So after 16 games of the 2017/18 Sky Bet Championship Season I'd like to give my take on the current state of affairs at Sheffield Wednesday. I want to keep it strictly to on the pitch matters, we could be here all day if I went into the off the field matters, we all have an opinion on it and that can be saved for another blog in the near future.
Position
I'll begin with the most important statistic, the current league position. After 16 games we sit in 11th position with 23 points. Now while none of us would have taken that at the start of August it is important I think to remember we are only three points off the top 6. Is it inconceivable to think we will be in there in the next few weeks? I don't think so. If you look at the season so far there are several areas that people have picked up on. In my personal opinion the defensive issues we've had this season have been the biggest problem for us. Over the last three seasons we've accumulated 17, 17 and 16 clean sheets. That's a fairly decent record and to only have 2 at the moment is a bit of a worry. It's slightly ironic that after a wonderful performance at the weekend (a 2-1 away win at Aston Villa) I'm writing about the defensive solidity. If you look at some of the goals we've conceded this season they are preventable and hopefully the return of Glenn Loovens, a player I've been a massive fan of ever since he walked through the door, will add that calmness and leadership that seems to suit the players around him. Tom Lees for example looks half the player when Glenn Loovens isn't next to him. None of this is a slight on Joost Van Aken who in my opinion has done fairly well while here. It didn't take the fans long to take to him, singing his name after 25 minutes against Nottingham Forest. He's still learning the English game which is very different to the Dutch Eredivisie. Consistency in selection will be important from now on in. I'm not against the idea of picking a team to win specific games on a game by game basis but we have some of the best players in this division and they need to on the pitch for us more often than not.
Should we be higher up in the league? I'd argue yes we should, I said at the start of September after the first international break that we needed to take at least 12 points from the next 18 available (taking us to the next break). We took 10 which despite being disappointing you could still look at it and say we should have beat Cardiff and should have had at least a point at Birmingham. So it wasn't a disaster. As for the next set of games we couldn't have started it much worse with defeats to Bolton and Derby. Now I'll touch more on those two games in a moment but I will say that 7 points from the last 9 were very pleasing. There was a lot of criticism after the Barnsley game regarding the performance and while it wasn't great it was still enough for me to win that game and had it not been for a fantastic goal from Harvey Barnes we would have won it. Millwall was a tough battle against a team who to be fair were a lot better than I gave them credit for at the start of the season and made it difficult but we ground out a much needed win. You could feel the nerves around Hillsborough as the game drew to a close desperately clinging on to a vital three points. It did feel like a big weight had been slightly lifted. The Villa game on Saturday was fantastic, an amazing start with Adam Reach scoring his third goal in as many games and let's be honest it was the best of the three by a country mile followed by a very convincing display and that proves what this group of players are capable of. Of course the other man who scored in both of the last two games is the club's record signing, Jordan Rhodes. Now if there has been anyone who has been in Jordan Rhodes' corner over the last 11 months it's me. Let's look at the facts, he's got a proven record at this level of scoring goals consistently. The stat that was going around before the Millwall game was that he hadn't scored in 24 league games (including play offs) which was a slightly unfair stat given quite a few of those games he only played 5-10 minutes off the bench. He isn't the kind of striker that you can chuck on as a late sub to try and nick a goal in my opinion. The last two games have shown you needed start him, let him grow into the game and provide him with service and he will score. Has he always had that kind of service when he's been on the pitch? Well that can be argued either way for me, I'd say he did last season but not so much this and that partly comes down to what I've just said. Game time. If he plays more he'll score us goals I have doubt about that at all.
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| Two in the last two for Jordan Rhodes |
Carlos: In or Out?
