Back in September when I sat down to write a preview of the game at Hillsborough I like a lot of Wednesday fans was fair confidant of an Owls win. With good reason given we were on a fairly decent run in the league and players were looking something like their previous versions of the past two seasons. Unfortunately as we all know it turned into a disaster. It was fairly shambolic baring the 20 minute spell at the beginning of the 2nd half before we decided to kindly hand any initiative we had back to United. Let's not dwell on that though, let's look forward to Friday night.
Jos Luhukay
As we all know Wednesday appointed Jos Luhukay as manager last Friday and his first game will be the Derby clash at Bramall Lane. Now a lot of people have said that it's a terrible first game for him, while I understand the reasons behind that and argument and respect the points being made I disagree. I actually think it's a great game for him, if we lose well we were expected to. If we win it he get's a major boost in support and the fans confidence around him will be increased tenfold. How many Wednesday managers could walk into their first home game with a Derby win under his belt already? What feather in his cap that would be. I'm not saying it will be easy, it wont but going in with the attitude of "this could be 5 or 6" is just daft. Let's not forget United aren't exactly in great form themselves. I'll come onto that later but as for Luhukay it's virtually no lose for him. I can't see him making loads of changes from what we've been seeing over the last few weeks as quite frankly there isn't a lot he can do due to the amount of bodies in the treatment room at the moment.
The Game Itself
As for the match itself Wednesday come into it bottom of the form table, hardly ideal but this is a derby and anything can happen. I will point out that in previous derbies, 2012 for example we were in torrid form and look what happened there. United as of writing have made three signings in the last two days and we have depending on how you look at it 10 first team players out injured. A lot of predictions that I have already seen have United to win by a few clear goals but football doesn't work like that. As threadbare as the squad is at the moment we still have players of quality that can influence the game. Under the lights at Bramall Lane might just bring out the best in one or two of the players and give them a chance to give something back to the fans after a dismal campaign so far. In terms of form as I've already mentioned we're not exactly flying high and neither are the blades. Since winning at Burton and going top of the table they have only won once in the league at home to Sunderland, defeats at Millwall, Preston and at home to Bolton and Fulham have dented the promotion push. They are not the immoveable object that they have been portrayed. Not to say they don't deserve credit for the season they're having of course they do but beatable.
Prediction
From my point of view I'd take a point, we can win it and if we do then the players will deserve credit for doing so. If we play to the capabilities of the Forest performance on Boxing day we have a damn good chance. If we turn up like we did at Brentford and at home to Burton then we'll struggle to get a point. Tactically I have little to no idea how we will line up in terms of a system. Some have suggested Luhukay is a 4-2-3-1 man which would make sense. It's a system that has worked at Wednesday in the past. I'll say an optimistic 1-0 win in favour of Wednesday. Keeping it tight and taking a chance. I'd love someone like Jordan Rhodes to score it, really give him a boost of confidence and win over some of the doubters.
So that's my opinion on this Friday's game, regardless of line up or whatever else, let's get behind them and regardless of what happens on Friday stay behind them for the rest of the campaign. The players need the fans at the moment. Let's hope the lads can deliver only our 2nd win at Bramall Lane since 1967.
Thanks for reading,
Tom
