Sheffield Wednesday Season Preview 2022/23

 
Well we're here again, another season is upon us. Slightly earlier than normal due to a certain event in the middle east. Does that feel that weird? After the madness of the pandemic, not really in my opinion. Anyway onto the preview

Logical Signings

Wednesday have made in my opinion some very logical signings following on from last season's Play Off defeat. The main issue from last year in my personal opinion was injuries, too often we were missing players for too long, too often unable to call on the best eleven or players that would be game changers, I'll come onto that a bit more later but sticking with the players who have come in you have to say being available for selection was certainly something Darren Moore and the recruitment team have looked at.

 
David Stockdale was first through the door, experienced, knows the division, has got out of the division before and the one above. While I haven't been his biggest fan when he's played for other clubs he ticks a lot of boxes and I can understand why Moore has gone down the route of older and experienced rather than a younger keeper like last season. I imagine he'll start the season, I don't think he signs the contract if he doesn't have some guarantee of first team football. It'll be up to Cam Dawson to try and win that spot from him.

Michael Ihiekwe and Michael Smith both arrived from Rotherham, if you'd have told me we'd pick up a Team Of The Year defender and Striker from last season for nothing I'd have said you were mad, they're both excellent additions. Again, played lots of games, know the division, Smith has been fantastic against us for the Millers. They've taken a bit of a risk to come here given the could have stayed at Rotherham and played at the level above, it does show that pulling power is still there. Again both logical with the positions they play, I'd imagine both would fancy their chances of starting on Saturday.

Ben Heneghan is another defender who arrived from AFC Wimbledon, his defensive stats last season were mightily impressive for a player in a side who went down, he's already a bit of a fans favourite. He's miles better on the ball that I thought we would be and I think before the friendly last week against Rayo Vallecano I'd probably have said he would be one who wouldn't start but now I'd say he probably does. Again played a lot of games and knows the league.

Akin Famewo was a bit of an old school signing, when I say that I mean he was linked about an hour or so before he arrived, which was pleasing. I like that, I don't enjoy the long drawn out process that seems to happen with signings these days. Famewo again look another good addition, coming in from Norwich after a spell at Charlton last season he again knows the league, at a good age and crucially is a natural left footer on the left of that back three. Another good one on paper.

Reece James arrived on loan from Blackpool, played under Moore at Doncaster Rovers and whenever I saw him was pretty good for them, we were linked with him last year and it probably makes more sense now than it did then. Can play in a variety of positions, I think he'll add good competition on that left hand side for Marvin Johnson. Again another player who has played a lot at this level and has been promoted from it.

Will Vaulks arrived on a free from Cardiff and similar to Smith and Ihiekwe I didn't think too much to the link when it first came about as I simply didn't think It'd happen. I'm delighted it has thought as he's an excellent addition to Wednesday's midfield. I liked him when he played for Rotherham and he's played a lot of the level above for Cardiff. He's exactly the kind of player you need at this level and especially after the departure of Massimo Luongo. I think he could easily be a fans favourite.

Tyreeq Bakinson was the last player through the door at the time of writing this and I think this one is another good one potentially. There has been a lot of talk about attitude and to be honest I think you can only ever judge a player really on what you see with your own eyes and what they do for you. We don't see what goes on behind closed doors. I don't think Darren Moore signs a 23 year old if he doesn't think he can work with him and develop him into something. He stood out when we played Bristol City in 20/21, scoring a good goal against us and did OK for Ipswich last season. He adds to an already busy midfield. We do however have a lot of games and I think all will get game time.

Pre Season

Pre season is always an odd time because you always get some overreaction to things, be it we win a game and people think we'll walk it or we lose and it's the end of the world. In reality results in pre season mean nothing, Josh Windass literally said exactly that out in Portugal. I think in the two games I've watched, Rayo Vallecano and Wigan we've played quite well in parts, especially moving the ball forward. I think there is still work to be done defensively, more so in the understanding that comes with playing games together. Do I worry that won't come together? No because I think the quality and experience there is too good not to.

I think going forward we look decent, while we've maybe not scored the goals out play has deserved the quick passing and ability to get forward in different ways is pleasing. We didn't need a major overhaul from last season, just tweaks here and there. Michael Smith adds something we didn't have last season, you could see that when he came on against Wigan, to be able to go a bit more direct and give the opposition something different is pleasing and something we lacked last season and the year before.

