relaxed Pedersen professed confidence and that he is ‘sleeping well’ over the fulfilling of the squad as recruitment staff work towards further signings. There are over five weeks left of the transfer window.
Ambition is high in the camp and expectations within the fanbase follow suit. As argued in this column a number of times already this summer, the task of building a squad from scratch in a rapid turnaround to blitz towards a league title is a difficult one. Sheffield Wednesday in the third tier will always carry a degree of that anticipation and the online reaction to today’s streamed effort shows a nervousness that will carry into the season proper.
But even in what was technically a 6-0 defeat, there were signs of rapid progress and periods of play quite unlike anything we saw last season. That left side is exciting and sections of the first 70 minutes showed a cohesion going forward the relegated side never saw much of. The new players looked promising - some a great deal more so.
One way or another, in a few weeks that scoreline will be a distant memory. There is work to be done, but from a humble press seat in Vienna, the context around that 6-0 defeat is worth considering.