Sheffield Wednesday coach Sascha Lense on implementing Red Bull ideas - and who must get more credit

Speaking exclusively to The Star, the Owls performance manager spoke glowingly on the way Wednesday's players young and old have adapted to a fresh way of doing things under the new coaching staff and intimated that the confidence gained with last week's four-point haul can push them further in their process.

Röhl and his staff have gone about implementing a new style of play at S6, with high-intensity a 'non-negotiable demand' along with a distinct pressing style never before seen at Hillsborough. While results have been slow-moving since the coaching team arrived in South Yorkshire in October, a distinct upturn in performances has been enjoyed, with positive returns in matches against Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers offering huge encouragement in their survival quest.

It's been a reality that hasn't phased those within the camp, Lense said: "When you work in football, you know that when you do things, the result is often delayed. You can train the right things, but you don't always win the next game. On the other hand, you can maybe train the wrong things and you can win the next game. This is what we know, that you need time and patience for your ideas and your work.

"The players have been highly committed to Danny's plan since we arrived. The work ethic has been very good when it has sometimes been a little bit difficult. It was good that in the last week we got a bit of positive consequence for our work."

Wednesday's new approach has been described as 'Red Bull-lite' by some onlookers, owing to the experiences of Röhl, Lense and assistant head coach Henrik Pedersen working within the sport drink's highly-sophisticated network of football clubs. The Red Bull playing model is one that has changed how the game is played in some parts of Europe and has been imitated by clubs around the world. Characteristics of Red Bull sides have been spotted in the early days of Röhl's Wednesday reign.

The Owls boss has quickly built a strong rapport with the club's vast fan base and has received adulation from the terraces for his efforts in rescuing a dire start to the campaign. Lense smiled warmly when speaking about the glowing reception Röhl and by proxy his coaching staff have received, but urged a sharing of praise to go to the club's players.

"It feels like a lot of people and the fans appreciate his work," he said. "It is amazing to hear the supporters singing his name, but sometimes they have maybe forgotten what the players have done in this period. I can tell you, it is really hard for players to pick up this style of football.

"Normally players in the Red Bull example, they have been playing for the youth teams in Salzburg, then the senior team, then maybe Red Bull Leipzig. They are used to it for five, six, seven, eight years. For our players, we had maybe two or three weeks. I cannot highlight enough the work rate and commitment to the players with regard to our style of football.

"Normally we are used to doing this with younger players. Maybe sometimes they (younger players) are a little more open-minded to playing a different style of football because some things are different in the way we want to play. Normally, in old times or at some clubs, a defender has to defend and the striker scores. In our philosophy a striker has to defend and a defender has to be involved in the build-up game.

"Every time, in every moment, every player has a job to do. In our opinion we thought it might be easier when the player is younger, but when we arrived here we have not only young players but senior players and they have all taken to it very well. There is a very high commitment to training."