Sheffield Wednesday succumbed to their 5th successive Coca-Cola Championship defeat in freezing conditions at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon. The 2-0 reverse against Swansea leaves the manager-less Owls with no win in ten and rooted within the relegation zone.
Last weekend’s sorry showing at Leicester signalled the end of Brian Laws reign as manager and caretaker boss Sean McAuley had intimated in the build up to the game that changes were likely.
It was therefore something of a surprise to see the same starting 11 as was at the Walkers Stadium take to the field.
The early goal that gave Swansea the lead was symptomatic of Wednesday’s defensive problems with the visitors midfield allowed time to pick out a decisive pass, aided by some statuesque defending within the back four.
To their credit for half an hour after the first goal the Owls rolled their sleeves up and both Johnson and Purse were denied by decent saves from the Swans keeper. The second goal before half-time killed off this all too brief spell of fight and positivity and the second half was almost a none event.
Swansea are a well organised side but even so to only manage to muster three shots on target in 90 minutes of football does not show any real sign of improvement on previous performances and it is difficult to see where the next win is coming from.
Confidence is low but this is always going to be the case in these circumstances and this can only be changed by the management team and the players themselves.
As an aid to this surely it is time to get back to basics, play a set formation for 90 minutes and put players in their preferred positions. Sean McAllister was replaced at half time having yet again been asked to play in a role that doesn’t utilise his abilities fully. Questions are being asked amongst supporters as to why the central midfielders continue to keep their place in the side without making any telling contributions of late.
Out wide Jermaine Johnson seemed a threat early on but his delivery was all too often disappointing and he fizzled out in the second half. Having said that it became fairly obvious early on that he was the only one providing width to our attacking play, Swansea got wise to this and teamed up against him to snuff out any danger.
Both full backs seem to have lost a great deal of confidence when in possession and offer little to support attacks. Michael Gray would seem like a good option to consider to try and change this but he has been struggling with illness and injury of late.
In the second half we ended up with four strikers on the pitch and no creativity to break a well organised defence down. Shifting strikers to wide positions game after game and sometimes within games doesn’t give them or the team any consistency and must further affect their confidence.
Surely the best way of getting the most out a forward line is to give a pair a run of games together in their preferred positions and utilising a specific formation so that can create an understanding of movement and positioning.
Last but not least, the two loan signings made prior to the deadline next month are becoming something of a sore point. With only two games of their spells remaining Soares and Feeney have featured for less than a full game between them. If they have fitness issues then the decision to loan them in the first place has to be called into question and the same has to be said if they are not deemed to be good enough to enhance a team that has not won in ten attempts and has failed to score in over 10 hours of football.
Whilst it would be unwise to make a rash decision on the appointment of a new manager a positive move has to be made sooner rather than later to bring in someone who can command clear authority and get the best out of a set of players who are performing way below their best at the moment.