Sheffield Wednesday have made big 'culture' strides - patience needed on football style
Sheffield Wednesday are a work in progress.
Second-placed Sheffield Wednesday are far from the finished article in terms of playing style, Henrik Pedersen has admitted, at what remains the early stages of a ground-up rebuild mission.
Wednesday headed into an extended international break off the back of six unbeaten matches across all competitions - though back-to-back goalless draws at home to Wigan Athletic and Stockport County have raised a grumble from sections of the fanbase. Last week a much-changed Owls side came from behind for the second time on the road this season to claim an EFL Trophy win at Salford City - a result that secured the club four consecutive away wins for the first time since 2011.
After a crisis-stricken season from hell last time out, boss Henrik Pedersen is proud of the gristle shown by a squad put together in a whirlwind summer that included the addition of 18 new players - and again accepted time is required to get everything settled into a preferred playing style as things progress.
He said: “I think it is for the Premier League, for Championship, for League One that you have your pre-season, you get your squad very late and then there are so many games in the beginning of the season and to learn from game to game without training, with many new players, it has been a challenge. To develop a team from the football style, it is difficult in this period.
“I am happy that our culture has been developed, that we have had such a strong culture and that we have come through this in a very good way. But you can see that the settled teams have a good advantage in this period. Now we really, really have to train a lot so we can bring all the advantages back to us again. So we can be the team we want to be.”
The vagaries of League One are a different challenge to that of the Championship and work was undertaken ahead of the end of last season to prepare for what was to come. A wider range of playing styles are to be combatted and teams are more likely to draw-up different plans in taking on Wednesday as one of the ‘bigger fishes’ in the third tier. Pedersen expects the Owls to make strides on how they want to go about things - with added time on the training field key.
“League One is a brutal league,” Pedersen grinned. “The physical level is very high. The power in the league, the second ball, the duels, it is tough. It is so tough. And all teams have something special they are really good at. It is a tough, tough league. But I am really, really looking forward to the next weeks.”