Sheffield Wednesday: Massimo Luongo on what needs to change in the Owls changing room ahead of Charlton Athletic trip
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Their run of games without a win was stretched to five and their 1-1 draw with Birmingham City offered only frustration as Garry Monk’s men once again allowed long periods of possession pass by without putting the game beyond doubt.
But Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Massimo Luongo, back in the side after a lengthy lay-off, believes signs of recovery from their slump are there, and that a change of attitude would see them return to a form that saw them rise to third in the league earlier in the season.
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Hide AdRepeating the accepted wisdom that Wednesday require more luck and that they need to be more clinical in front of goal, the Australian international said there needs to be a mentality switch. And fast.
“I feel like we need that arrogance of closing out games and that arrogance, with teams coming here, we'd destroy teams,” he said.
“We've got to have that bit more belief in ourselves and our abilities. We need to think that teams are coming to Hillsborough and are not leaving with any points.
“We are a little bit like that, but I think is the whole squad comes together and we can put in that little bit extra mentally, then I think we can get up that table.”
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Hide AdAsked whether the squad feel as though they are one win away from a run of positive results, he said:
“It feels like that. We need to have a little more belief in ourselves. The little things that we're getting wrong, we're correcting them quickly.
“We're keeping more possession on the ball, we're not conceding a lot of goals and our final third entries today, it's more than we've had for a long time.
“We are improving, we just need to put it in the net. When we score one early, now we're doing what we're doing, we might score two, three, four.”
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Hide AdLuongo was utilised higher up the pitch in the Birmingham draw, in a high-energy midfield three consisting of himself, Barry Bannan and Keiran Lee.
And the 27-year-old felt the side benefited, maintaining Wednesday were unlucky to miss out on the result given the side’s positive performance overall.
“We dominated the game,” he said. “In terms of possession, we had it in the final third better than they did, I can't remember them having a shot aside from the goal.
“It was a more complete performance from us, if we'd kept out the goal we were 100% going to score. We did and it was always looking like a 1-0 win for us.
“They didn't look like they were going to score and when they did, it took us by surprise, but we did well to get back into the game.”
Wednesday make the trip to Charlton Athletic on Saturday.