A strong second half against Leyton Orient secured all three points in their opening game, but a very promising opening stanza vs Bradford City wasn’t enough as they fell to a second-half goal from the Bantams.
As is so often the case, as Wednesdayites we’re floating between the extremes of ‘everything’s great’ to ‘everything’s awful’ when it comes to what’s happening on the field of play, so here at The Wednesday Word we went in search of some opinions from a couple of unbiased experts…
When it comes to the English Football League, you won’t mind better than the Not The Top 20 lads on that front, and NTT20.COM does a great job of covering all three leagues in an interesting and informative way.
Here’s what they had to say:
George Elek
If they can maintain the level of the first half for longer periods and just find that clinical edge in the final third, then most won’t be able to deal with them.
As the clock ticked towards 90 minutes, the Sky Sports commentator said that this result would serve as a ‘reality check’ for Sheffield Wednesday. It shouldn’t, but the first half performance served to show what could be possible this season.
As someone who had Wednesday 1st in my own personal 1-24 predictions, and thinks Simon Wilson is quietly building one of the best sides in the league, it was alarming to see Bradford sent off favourites with the bookmakers, and off the back of a similar gamble on Leyton Orient last weekend. There’s a reason it’s hard to make money gambling, and closing lines can offer a telling insight into how teams are rated by those much smarter than us. That the market has spoken so loudly against Wednesday in their first two games could be cause for alarm.
Despite the good result at Orient, it wasn’t necessarily a display that could be used to justify my claim that Wednesday should be one of the title favourites. The first half against Bradford definitely was. The press was efficient and effective, with Slattery, Mitchell and Bannan consistently winning the ball in central areas as Bradford tried to break in numbers.
The result was a consistent threat on the counter-attack with plenty of men forward and it was only some wasteful finishing and some smart saves that stopped Wednesday being at least one up at the break.
Once so reliant on Bannan for creativity, they now have Slattery’s progressive passing with Barry and Gray’s carrying ability wide. With this trio also hard-working off the ball, as do the deeper midfield duo, this is an attacking unit that showed that they can be aggressive out of possession and then dangerous with it.
The second half was poor, but the game was lost to a set-piece goal, and a point should have been salvaged at the death by Jamal Lowe, and I think it would have been the least Wednesday deserved for their early dominance.
The players who remain from last season haven’t won many games in recent times, nor have the fans seen many. The whole club is going through a reset, so maybe it’s no surprise that they struggled to get off the ropes when put up against them in the 48th minute.
Kieran Morrison looked lively when he came on down the right hand side in what was a rare positive in the closing minutes, but I came away from the game more convinced than ever that Wednesday are one of the teams to beat this season. If they can maintain the level of the first half for longer periods and just find that clinical edge in the final third, then most won’t be able to deal with them.
Ali Maxwell
The first XI answered one major question, but the squad as a whole still has several more to answer, and the club are limited in their ability to address them in this transfer window.
I had Sheffield Wednesday finishing 11th in my personal pre-season 1-24 predictions, and one of my biggest concerns was the scale of the squad rebuild.
It wasn’t a question of whether Wednesday’s best players were good enough to play for a League One promotion challenger: Barry Bannan, Louie Barry, Max Lowe and others clearly have top League One quality.
The bigger questions, for me, were this:
Would so many new pieces fit together quickly enough? It’s hard to win promotion if you’re still in ‘building’ mode for the first few months of the season.
Would Wednesday’s ninth-best, 14th-best, 17th-best and 20th-best players be good enough once injuries, suspensions and fatigue inevitably arrive?
In one summer and under transfer restrictions, is it possible to build a whole squad ready to challenge across 46 games, able to fit a specific style of play while also being adaptable to various game-states?
After a 2-1 win at Leyton Orient (poor first half, good second half) and Thursday night’s 0-1 defeat against Bradford (good first half, poor second half), I’m pleasantly surprised about some aspects. In the first half on Thursday night, Wednesday’s starting XI did look like a coherent team rather than a collection of good League One players.
Their first-half football was excellent at times. They moved the ball quickly and purposefully, regularly found their best players in useful positions and never became stuck in sterile possession. Bannan remains outstanding at finding space and moving the game forward, and I definitely underestimated Max Lowe’s ability as a passer. Good teams need playmakers in their back line as well as midfield, and Lowe gives Wednesday another route of progression to support Bannan. He defended well, too.
Callum Slattery impressed me: energetic and disruptive without the ball, intelligent in his movement and regularly arriving around the penalty area. His execution let him down in big moments, but I think he’s a good signing. Harry Gray’s movement looked mature for such a young player, but unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old, he faded as the game went on. Louie Barry provides the obvious X-factor, but Bradford defended him well as the game went on, and he’s not Mbappé.