“He'll be like a new signing him”

The cliché that always comes when a player comes back from injury, but it is true isn't it? If we can get the likes of Dominic Iorfa, Josh Windass and Dennis Adeniran on the pitch for 40+ games this season we're far better for it. Not having them cost us, Iorfa has split opinion over pre season, I think some of the criticism is a bit harsh, I think he's looked good, fit and strong. He started last year so well, it was a shame we didn't see much of him in the 2^nd half of the campaign. Windass was a huge miss last season, having him available gives us such a different dynamic. He averaged a goal or an assist every 60 minutes I believe last season, get anywhere near that over 46 games and he'll have had a stunning campaign. Another one who I think gets underrated due to missing a lot of football. Adeniran I think suffered last season from people forgetting he was probably our best player in the first 1/3 of the season, his injury sort of allowed Byres to come into the team and took his chance, both are good players. I think Dennis has real potential in him and against Rayo Vallecano he was excellent. Again having him for a whole season will make such a difference.

Tough Start

In my opinion we've been given a tough start to this campaign. July/August and September look tough months in terms of the games we have, Portsmouth, MK Dons, Charlton, Peterborough, Bolton, Barnsley, Plymouth, Ipswich and Wycombe I think will all fancy their chances of the top 6. We played them all before October. Having said that, come out of it with a decent haul of points and you could well be on course for where you want to be. My take away point on it would be, don't panic if the league table doesn't look pretty in September. The back end of last season I think the fixtures went for us to secure that play off spot, in that we didn't have many crunch games against the other sides around us sometimes they can work against you as well, Plymouth fell victim to that last season and missed out.

Promotion has to be the aim

It's fairly obvious that the tone of this blog has been centred around a belief that we can go up and that has to be the aim this season. I'm 100% certain it will be within the Wednesday camp. This time last year I thought we had no chance of even getting in the Play Offs, it's a big contrast to now where I do believe we can get automatic promotion, it'll be tough, there are no guarantees but given how we finished last season, the players we have added and the ones we've kept I see no reason why we can't be back in the Championship come May.

Darren Moore

Moore has split opinion in his time at Wednesday, some say he should have kept us up in 20/21, I think that's exceptionally harsh in the circumstances he was dealt. A lot say he should have taken us up last year, I think it's clear from this piece and others I have done that I don't agree with that either. The pressure is on this year though, he has the squad, I think we'll still likely add to it come the end of August, he's got another year under his belt in a fledgling managerial career. I don't like this idea that he has to be in a certain position by a certain point, football isn't an algorithm. You can't just take nuance out of it, but it is fair to say we can't have the start we did last season. We can't be waiting until early November to click into gear, I don't think that will happen because we'd retained the core of the team and added some key players. We're stronger than this time last year, without question.

 

Do I think we can do it?

Yeah I do, do I think it'll be easy? No. League One is getting tougher and tougher, as the Championship increases it's quality year on year that filters down to League One. I think it's slightly harder to predict the teams coming down this year, Barnsley are in transition and who knows how Derby will go on. Peterborough are the ones to watch for me, they have the experience of getting up and like them or not the Chairman and manager know what they're doing there.

For me it'll probably come down to how quickly the defence can gel, can we avoid injuries and how we cope with the first couple of months of the season. Pass all those tests and we should be OK. We haven't always been the best when it comes to expectations, a key component of the Chansiri era has really been a failure to live up to expectations. This season it needs to be different.
Thanks for reading

Tom

WAWAW

Post Regular Season And Pre Play Off Ramble

 

Well well well, another regular season done. How quickly has that gone? Amazing really when you consider what's been going on in the world over the last couple of years. It's been an interesting season for many reasons, I haven't done any blogs since the start of the season, mainly as when I've considered it a lot of what I've wanted to say has been said elsewhere. It's been interesting to watch the events of 21/22 play out and with the Play Offs now on the horizon it's now time to put some thoughts down on paper.

Changing The Culture

Darren Moore's job at the start of the season alongside the obvious was to finally change the culture of this football club. Back in May last year when we were relegated I don't think the gap between fans and club had been wider, true that isn't helped by 15 months without fans in the ground and it's hard to judge fully when you can't either speak to people face to face or go to the games and get a feel for the atmosphere.

At the start of the season, after a summer of bringing in virtually a whole new squad there were always going to be bumps in the road. As I said in my preview I thought we'd start slow and grow from there, the fact we were around the top six even with some inconsistent results was a good sign. We've had a terrible season with injuries, in the last few weeks I've seen a lot of fans saying you can't really use that as an excuse, but I'm sorry you can. Because while yes every club gets injuries I find it very hard to imagine many have had the amount we've had. It's also not just not having the players, it's had a much bigger impact. Having to move players into positions they aren't comfortable with, having to put round pegs in square holes to try and get results and in fairness, we have more often than not got something in those circumstances.

