Sheffield Wednesday suffered a 4th successive defeat in the Championship on Saturday as Bolton, who had previously lost all 3 of their away games this season, came away from Hillsborough with a 2-1 win.
Dave Jones side have aquitted themselves quite well in an attacking sense on their return to the Championship as they have only failed to score in 1 match so far this season but it is at the other end where the problems are more evident.
The Owls have conceded more than one goal in all seven league games so far and have shipped more goals than every other side in the Championship, apart from Peterborough who are yet to pick up a point and sit adrift at the bottom of the table.
Centre-back Martin Taylor was brought in on transfer deadline day in a bid to stem the tide and has been made captain of the team but in his 3 games so far in the starting 11 Wednesday have conceded a total of 8 goals and his basic error at the weekend contributed to Bolton’s winning goal.
A number of different combinations have been tried in the back 4, as yet to no avail and it is an area that needs to be worked on with Wolves, Hull, Burnley and Leeds to come next in the league, all of which have been on form in front of goal.
Wednesday travel to Southampton in the League Cup on Tuesday which may see yet another defensive unit given an opportunity. Interestingly, the Owls best defensive performance of the season to date came against Premier League Fulham when they kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win. Stephen Bywater was preferred to regular goalkeeper Chris Kirkland for that game and although the finger of blame can’t directly be pointed at Kirkand for many of the goals that the Owls have conceded, observations have been made that Bywater may be better at instructing and marshalling the players in front of him.