Sheffield Wednesday 2018/19: February Review

So once again we've reached the end of the month and once again there's quite a bit to talk about regarding Wednesday.

The Matches

 

Ipswich Town
 

Steve Bruce's first game in charge of Wednesday was a trip down to face struggling Ipswich Town, the Tractor boys have had an awful season and in fairness Bruce probably couldn't have picked a better game to make his bow as Owls boss. Wednesday played well, creating a lot but without that cutting edge. Overall the 1-0 scoreline probably flattered Ipswich more than Wednesday. It was Lucas Joao who got the goal from a superb run from Adam Reach. Reach himself had missed a great chance earlier in the game as well as Fernando Forestieri but the key was the fact we'd won when a few weeks before we'd have probably lost it. We'd created plenty and it was clear the team had that energy you often see from a change in management. Overall a pleasing start to the Steve Bruce era.

 

 

Reading

 

Steve Bruce's first home game in charge of Wednesday was a visit from another side struggling at the bottom of the division in Reading. First of all I have to say I thought the reception he got when he came out of the tunnel was very pleasing, it showed a togetherness and a backing of a manager that hasn't been at S6 for a while. As for the game, the first half was very good. Wednesday created a lot and had it not been for former Owls loanee Emiliano Martinez it could have been 3 or 4 very easily. Reading looked like a team that would concede a few if the first one went in but credit to them they defended well and in the end got a point. It was frustrating but given some of the games we've had this season I'd rather create and not quite score than create next to nothing. Four points from a possible six was a decent start for Bruce.

 

 

Millwall
 

Millwall away on Tuesday night never exactly fills you with much excitement. I say that firmly accepting I have never been or intend to go to Millwall. I was one of those people who watched it on the red button. The first half was drab, it was quite simply a really boring half of football. Millwall edged it and probably should have scored, Wednesday started the 2nd half quite well. We started to run at Millwall and try to force an error. Sadly the goal didn't quite come and 0-0 was probably fair. It was a night where the critics were out in full force but it's worth noting that again a few weeks before we'd have lost it. On another night a chance might fall for us. There had been quite a bit of talk about possibly catching the play offs before Reading and Millwall but that appeared to be off the agenda after the results of these two games.

 

Rotherham United

 

Next up was a trip to local Rivals Rotherham United, it's always interesting when Wednesday play Rotherham. Something always seems to happen. Rotherham, another side struggling at the wrong end of the division needed points and Wednesday needed to respond after the two 0-0 draws. Bruce had got under the Rotherham fans skin earlier in the week with his pre match comments that it was their cup final. While I can kind of see why this would annoy some people he isn't exactly wrong is he? This game always sells out, this game's hospitality section at the New York Stadium actually sold out on the day the fixtures came out. It's fair to say it's the only one that did. Onto the football, Rotherham were the better side and deserved to win the game based on the chances they had. Although Wednesday started better and took the lead through Fernando Forestieri we surrendered it quickly after Jon Taylor equalised for Rotherham. The Millers then took the lead through Irishman Richie Towell, a goal not too dissimilar to the one he scored at Hillsborough. Wednesday equalised right at the death after debutant Dominic Iorfa, who'd had to be patient in getting an opportunity took it when Jordan Thorniley had to be replaced after a horrible clash that left him needing treatment. Iorfa scored the goal to make it 2-2 with what appeared to be his third touch. Not quite Lloyd Owusu all those years ago or more appropriately Kieran Lee in 2015 but scenes none the less in the away end. After that the real controversy happened, Fernando Forestieri sent off for..well I still don't know. Initially on the radio they said he'd gone into the crowd, at the time I thought fair enough. You can't do that so by the letter of the law it's a red but there is no evidence he did. I've heard about 15 different accounts and they all say something different. From the footage available it's hard to see what he's received his 2nd yellow card for. Overall it was a day to forget for referee Darren England who fail to send Michael Ihiekwe for a horrendous tackle of Forestieri. For Wednesday it was a point gained given the performance.

