'We struggled...' - Sheffield Wednesday boss reacts to Swansea City hammering as Owls set awful club record
Sheffield Wednesday manager, Henrik Pedersen, says that the Owls struggled with their ‘defensive transition’ after switching to a back four.
Wednesday lost 4-0 against Swansea City on Sunday afternoon, with Goncalo Franco, Zan Vipotnik (x2) and Malick Yalcouye getting the goals at Swansea.com Stadium. The result saw the Owls go nine goals without a goal in nine league games for the first time in their 158-year history, leaving them stuck on -7 points.
Pedersen opted to go for a back four as he handed debuts to Tayo Adaramola and Joel Ndala, and while things didn’t work out, the Dane says that he saw some positives at different points in the game.
Henrik Pedersen reacts to another Sheffield Wednesday defeat
Speaking to the media afterwards he said, “We had two good training sessions with a lot of positive energy, and we changed from a back three to a back four for the first time. I really think the first 20 minutes until the goal there was a good energy in the team and an offensive mindset in the pressing. I think it was a positive beginning.
“But we also saw after 1-0 that the courage of the players dropped down a little bit. We had some easy losses, and we started to run after the ball. We wanted to press with a four to have players higher up the pitch and have more aggressive pressing and win the ball higher up with an extra player… But we also had to respect that Swansea are a very, very strong possession team and it was a tough one to press.
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“Second half when we changed to a diamond in the middle of the pitch, we started to win more balls higher up the pitch and were more aggressive… But when we won the ball we lost the ball, and we conceded three goals after defensive transitions where we lost the ball too directly and one where they won a free kick and scored from it.
“It was a day where we wanted to take more risks and be more offensive in pressing, we struggled with the defensive transition and played against a very strong team.”
Wednesday now turn their attentions to Millwall on Saturday afternoon as they look to try once again to break their goal duck, and the hope is that they’ll have Svante Ingelsson back available by the time that game comes around after he missed the Swansea game due to personal reasons.