What Do Sheffield Wednesday Need To Do To Get Back On Track?

Sheffield Wednesday have finished in the playoff places in the Championship for the last two seasons running. In their first campaign under new ownership and the management of Carlos Carvalhal they unexpectedly made it all the way to Wembley to narrowly miss out on a return to the top flight thanks to a Mo Diame goal for Hull. Last season, Carvalhal again led The Owls to a Top 6 finish, but they lost on penalties in the semi-finals to eventual winners Huddersfield. Wednesday have started this campaign in poor fashion though so what can they do to get back on track?

First of all, Wednesday have never really gotten off to great starts under Carvalhal and seem to be a team that really shows its true colours in the second half of the season, so there may not be that much to worry about just yet. What has been concerning is the fact that they seem to lose to the weaker sides in the division and this has been the case for the last couple of seasons. If Wednesday are to get back on track, they must be taking 3 points off of these teams, they can’t afford further slip ups.

One thing that Wednesday have shown this season but only in glimpses is just how dangerous they can be going forward. You could make a case that they need to be more adventurous, taking more risks in order to assert their authority on games. According a Sportingbet spokesman, the Owls have been prone to slow starts too and have been caught napping on numerous occasions. Opposing teams will look to exploit anything that they perceive as a weakness and if they come out of the traps firing and Wednesday are still half asleep, they’ll be in trouble. So there has to be more intensity from the off but also in an attacking sense too.

When all is said and done, even now Wednesday are still regarded as one of the best sides in the division and they showed what they were really about in their 3-0 dismantling of Leeds United at Hillsborough a few weeks ago. That day they proved themselves to be an extremely capable technical side but they may need to add a bit more pace into their ranks, if their normal possession style is failing to pay off. You can never have too many options in football and pace is always feared by opposition teams.

It’s highly likely that Wednesday are just experiencing a poor start to the season and they’ll probably go on to impose themselves as a top six side later in the competition. If they can keep the likes of Barry Bannan, Kieran Lee, Adam Reach and Gary Hooper fit, they’ll be a match for anyone in the league. They also have Jordan Rhodes in their ranks, who has proven himself to be one of the best goal scorers around at this level. Things may look bad right now but they’re sure to be doing better in the not too distant future.