 

 

Swansea City

 

We went into the game at home to Swansea with a lot of people possibly thinking about next season more than this one. Swansea themselves marooned in mid table were the opponents and it was seen as a bit of a 'dead rubber'. After the disappointing display at Rotherham it was important I felt that a response was given and we got. A first half where Wednesday dominated and were 3-0 up at half time after two goals from Adam Reach who ended his own personal drought and an overhead kick from Steven Fletcher who kept up his own person 'How can I outdo the last goal I scored' competition. What I mean by that is if you look at Fletcher's goals this season a lot of them are goals you wouldn't expect him to score, Birmingham at home, Wigan at home, this one against Swansea. All very low percentage shots of actually going in, it's a good trait to have. After that Wednesday probably could be accused of sitting off Swansea a bit, they've got some good players and had a bad day at the office but the pleasing thing from a Wednesday point of view is we punished them for it. Quite a few teams have come here and played poorly but we've not punished many of them. Even in some of the wins we've been hanging on. To effectively have the game wrapped up at half time was pleasing. It was great to see the likes of Rolando Aarons on his first start and Achraf Lazaar on debut have such a good impact. It's been a long time since someone had as good a debut as Lazaar. A good day at the office.

 

Brentford

 

A 2nd of three consecutive home games saw Brentford visit Hillsborough. Brentford were in good form and with Wednesday winning it made for an interesting game. If Swansea was the best performance of the season, this maybe topped it. Mostly for me for the feeling of, we're not going to lose this from about 10 seconds in. The kicked off and Sam Hutchinson immediately won the ball. We played really well and deserved to take the lead through Steven Fletcher. A lead doubled by Fletcher in the 2nd half after Adam Reach should have scored himself. Brentford did have their chances but they were few and far between. They weren't helped by losing South African midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo to injury in the warm up. A similar situation with what happened to Wednesday at Griffin Park when Adam Reach was injured in the warm up down there. Overall it was a really comfortable, professional display and it was pleasing to have so many players to praise. Tom Lees, Sam Hutchinson, Steven Fletcher, Liam Palmer and Adam Reach all came out with great plaudits. The only downside really was an injury to Achraf Lazaar in the first half. Liam Palmer did very well to step in to that position while Dominic Iorfa again came off the bench to play at right back. It seems we still can't shake the injury luck off at the moment. Steve Bruce said something interesting in his post match interview which I really agreed with. He spoke about the fans enjoying watching the team again and I really had. Even the Reading game there were plenty of things to be pleased with. It's been fun watching the team again after a difficult few months.

 

Off the pitch

During the month we saw the departure of CEO Katrien Meire, there has been a lot of debate and conversation on social media since she arrived January 2018 over he role and whether she was 'doing a good job'. For me the job role was misleading. She was a more a head of the commercial department. Which over the last twelve months has improved considerably. Everyone who's spoken to her has said she was a very competent, intelligent person who was doing a good job. I was surprised to see her go and while the reasons for her departure remain unknown it's tough to give a proper opinion on it and unfair to speculate. What I will say is the amount of "Thank god for that she ruined the club" and "I'm glad she's f*cking gone". Tweets I saw from people who claim to be Wednesday supporters was weird and disappointing. I very much doubt any of those people actually did any research into her role and just read what a few Charlton fans may have said. On that, with all due respect to Charlton fans the situation there and the situation here are completely different and you can't really compare the two.

 

Onto the future and it has the feel at the moment that Steve Bruce is making a lot of the decisions. Effectively we've gone back to the old school manager approach which a lot of fans wanted. Bruce making the decisions over who comes in and goes out is important and significant. Over the last few years the recruitment policy has been talked about a hell of a lot and all without knowing who really had the final say. Now it's in the hands of the experienced Bruce is surely the wisest and safest move.

 

That's about it for this month, my next blog will be a preview of Monday night's Steel City Derby.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Tom

 

WAWAW

 



Sheffield Wednesday 2018/19: January Review

Well another month has past and once again it's been an eventful one. Sheffield Wednesday have in the past month had a 2nd caretaker and appointed a permanent manager. Never dull eh?

