Need for patience reiterated as Sheffield Wednesday prepare for Preston North End

The Owls have added nine new players to the squad since the arrival of the Spanish boss early last month, with several in the first fortnight of their time at the club.

This work in progress has delivered slow performances in their three competitive matches so far, Xisco has admitted, having warned that things will take time to come together.

Speaking ahead of this afternoon’s Hillsborough match-up, it was a theme he retiterated.

“I need the people to have a little bit of patience about the situation,” he said. “The new players haven’t had a pre-season, only Bambo. We need to improve a lot of things, for sure. But every day we are closer. I work with them every day and they give me their all.

“We are getting better and better. At home we’ll play in front of our fans tomorrow and we’ll give 200 per cent to try to take the first three points.”

His counterpart in the opposition dugout is Wednesday cult hero Ryan Lowe, who played out a solitary season as an Owls player in their 2011/12 promotion campaign.

The Lilywhites arrive with four points from their opening two league matches.

Xisco said: “It’s a difficult team, for sure. They play aggressively, are organised and they know exactly what they want and have had time with their coach. They’ll give us a good game.

“This week in training we’ve tried to improve, giving better solutions in moments of the games where we have had some problems. We’ll see what happens.”