Well the Christmas
decorations are starting to go up, the days and nights are getting
colder. It must be December. Another month has gone by and it's been
one filled with talking points both on and off the pitch. I'll touch
upon the off the field matters towards the end. For now I'll focus on
the off the field matters regarding Sheffield Wednesday.
The
Matches
Blackburn
Rovers
We started the month with a trip over the Pennines to face Blackburn,
last season Blackburn away was the real low point for me. No
direction, no leadership, got beaten convincingly. This time it was
less bad but still not great. We fell well below the standard we'd
seen against the likes of Leeds in the previous game. That isn't to
say there weren't positives there were. We didn't play well but found
ourselves with 7 minutes to go leading 1-0 and heading towards three
points. Sadly we didn't hang on, 2 late Blackburn goals both fairly
preventable saw Blackburn run out 2-1 winners. The first one is poor
defending and Westwood came off his line which he didn't need to do.
Concerning to say the least. The 2nd one again isn't great
defending, Julian Borner could have dealt with it better however I do
have slight sympathy with him given that it does take a deflection
and beats Westwood. Overall a disappointing start to November.
Swansea
Swansea were next on the agenda, after the Blackburn result it was
fair to say a win was needed to boost the mood. Overall it was
actually a decent performance, we were the better side despite
falling 1-0 behind to an Andre Ayew goal that should never have come
about after a mix up between Morgan Fox and Keiren Westwood.
Wednesday responded late into the game after Fernando Forestieiri
finished off a good move started by Adam Reach, both had come off the
bench before Morgan Fox scored to make it 2-1 not long after. I have
to say the celebrations for that goal were up there with some of the
best of the last few years. Sadly a sting in the tail was to come as
Swansea equalised late on to make it 2-2. Another late goal conceded,
it was becoming an issue.
West
Brom
After Swansea and an international break Wednesday travelled to face
top of the league West Brom, I think for me West Brom look as good a
side as the league has to offer. Again we went to one of the top
sides and actually did ok. I'd have taken a point before the game and
to be fair we probably did enough to earn one. They took the lead
through Hal Robson-Kanu before Wednesday equalised through a penalty
after a foul on Kieran Lee. Fletcher converting to end a goal drought
for the Scotsman. Again however another late moment of madness cost
us. Liam Palmer and Dominic Irofa didn't react quick enough to a ball
over the top and Keiren Westwood rushing off his line collided with
West Brom's Grady Diangana to give away a penalty. Charlie Austin
stepped up and converted to give the Baggies the points. A
frustrating day and result that raised a lot of questions around the
goalkeeping situation.
Birmingham
City
After the disappointing result at the Hawthorns we were back at
Hillsborough for Birmingham City. The game was given added spice
after Garry Monk's comments about former assistant Pep Clotet. Now
this has raised a lot of discussion, some think Monk was
unprofessional, something it was nothing more than stating his side
of the story. I personally fall on the 2nd side of those.
At the end of the day, we don't know what went on. The only people
who do are Monk and Clotet. It's one of those where both could feel
they are correct. Clearly Monk wasn't treated with the 'class' that
Birmingham claimed he lacked after sacking him over text which in my
opinion is a disgraceful way to deal with that situation. A text?
Come on, we aren't 15 year olds in the school yard are we? As for the
game, it lacked a bit in quality. Wednesday were fairly dominant but
the old habit of missing chances and not having enough up front was
evident again. Birmingham took the lead early in the 2nd
half. After that Wednesday had a number of chances, Fernando
Forestieiri making a difference as a 2nd half sub. It was
Kadeem Harris who in the end broke the Blues defence with a goal not
long after an effort that I can only describe as 'Jermanine
Johnson-esque'. What I will say though is to miss one like that and
then have the character to try again moments later says a lot about
Kadeem who had taken a bit of stick for not having much end product.
He's been a great signing and I was pleased for him to get the goal.
As for the team, the last 10 miniutes proved we can put the ball in
the box with quality, we need to do that on a more consistent basis.
Charlton
Athletic
A trip down to London to face recently takenover Charlton. The
addicks had a number of injuries to content with ahead of the game.
Who do they think they are, 17/18 Wednesday? In all seriousness it
was a game we had to be looking at winning and win we did with goals
from Fletcher and Nuhiu. Both started and I think both firmly
justified it, one thing that has been proven over the years is Nuhiu
can get open up space for others and we saw in the first half with
Forestieri alongside them that playing two up front causes problems.
