Defensive jitters with attacking prowess

Last updated : 18 April 2014 By C. Morris

It may not be great for the heart rates of some of the fans and the coaching staff but the recent form of Sheffield Wednesday is certainly providing plenty of entertainment.

The Owls flew away from Bournemouth on Good Friday with a 4-2 victory – their third match in succession that had resulted in six goals being scored.

Prior to the 3-3 draws at home to Blackburn and away at Forest the Owls featured in an entertaining 2-1 televised defeat at table topping Leicester and their 5 matches prior to that included a 4-1 defeat, a 4-1 victory and a 3-0 win.

Much of Wednesday's defensive issues during this time can be attributed to injury problems and a lack of consistency in their defensive line up. At the turn of the year the central defensive partnership of Loovens and Onyewu had helped to steady a shaky ship and the Owls went on a run of conceding only 2 goals in 6 league matches at that time.

In the past month both Loovens and Onyewu have missed games through injury, resulting in a complete defensive reshuffle with Buxton spending a spell reverting from right-back to centre back and Miguel Llera coming back into the side.

Although Onyewu has made a return and Loovens is close to fitness the injury problems are not at an end as Buxton was forced off during the victory at Bournemouth.

Although they have not kept a clean sheet for 5 games the Owls don't appear to be having any problems at the other end of the field. Wednesday have not failed to score in any of their last 6 matches and have found the net 10 times in their last 3 games.

The team has generally played with more attacking expression since Stuart Gray took over from Dave Jones in December and with Leon Best demonstrating that he knows where the net is on his return to the club the Owls have a focal point to their attack. Atdhe Nuhiu's all round play during his first season in English football has been impressive and he is now starting to add goals that all strikers crave.

Chris Maguire has chipped in with a fair share of goals from a wide position having previously been frozen out under Jones and Michail Antonio's return from injury has given the side a boost with his pace and direct style.

The Owls have sat in a fairly safe position for some time with no real chance of promotion and very little threat of relegation but the way they are finishing the season is proving to be anything but boring and with 3 games to go there could well be plenty of entertainment still to come.