Sheffield Wednesday's search for better and the weekend's glimpse into the Simon Wilson ideal
Sheffield Wednesday welcome promotion nearly-men Stockport County to Hillsborough this afternoon.
Top of the table after six League One matches, Sheffield Wednesday might feel themselves satisfied given the manic turnaround effort undertaken this summer. Not so.
Owls boss Henrik Pedersen wants more from his developing side and speaking ahead of this afternoon’s visit of Stockport County reported a positive week at their Middlewood Road training base. For the excitement of the final days of the transfer window and for all the impressions made in a campaign kick-off that has delivered four wins, there is an acceptance that the side is a work in progress.
What Stockport will bring is genuine promotion-challenging quality and a know-how at this level that Wednesday will aspire to. They’ll also bring a glimpse into the longer-term goals of Owls sporting director Simon Wilson, whose steering hand on a Hatters run from the National League to last season’s League One play-off final pits him as one of the most hotly-tipped figures in EFL football.
Asked what an insight into Stockpot can offer the view of Wilson’s methods going forward, Pedersen said simply: “Clarity. I think the clarity of the team is very high. I think the profiling of the players is very high. I think how you can see it's a team that has been together for a long time so there's continuity. The patience that Stockport have had over more years to build something up who can be really, really competitive now for the big one. They were very close to going to the Championship.
“It's also telling me that when you have this, then you can build a team up. For me, it's the inspiration for this, for clarity for how you are playing. It's very clear how they do the things, it's a clear culture and there has been a very clear strategy behind to find players and to scout players and into the philosophy for how you want to play football.”
Though different in style, a settled Stockport outfit will present many similar challenges to that posed by Bradford City - the one side to have beaten Wednesday in league football so far this season. A race to the top of the table and the general pressure that sits on the club at third tier level will bring an inevitable pressure to the home side to claim three points.
Any outside expectation is something that is felt within the walls of Middlewood Road, Pedersen suggested, but is not being treated as a hurdle as they continue going about building their season.
The Owls boss continued: “Of course we are aware of this but I have always only control and I try to control what I can control. I try to control that we bring our team on, that we get a clear, clear direction for how we want to play. We get a clear direction for how we want to perform together. A week like this where we have had more sessions, we have had more sessions this week than we have had the last 24 days.
“This is a week that will help us a lot. We have a national team break, it will also help us. I know we have a lot of players who have gone for national teams and that we have some weeks now before all the pre-games where we can train.
“This is a week that will help us a lot to get bigger clarity in our pressing, to get bigger clarity when we win the ball, to get bigger clarity in our build-up, bigger clarity in the relation between to be on the ball and to lose the ball. So, we are still in the beginning but we are really ready to compete tomorrow.”