It allowed the likes of Harris and Bannan to cause problems both out
wide and in the middle. Fox got forward well and his role in the
first goal hasn't been shouted about enough for me. Bannan another
quality ball in for Fletcher to nod home. The 2nd goal
came from the penalty spot after Jacob Murphy, another who's taken
stick from the fans did well to win it. Good work from Adam Reach to
find Nuhiu late on to wrap it up. As for their goal, as frustrating
as it was, their left back who had a brilliant first half did well
and it did take a deflection. Could we do better? Yes, did it cost
us? No. Overall a very pleasing early afternoon for Wednesday
Going
forward
So where do we go from here? Well a busy December period gives us six
games. Brentford at home followed by trips to Derby and Nottingham
Forest before Bristol City at home, boxing day away at Stoke before
Cardiff on the 29th. Busy to say the least. We all know
that on our day we can give anyone a game. It can't go unnoticed
however that our eight wins have come against the sides that occupy
the bottom eight positions in the Championship. An anomaly to an
extent but it does kind of show where we are. I have no doubt we will
pick up points against the better side, he could have got a point at
West Brom, we should have beaten Swansea, we should have beaten
Leeds. We all know we need to be more ruthless, taking our chances
seems to be an issue we haven't been able to address. One way to
change that might be to play two up front more often. Adthe Nuhiu and
Steven Fletcher prior to this season hadn't spent much time on the
pitch together. Often one would replace the other. But they've shown
this season that they can link up well. I'd argue they deserve a run
at it together if you aren't going to use the likes of Sam Winnall
and Jordan Rhodes.
In terms of the defence I'm fairly content with that. I do think Tom
Lees has made a difference being back in the side. I'm not saying
Borner and Iorfa haven't done well because they clearly have but Lees
has a number of games at this level. Borner is clearly a talented
defender but he's played 16 games in the Championship, Iorfa will
have only played so many as a centre back. Lees' experience as well
as quality will be needed. Goalkeeping has been a debate for a while.
For me it's Dawson's shirt to loose, he's had the better start to the
season and I feel had he have made the errors Westwood has this
season he'd be getting loads of stick. Monk stated he'd play players
based on form, on that basis I see no reason to drop Dawson when
Westwood is fit again.
Off
the pitch
This could be a long segment really. To be honest as someone who
likes to take in as much media about Wednesday as possible the last
few weeks have been filled with negative stories along with the usual
rumours that they create. The club had obviously been charged with in
relation to selling the ground to another company that is also owned
by Chansiri. The club have at the time of writing responded with a
claim that the charge was unjust and that the EFL have acted
unlawfully.
My personal take on this has kind of altered as the days have gone on
really, I don't think anyone was too surprised this charge came,
whatever you think of the EFL or the club there has clearly been
something brewing. However Wednesday have every right to defend
themselves and if they feel they have a strong enough case for their
defence should have every right to fight the charge. Chansiri has
also been charged and according to the Telegraph newspaper could face
a “Ban from football” whatever that means along with John Redgate
and Katrien Meire. Again no knowledge either way if they are worthy
charges or not. We as fans can only see what happens, we don't have
any influence over it either way.
Whatever you think of Chansiri he has put his money in, he has tried to do his best. He's made mistakes and I think we're mostly paying now for the lack of a back up plan in 2017 after losing in the Play Offs to Huddersfield. The idea that always seems to rear it's head whenever anything negative is put out in the media is that he should 'go'. Well OK but who comes in and for what price? It's not as simple as a manager or player leaving. This is the owner of the football club, he's the one paying the bills, he's the one who's putting the money up. It's worrying how quick some fans want to chuck themselves at someone else. Red Bull has been mentioned, that sends a shiver down my spine personally. People were outraged (correctly) when Chansiri removed the stripes for two seasons, imagine playing in a completely different colour and effectively being a feeder club for others. No thanks.
The last point I want to make is as much as it might be a risk to take on the EFL, I do feel a little bit like they've had it coming. They aren't fit for purpose. We lost a wonderful historic club in Bury, we nearly lost another In Bolton. Macclesfield are in trouble, Coventry are playing their home games 22 miles away in Birmingham. We've had less than desirable people in charge of clubs before. All this under the EFL's stewardship. I'm not saying they have to be 100% perfect but they don't seem to have a grasp of the proper issues within their own competitions and are more bothered about punishing a club that while admittedly reliant on a single individual is at least paying the bills. Not at deaths door, the EFL need to take a look at themselves and their own rules. Clubs like Derby, Wednesday and others aren't the problem.
This is before we get into parachute payments which we could do a
whole blog about, maybe I will soon.
Thanks for reading
Tom
WAWAW
No comments:
Post a Comment