What Barry Bannan said on tired Sheffield Wednesday ‘over-reliance’ notion – with big ‘since Carlos’ Owls claim

No team in the EFL has had as many players offer goal contributions than Wednesday after Mark McGuinness became their 17th goalscorer of the season in the 1-0 win over Shrewsbury Town last weekend. A whopping 13 Owls players have registered assists.

It blows an old adage that Wednesday are too reliant on Bannan’s considerable creative powers out of the water, though he remains Wednesday’s main man – his 10 goal contributions sits alongside those of Josh Windass as the highest figure in the squad.

An over-inflation of Wednesday’s reliance is one that sits uncomfortably with Bannan.

“There’s always been other players here who have been producing as well,” he said. “It’s easy for other teams to look at it like ‘Stop Barry, stop Sheffield Wednesday’, but we’ve got loads of good players here that score goals and make things happen.

“It’s just from the outside, all that. From within the club there’s no thought that there is an over-reliance on me, we’ve got top quality all over the pitch.

“If teams try to stop me, it’s my job to take them to places where my teammates can cause damage. It’s not just Barry Bannan at Sheffield Wednesday, we’ve got top players all over.”

MORE: Barry Bannan spells out frank advice to Fisayo Dele-Bashiru over unresolved contract saga

It had been argued with more credence that Wednesday leaned on Bannan’s creative talents too much in seasons gone by, particularly in a 2020/21 campaign that saw the Owls finish bottom of the Championship.

Today’s squad has far more depth, which can prevent that from becoming an issue again, said the 32-year-old.

“There were a lot of injuries in the relegation season to key players, which is why it may have looked like an over-reliance [on Bannan],” he said.

“If those key players had been fit, other teams would’ve had those guys to deal with as well. We were unlucky with injuries.

MORE: Ex-Sheffield United man ‘looking forward’ to Sheffield Wednesday clash as Mansfield Town boss makes ‘biggest club’ shout

“The changing room this season is full of quality. We’ve had injuries but it shows the strength in depth and the quality we’ve got that we haven’t always missed the players that have been out this season.

“Depth-wise, this is probably the strongest squad apart from Carlos’ couple of seasons.”