 

 

Steve Bruce

 

I'll start with arguably the most important moment of the month, Steve Bruce's appointment. Bruce, a four time promotion winner from this division has the CV, the experience and the desire to do the job here at Sheffield Wednesday. I mentioned in a previous blog that there was no perfect person for the job and I believe that. Steve Bruce does however tick a lot of the boxes people were demanding following the departure of Jos Luhukay. British, proven track record, knew the division, could handle full control of the transfers. He's got all that, he's been a manager for 21 years and I genuinely don't think you stay in the game that long if you don't have a lot about you. At Villa the perception is he had a load of money and failed. I'll hold my hands up that I was one naive enough to believe that without looking into it and in truth he didn't spend as much as people make out, he also didn't really fail, did he? OK they didn't go up but as with Wednesday in 2016, you need your players to turn up on the day and Villa despite the Snodgrass' and Terry's didn't. Enough of that, Wednesday took a lot of flack for Bruce' delayed start and my opinion in it is this, as long as Steve Bruce and Dejphon Chansiri were happy with that then nothing else matters. For me Wednesday allowing Bruce that time to honor his word to his family shows a rare value in football. We bang on about being a family and use the phrase WAWAW a lot, isn't that a good example of that? I wish Steve all the best in the job and I genuinely thing that given the right tools he can achieve the long term goal of promotion. It might not be next season, it might not be the year after that but we stand a much better chance with him in charge.

 

 

The Matches

 

Birmingham City

 

After all that we actually have some football to talk about. Birmingham City were the first opponents of the New Year and was to be Lee Bullen's final game in charge. It was widely reported Steve Bruce would be announced after the game. It was a decent performance, we took the lead through a decent finish from Steven Fletcher who seems to have made a habit of scoring goals from difficult positions. Wednesday created an awful lot and the experienced Lee Camp made two contenders for save of the season. and bar the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half were dominant. That 10 minutes however allowed ex blade Che Adams to nip in and equalise for the Blues. It wasn't the worst point in the world. Birmingham are having a decent season and have found some stability after a couple of very odd years. Garry Monk has done the best with what he's got, fair play to them. For Wednesday's caretaker Bullen it was two wins and two draws from his four games in charge. Something I'd have taken before hand.

 

 

Luton Town

 

Following the New Year football was the return of the greatest cup competition in the world. I know some people have lost their love of cup football but I still enjoy the FA Cup. It gives you a chance to dream and although in my lifetime it hasn't been very kind to Wednesday when you start out in it you never know. Wednesday were tasked with facing inform Luton from League One. First of all a comment on the atmosphere, I put at tweet out after the game praising the Luton fans as for start it's not exactly local and to bring over 4000 fans for a 12:30 Kick off that let's be honest didn't exactly catch everyone's imagination on both sides that is some effort. Add to that they did make some decent noise I'd say that deserves some recognition. As for our own atmosphere it doesn't help when one stand is closed, it was a big contrast to the Birmingham game where the atmosphere was very good. Of course the game didn't help, it was a tough watch. A 0-0 that could and should have been won in the first few minutes from a header by Steven Fletcher. An easier chance than the one he scored a few days before. Credit to Luton who defended very well against a strong Wednesday team and it was probably a fair result. It was the first chance for Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence who had arrived in preparation for Steve Bruce to see the players in action under their instruction and while it was a dull game you could see little things that were different.

 

Hull City

 

After the Cup it was back to the Championship and a trip to the form team in the country in Hull City. The Tigers had been a terrific run of 9 unbeaten in League and Cup and going from the bottom three to the top half. While Wednesday were on a decent run it was always going to be a hard ask. That isn't to excuse the performance, we were 2nd best in every department and Hull City strolled to a 3-0. They, like Birmingham are an example though that time and patience are needed to get success in this division. Both like Wednesday have issues off the field to deal with but those two sides have found consistency in results. As for the game, while not being their myself and listening to it on the radio it sounded very reminiscent of some of the performances of the previous ear and the highlights showed just that. Going back to a point I made in the previous blog, it isn't just the manager and coaches, players have to take responsibility for themselves as well. This group needs freshening up in the summer and days like this show that.