Now we come to the big question, Carlos Carvalhal. Should he still be the head coach of Sheffield Wednesday? For me I'm not one to call for a manager's head. I don't think it's particularly fair and I don't think after the job he has done it was unfair to say he'd earned another go at it. Let's just quickly rewind the clock in his first season he over achieved. We took teams by surprise and very nearly did it. Last season we at times shot ourselves in the foot. I think we beat ourselves a lot last season and if you look at the stats the one thing we didn't do was put the ball in the back of the net often enough. The amount of games we had where we dominated for 25-30 minutes and didn't score only to let a daft goal in the other end and heads drop happened to often. I know a lot was made of the 'change in style' but personally I don't think a lot changed in terms of the way we played we were just a hell of a lot more clinical in 2015/16 and while being harder to break down in 2016/17 we took away our potency which is why the signings of Jordan Rhodes and Sam Winnall in January made sense. Back to Carlos, I'm still behind him. I didn't have a lot of questions over him after the Bolton game because I felt everything that went wrong at Bolton (refereeing decisions aside) was preventable. I remember saying to my dad after the game he needs to change it for Derby to convince me he was still the right man and to be fair to Carlos he did. The team he selected at Pride Park was the correct team, he'd finally decided to stop persisting playing Adam Reach at left back and Glenn Loovens was back at the heart of the defence with the captains armband around his arm. Brilliant. Within 4 minutes Glenn had been sent off for a bit of a daft challenge on Matěj Vydra and we were 1-0 down from the resulting penalty. We lost 2-0 and to be fair played ever so well. After the red card I thought we'd get absolutely battered so to actually come away a bit disappointed to not get a point wasn't too bad. You couldn't judge Carlos after that game because any tactical plan was gone after 4 minutes. Since then we've taken 7 points from 9 and when you look at that it's been a decent response. Carlos showed on Saturday that once again he can mix it with the best in this division in terms of team selection and tactics. I'm still firmly in the Carlos camp and I won't shy away from saying it. I do think the most important thing to consider about the Carlos debate is that the chairman is still behind him. All you can ask for from a chairman/owner is clarity on situations and he's been 100% clear on Carlos. He's here to stay now whether you choose to believe him or not is entirely up to you but I've always been someone who without personally knowing someone will take them on their word. This is no different. I know one or two people reference the events of September/October 2006 when Paul Sturrock signed a new three year contract only to be sacked three weeks later but these are very different times. I also quickly want to address this idea that because Sheffield United are doing well following their promotion back to this level after 6 years that that has put more pressure on Carlos and the players from the fans, well maybe it looks and feels that way at the moment but come May Carlos and his players will be judged against the positions of the last two seasons. That's where the expectation comes from back to back play off campaigns. Not Sheffield United. The one area which hasn't been talked about as much as I think it should is if you look back to when Carlos Carvalhal arrived we've got a remarkable record where in the League we've only lost three games where we've scored the first goal (Ipswich August 2015, Birmingham September 2016 and Fulham May 2017). Now this says a couple of different things to me, it says that when we have a lead we tend to grow in confidence and it says starting games on the front foot is the best way to play. Of course it's easy to sit here and say that and I'm sure the team always goes onto the pitch wanting to start well but sometimes we don't help ourselves. Of course there is a counter point to this, what happens when we fall behind and it's sadly not as good a stat. In the same period of time we have only come back to win after conceding the fist goal 9 times in 108 games under Calos which I think is something to be addressed. To add a little more to it 8 of those games were at home and only one was away. Put it simply, if we concede first away from home we don't tend to win. Something I'm sure the management team at Hillsborough will be well aware of. It's something that I do think will need to be addressed in order to achieve what we all want which is promotion.
So What now?
So after the final international break of 2017 is over, Wednesday have a big run of games ahead. Starting with a Saturday 3 O'clock kick off at Hillsborough (yes I know they'll never will catch on) against Bristol City. If it's anything like the last meeting at Hillsborough between the two then it will be a good game. In fact if it's anything like the last few meetings with them there will be goals. After that trips to Ipswich and Reading followed by a home game with Hull and a trip back to east Anglia to take on Norwich. After that two home games on the bounce against Wolves and Middlesbrough. That takes us into Christmas and if we can be pulling crackers and watching crap TV after taking 15 points from those then I think most sensible people would be fairly happy with that. Overall it's a tough run of games and with a hell of a long way to go yet we can only do one thing which is get behind the team and support them.
Thanks for reading,
Tom
