Danny Röhl acknowledged that Sheffield Wednesday has to turn their attacking opportunities into clear-cut chances if they want to build on their recent performance improvement, but he said it is unjust to criticise his attackers.
Speaking to the media prior to the Owls’ lengthy journey to Portsmouth on Thursday, Röhl was questioned about the growing attention his forwards are receiving. Although Wednesday has received acclaim for their recent defensive efforts, concerns have been raised about the form of some of their prominent strikers after they had lost four straight games with only one goal.
Get analysis, exclusive interviews, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at Sheffield by subscribing to Alex Miller on Wednesday, The Star’s premium Owls newsletter. Wednesday
Röhl has expressed his dissatisfaction at not being able to turn attacking possibilities into on-target shoots, but he seemed uneasy when it was implied that someone in particular would bear the brunt of the blame. He stated that ensuring goals are scored is the responsibility of the entire team.
When you look to the chances we had it is not just the forwards,” he said. “We had one situation at the second post, Pol Valentin, he could score. It is about how many players we have in the opponent’s boss and sometimes we have just two. It is not enough, we need more and we need to be ready. Sometimes there is a cross to the second post and we have to jump in if we want to score.
We do create chances and even if there is less ball possession against Swansea, if you look back at Swansea and their direction, it is normal. Other team win against Swansea with small ball possession, it is not about possession it is about how big your quality is in possession. We had much more opportunities against them. They had just two opportunities; James made a fantastic save from a header and then in the second half with one ball-winning opportunity on the counter attack. We had 10, 11 good opportunities (to create chances).”
Wednesday had a great deal more touches in the opposition box than Swansea in midweek, a stat that followed the theme of their defeat to Burnley just a few days earlier. Despite their current malaise in the goals column, Röhl presented the demeanour of a manager who sees plenty of things to be positive about.
“It was good to send my team a clear message,” he said. “We should be positive, there are a lot of positive things since the QPR game – we were very close to nearly winning every game in these last six games. We created a lot of chances, opportunities, and hopefully we will win more games in the next weeks.”
On team selection ahead of the trip to the south coast he said: “It will be a mix of everything, which question we get from the opponent, which players are fresh. We want to win and for this hopefully I make the right decisions. It is about game management, we will bring it together. Tomorrow evening I will see a team with a lot of intensity, a lot of sprinting – like against Swansea – and with a lot of high-pressing situations.
“Some guys maybe didn’t see this on Tuesday, but I saw a lot of things against a strong side and one thing we need to improve is shots on target and for this we will be ready.”