 

Luton Town

 

So the replay against Luton Town, this time we knew what was on the line. A trip to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It was also a big chance to bounce back from the defeat at Hull with a moral boosting win. Again Wednesday went strong looking to make sure the tie was settled. It was won with a 2nd half goal from Atdhe Nuhiu and although it wasn't the prettiest goal he'll ever score it was one that earned Wednesday a very good tie in round four. I don't want to get to into the Nuhiu debate but some of the criticism on twitter after the game was ridiculous, he scores a goal that gives six thousand Wednesday fans one the best away days of the last few years and gets slagged off? Doesn't sit right with me that. Luton had their chances but Wednesday defended well, Nuhiu heading one off the line and a good save from Cameron Dawson. Wednesday almost had a slot on the next Rory McGrath DVD (is that still a thing?) when Tom Lees' back pass nearly trickled into his own net. Thankfully it didn't. Overall considering Luton were unbeaten at home for 13 months a good night's work.

 

Wigan Athletic

 

After the cup win it was back to Hillsborough for a league game against Paul Cook's Wigan. It was a game where I think most Wednesday fans were expecting to win. I thought for a mid/lower half table we were excellent. Dominated the game for the most part and bar one decent chance for Wigan they never really troubled the Wednesday goal. Their keeper pulled off a couple of decent saves but Steven Fletcher again decided to smash in a goal from an unrealistic position. After some lovely interplay from Barry Bannan and Adam Reach, Fletcher picked the ball up and ran with it, positioned himself and struck it beautifully into the back of the net. I must confess that a bloke behind me said shoot and I said "Oh no, don't shoot from there" I blame the angle personally. After that Wednesday could have added to it, probably the only criticism of the game was the fact we didn't kill it off but that comes with confidence. Overall a positive day at Hillsborough.

 

Chelsea

 

So then we went on for a little adventure in the Cup. Chelsea and Wednesday have history when it comes to cup football. This however his a very different Chelsea to the one we last player in the 1999/00 Season. Since then Wednesday have been in League One twice and face oblivion off the field, Chelsea have won 5 Premier League titles, 6 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, 3 Community Shields, A Europa League and in 2012 the Champions League. It's fair to say the two clubs have had different paths over the last 19 years. It was always going to be a tough ask, Wednesday went their with a game plan and for 20 minutes or so it was working. We thought we had a penalty after Andre Marriner gave us one only for VAR (which I am an advocate of) proved it to be the wrong decision. For me that knocked us off balance and Chelsea themselves were given a penalty a few moments later. After that it was an uphill struggle. 3-0 was probably fair but I felt for some of the players. They all but in 100%, the fans were excellent and made themselves heard. It was nice that although the result wasn't the right one but fans made an impact on the national media. Some of the criticism of the tactics used by Steve Agnew in his final game before handing over to Steve Bruce was unjust in my opinion. This idea of 'going for it', well for a start it actually isn't as easy to just go for it. You can plan to attack all you want but a quality team like Chelsea can stop you before you start. Look at someone like Rüdiger at the back for Chelsea, see how good he is on the ball as a centre back. It's not as easy to say "Go and attack them" this is FIFA or Football Manager, it's not like you can just press a button and you're more attacking. Maybe we could have made the substitutions earlier but ultimately that comes down to how fit certain players were and how realistic it was that we were going to get anything from the game anyway. I think if you were expecting a more attacking display from Wednesday then you haven't watched us a lot over the last 18 months. We're an average Championship team and Chelsea are a top 6 side in best league in the world.

 

Deadline Day

 

I can't say I'm a massive fan of deadline day, it can occasionally be exciting but often it's Sky basically glorifying bigger clubs holding smaller ones to ransom. Trying to build up excitement of a player going somewhere on loan or a deal falling through. Just feels a bit wrong to me. This year however Wednesday made moves to add three to the squad. Dominic Iorfa from Wolves on a permanent deal and Rolando Aarons and Achraf Lazaar both from Newcastle on loan. All three make sense from a positional point of view. Iorfa comes in to challenge Palmer and Baker you would imagine while with Matt Penney being out until April Lazaar comes in to offer competition for the rejuvenated Morgan Fox. Aarons offers pace out wide and as a winger gives us something we don't have enough of. It was surprising to see the deals done given the current FFP/P&S restrictions but we have to trust in the club and hopefully all three players come in and do well. Welcome aboard lads. As for outgoings, nobody left Hillsborough despite strong rumours of Sam Winnall departing. For one reason or another that didn't happen and now it's up to Winnall to earn a first team shirt. Work hard, take your chances. That's what you'd hope so.

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Tom

 

WAWAW