White jeans and no Brown: SIX takes from Sheffield Wednesday's derby defeat at Huddersfield

A dire first half saw the home side dominate and though Wednesday improved in the second period, it was far too little, far too late as they failed to create or control nearly enough of the match.

Goals for Josh Koroma and Isaac Mbenza took the points from the Owls as the Terriers were even afforded the luxury of missing a penalty.

Let’s take a look at six talking points from an evening better left unspoken.

Fives and threes

With Massimo Luongo in for Joost van Aken, pre-match chatter centred on how Wednesday would set-up. And it was all-change after just a few minutes as Huddersfield overloaded the Owls’ left.

Their initial three-in-the-middle, five-at-the-back defence changed as Frazier Campbell and Isaac Mbenza got early joy, with Moses Odubajo skipping across from the right to assist Adam Reach with their threat to push into a four. It didn’t work. The Owls were sluggish, failed to compete and were completely deserving of their 2-0 deficit after 25 minutes.

There seemed to be confusion among the players for several minutes.

Sixes and sevens

For 83 minutes just a few days ago, this Wednesday side held Norwich at bay with real assurance and confidence. That’s a Norwich top of the league, expected by many to stay there. They were robust against Swansea, Stoke and Reading, all teams fighting at the upper-end of the table. Whilst not blisteringly exciting, it was encouraging.

At Huddersfield? They looked open and susceptible somehow. The solidity and focus they’d shown in those previous games evaporated, the sense of responsibility disappeared. Watching on from the stands, it felt like Wednesday their very worst, transported for an evening to the darkest days in the worst spells under Garry Monk.

The home side played well and early changes were made, sparking confusion, but the performance was desperately poor with very little quality shown.

Pulis raging

With every fluffed cross and every simple missed pass, the fuse of Tony Pulis fizzled and fizzled. At points in the first half, he was as animated and angry at his players as The Star had ever seen a manager in a technical area, very pointedly singling out players for a lack of quality on the ball.

Previous Wednesday managers have been criticised for not being honest enough about the job at hand. That can’t be aimed at Pulis, who has time and again described this as a ‘tough gig’ and has spoken about the need to get to January with as many points as possible.

He wasn’t the only member of the Owls’ backroom team to show emotion on a difficult evening. Fitness guru Tony Strudwick and coach Craig Gardner lost their temper with fourth official Michael Salisbury as the teams came out for the second half.

Knocked up

They say when it rains, it pours. When it rains on Sheffield Wednesday, it gets somewhere closer to a hurricane.

If you were to pinpoint two players that had shone in Wednesday’s murky waters this season, Massimo Luongo and Julian Börner would surely be a pair close to the top of the list.

Both had issues, Börner limping out for Liam Palmer, sparking a further first-half reshuffle at the back, while Joey Pelupessy replaced Luongo at the break with Pulis later citing that the Australian was ‘leggy’ in midfield.

Plenty has been said on injuries at Sheffield Wednesday since Pulis took the Hillsborough hotseat and attempts have been made to manage the player’s work rate during the week.

Could Pulis rotate better? The likes of Izzy Brown would no doubt argue so. The problem is, of course, that games are coming thick and fast and there is seldom time to properly recover, especially as the Owls scramble for points. You can’t blame him in searching for consistency.

Compare and contrast

Dressed in white jeans, ankles exposed, the very image of Huddersfield Town boss Carlos Corberan was a complete contrast to that of Tony Pulis.

And there are vast differences in their coaching philosophy, too.

Corberan, European, ultra-fashionable, born out of the school of flavour-of-the-year Marcelo Bielsa, wants his sides to play fast, attacking football. Pulis, though not by any stretch the one-trick long-ball merchant many paint him to be, has set his Owls side up to be hard to beat.

There are many ways to win a game of football and every manager should play to the strengths of his squad. With the likes of Mbenza, Koroma and O’Brien, Corberan has a squad built for his philosophy. At current, it’s pretty difficult to see what Wednesday’s squad is built for.

As it happened, Huddersfield were allowed to step into the game first, they were allowed to set the tempo of the match and it was their style that won deservedly out.

Izzy not busy

As the minutes whittled down and Wednesday failed to get themselves going, Izzy Brown remained in his seat, uncalled upon by Pulis.

The Welshman has spoken previously that he feels for Brown’s position, that he has yet to have a good enough look at him, but it’s clear the Chelsea-owned loanee is down the pecking order, having to wait until the 85th minute for his Huddersfield return.

Teams

Huddersfield: Hamer, Ávila, Edmonds-Green, Sarr, Toffolo, Eiting, Hogg (Bacuna, 35), O'Brien, Mbenza (Vallejo-Mínguez,83), Campbell (Ward, 83), Koroma (Brown, 62)

Subs unused: Pritchard, Diakhaby, Rowe, Schofield, Phillips

Sheffield Wednesday: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Lees, Börner (Palmer, 21), Iorfa, Harris, Paterson (Kachunga, 80), Luongo (Pelupessy, 45), Bannan (Brown, 85), Reach, Windass (Rhodes, 80)

Subs unused: Dawson, van Aken, Penney, Dele-Bashiru

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