First half Thoughts

With all that to contend with the first half of the season was up and down. We had some good results, Wigan away, Rotherham away and Sunderland at home all stick out. Often fans would moan at underwhelming performances even during wins. There were some disappointing defeats like Morecambe and Plymouth as well as dispiriting draws at home to Shrewsbury and Lincoln. You won't win every game, that's obvious and credit to those sides as they've done their job. I always felt we looked better playing three at the back and was pleased when Moore changed it to suit the players he had rather than the previous system. It did feel a bit like we were trying to crowbar certain players in rather than play the best system for the players we had. I can understand that to an extent, you have to manage the squad, you have to make sure players are as ready as possible to come in if needed, and boy have they been needed. We had however managed to get ourselves on a decent run after losing to Oxford at home, just outside the top six before an enforced lay off due to Covid.

Plymouth turning point

After returning from said Covid break and losing 5-0 at Sunderland and 1-0 away at Shrewsbury it's fair to say the Wednesday fanbase was in a bit of state. My personal opinion were that both results and performances were heavily impacted by the lay off and injuries but as I've sometimes found after defeats like that you can't inject that kind of logic in the immediate aftermath. This player is a disgrace, the manager must go, fans must be refunded. All that stuff comes out, I'll talk more about that later.

When Plymouth visited Hillsborough in January I think it's fair to say the fans needed to see a reaction. A win was one thing but a win and a good performance is another. I do genuinely think had Wednesday lost that game then Darren Moore was in a tricky position. Would he have gone that night I'm not so sure but it would have made it very difficult for him. As it turned out we won the game 4-2, played well in a cracking advert for League One. From there on in other than the odd slip up here and there I think we've played really well. Despite losing the following weekend down at Oxford it felt like we'd turned a bit of a corner. We aren't, and will never be at this level, the finished article. You have to accept that you will have bad days, you will underperform at times. That's football.

Saturday a Glimpse of what can be

On Saturday against Portsmouth I think we saw what this club can be. Over 30,000 Wednesday fans there to roar the team over the line into the Play Offs. This team deserved that for their efforts this season, it's been an up and down campaign at times but overall I've never once thought we didn't see 100% commitment from the players on the pitch. After the last couple of seasons that's a welcome change. It does show you what this club could get on a more regular basis in a higher division with a sensible pricing structure. I'm not saying you get 30,000 every week in the Championship even with cheap tickets because I'm not sure you do but it makes you think.

The Top Eight Battle, Stand Out Stars and Play Offs

For me this season the standard of the teams at the top of League One has been as good as it has for a while. The fact Plymouth missed out on the Play Offs with 80 points is testament to that. All those teams at one point or another have looked nailed on and most have had some time outside of it as well. Oxford I was certain would end up in there for a long while, credit to Wigan and Rotherham for getting over the line automatically, MK Dons have been very good and all off the back of losing their manager on the eve of the season. Ourselves and Sunderland have found that consistency in the 2^nd half of the season to cement 4^th and 5^th and Wycombe do what Wycombe do, make it difficult, battle against the odds and more often than not see off better resourced sides.

It's really tough to call both semi finals. Normally you get a feeling about one team but this one is so even. I think from our point of view we'll know a lot more at around 10PM on Friday. If we can go up to the Stadium Of Light and get something to bring back to what I'm sure will be a raucous Hillsborough on Monday evening then I'd fancy us to get to Wembley. It's all about how we approach it, these kind of games are often nervy tight affairs. I'd love to think we could spring another MK Dons style away performance up there.

The Future

While I'd love us to go up and feel it's more than possible. I still think regardless we're going in the right direction, at least in terms of Darren Moore and his staff. They understand the club, they've begun that process of sorting out things that have been broken for years. I get some fans still aren't convinced, he's not perfect, no manager at this level is. I really do think we'd be making a big mistake to make a change in the summer if we don't go up. Some of the calls for him to go even if we did go up are nonsensical. What does that say to potential managers? That if you achieve the aim you might still get the chop anyway? You can maybe get away with that if you're Real Madrid, not if you're Sheffield Wednesday. I'm not saying Darren Moore can mastermind us up to the top flight or anything like that, but he deserves a crack at it next season regardless of if it's Championship or League One. Don't get me wrong, if it is the latter then the pressure will be on but from what I've seen personally I'd fancy us to have a real go at it if we didn't make it up through the Play Offs.

So there we have it, thanks for reading. I'll probably do another blog after the Play Offs, talk a bit more about the players and who I'd like to see us keep. Fingers crossed that piece will be in a few weeks rather than one.

WAWAW

Tom