The major concern, based on the Bradford game, is what happens when that intensity drops. The danger with a side built around the kind of energy that Pedersen’s style demands is that there can be a big difference between their best 20 minutes and their ordinary 20 minutes. If the press becomes half a yard slower, the movement slightly less coordinated or the passing a little less precise, suddenly a team that looked slick and dominant can look loose and open.
That happened in the second half. Bradford increasingly won the duels, hit the channels, won set pieces and kept Wednesday away from their goal. The midfield gaps grew, and the lack of obvious match-winners on the bench became noticeable the longer time ticked on. Their effort to get back in the game was tough to watch: the team looked exhausted and disoriented.
That links back to my biggest remaining concern: depth. If your style relies on high physical output, you need substitutes who can preserve the intensity and quality, not merely replace tired players. Going back to my original concern: are Wednesday’s ninth-best, 14th-best, 17th-best and 20th-best players good enough to support an automatic promotion push? Right now, I would say no.
There are also questions in both boxes. Wednesday look capable of being strong between the boxes, but I’m not yet convinced they look ready to win games with top execution inside either penalty area. Liam Cooper carries a lot of the aerial responsibility defensively. He did well in the first half against Bradford, but the first time he failed to head a corner away, the ball was in the net…
It’s not a team packed with aerial prowess. At the other end there is some quality and good movement without an obvious abundance of penalty box killers.
My 11th-place prediction was feeling a little conservative in the first half on the evidence of how well the team seemed to fit together. But I’m not ready to tear the prediction up yet. Football matches last 90 minutes. The season lasts 46 games and chucks up many different challenges. The first XI answered one major question, but the squad as a whole still has several more to answer, and the club are limited in their ability to address them in this transfer window.
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As a Bradford fan, I think you're only seeing this from one side: that your first-half performance was excellent and the second half was poor.
Obviously, calling for more of one and less of the other is short-sighted because you're missing an important ingredient in your analysis...
Wednesday didn't fall off in the second half and play badly... Bradford played more like themselves, to their strengths.
If you look at the chances and counters SW had in the first, they all came from sloppy City mistakes. That's unlike us. And while we're saying first half, really it was more like the first 20-25 minutes, because we came back into it as it went on.
Even though we weren't at our best and the Owls were pretty slick... the Bantams were still trying to attack the game and play on the front foot. However, SW were reacting quicker and the 50/50s were falling their way.
I knew once City got to half-time, the gaffer would have words and we'd see the real Bantams after the break - and we did.
I'm not sure that was as much SW playing badly as it was City playing more like themselves. We were sharper, the press improved, the indecision had gone, and our identity of winning the ball back quickly and turning it into an instant attack was clearly evident.
We finished 4th last year with the same philosophy, and this year our new signings have made us a much better team, IMO. Not least, we're scoring from set-pieces now (3 in 3) when last year we didn't. That might be the difference between drawing 0-0 away at Bolton (a comparable team to SW this year) and turning it into a victory against a promotion rival to push us into an automatic spot.
So, while I do agree that it was a game of two halves and you'd fare better playing more like you did in the first 45... it isn't simply a case of SW deciding to turn it on or off. Using last night's game as the example, Bradford are a better team than their first-half performance suggested, and the second half was more a case of City wrestling back control.
Apart from the sitter right at the death, there was only one team who looked like winning after the break, and most of the action was at the other end.
Looking at the bigger picture for your season, I have a soft spot for SW, so I hope both teams go up come May. But I do have the same reservations as Ali Maxwell... you literally have a brand new squad, and it's difficult for a manager to teach his philosophy in a single pre-season. It takes time for players to gel, too.
Additionally, you have plenty of talented, but young and inexperienced players that are new to the men's game and L1 level. Having seen so many 'wonderkids' trying to make the grade at this level over the years, I can tell you the saying "football isn't played on paper" has never been truer. Many of those so-called 'wonderkids' never reach their potential.
Success with youth is hit and miss. I think a 50% success rate would be optimistic, and yet SW have signed quite a few, so that's another variable on top of assembling and preparing an entire squad. Barry and Burstow are both proven at this level (though I wasn't too impressed with Burstow last season at Bolton) ... the other 4-5 youngsters have little experience and none at L1 level.
We'll see. It could be that all 6-7 kids impress and the squad clicks faster than expected to bounce back up at the first time of asking. As long as City do too, then I hope that's the case.
Either way, I hope you have a cracking season and better times to come. No one enjoyed seeing what your previous owner was doing to your club, so regardless of the outcome, this year should definitely be more enjoyable than last.
The reverse fixture at VP should be a cracker, and we look forward to seeing you there.
All the best. CTID.
Interesting article and responses, although too much truth and common sense for most readers' liking lol