Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton AthleticWednesday 26 February | Kick-Off: 19.45pmLive on Sky Sports via Red ButtonPrevious Result: Charlton Athletic 1-3 Sheffield WednesdayReferee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands) - Previously officiated Charlton in 1-1 home draw with Nottingham ForestIntroductionOur home form was always going to be crucial in the run in for this season, and it's a good job that we got another 3 vital points on Saturday. Young George Lapslie coming off the bench and changing the game for The Addicks to score his first league goal in the process. A lot of talk has been made recently of how important this week is, and with two northern away games coming up in such quick succession, it's going to test our squad. History will be made for our midweek trip to the Steel City as we play Sheffield Wednesday, on a Wednesday, for the first time ever!
OppositionManager: Gary Monk (36% win rate)
Stadium: Hillsborough Stadium |
League Position: 12th
Nickname: The Owls
Fun Fact:- Sheffield Wednesday's original nickname was actually, 'The Blades', due to the term being used for any sports team in the City of Sheffield. It is of course now their bitter rival who hold the nickname, whilst Wednesday's, 'The Owls', took over once they introduced an owl mascot after their move to Owlerton back in 1899.
Wednesday will try to play a flat 4-4-2 as often as they can. They moved to that formation at half-time on Saturday. Recently though, a variety of formations have been used, but their direct style of play is just the same. Their previous starting line up away at Birmingham was:
Dawson
Pelupessy | Lees | Iorfa | Börner | Palmer
Murphy | Lee | Bannan | Harris
Forestieri
Since Christmas, Wednesday have experienced a poor run of form. Only 1 win in 11 league games. The majority of their poor form has coincided with key player Steven Fletcher getting injured. A knee injury would rule the striker out for just over a month, and during that period of time, Wednesday lost 4 and drew 3 of their last 7. They also only scored 5, but conceded a very poor 15 goals. Fletcher, who scored a brace against us back in November, returned to come off the bench on Saturday at Birmingham. It would be expected that he will once again be involved for Wednesday in midweek.
Barry Bannan is Wednesday's playmaker; everything will usually go through him. The left footed midfielder has rarely missed any football this season and has 7 assists too. Bannan is capable of putting real quality into the box from set-pieces and finding pockets of space, especially on a big pitch like Hillsborough, to play an effective slide rule pass into the forwards. Marshalling the diminutive Scot is something that we will most certainly have to do.
The Owls play direct, often going long to bring their midfielders into the game rather than playing through the thirds. They also use the width of the pitch well too, Harris and Murphy are two tricky wingers in this division. Interestingly, even with their direct style of play, Wednesday struggled to cope with Jutkiewicz on Saturday. His strength and aerial ability caused them many problems and with all three Birmingham goals were incredibly poor defending. It would be fair to say a factor was due to them being so focused on trying to contain Jutkiewicz.
Charlton Team NewsWith Wednesday's direct style, and the possibility of them playing two of Fletcher, Nuhiu, or Wickham up front, I think Bowyer could be tempted into playing a back 5 away from home. Having 3 centre backs will help increase our chances of winning the first ball into our defensive third, it would then be up to our tenacious midfield to win the second ball. Playing this way can have its benefits in attacking areas too. Wednesday have conceded around a third of their goals from set-pieces (29.3%), so having three centre backs up, as well as our front two, could cause them problems.
There will of course be changes to the side who started against Luton on Saturday. It's a midweek game and we know Bowyer likes to rotate - protecting his squad from potential injuries and picking specific players to suit. Lapslie made a great claim to start in Sheffield after his fantastic second half display, but I don't think he will be given the nod for this one. McGeady, Hemed, and Bonne will be hoping to get into the starting eleven, whilst players like Solly and Aneke will be aiming to be in the squad for the first time in a while. This game is also likely to come too soon for Pratley and Williams. Leaving Oztumer and Green out of the starting line up would be incredibly harsh; especially as the former linked the midfield and attack so well on Saturday. However, after playing 79 minutes, it would be unusual for Oztumer to start twice in such quick succession. Regarding Green, he has been playing well recently, but again with another game just around the corner, it can only be a matter of time before we see Bonne start alongside Taylor.
Subs: Amos, Oshilaja, Smith, Lapslie, Oztumer, Green, Hemed
Prediction
Wednesday are sitting smack bang in mid-table, 12th place and 11 points from the play-offs and relegation. However, with a possible points deduction looming, and thier recent run of form, they could quickly find themselves in trouble. A win for us on Wednesday means we go only 3 points behind them, and a win would be massive (pun intended) for us getting across that safety line. I think we will.
Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Charlton Athletic
Taylor
Lockyer
Comments
Agree with Sage's line up though - Will be very surprised if Oztumer plays three times in eight days and have a feeling that this midweek game will be treated a bit like the Blackburn game, i.e. a bonus if we get something but ultimately we'll focus more on Huddersfield
If we don't get it right then the points gap between us and the bottom three could have evaporated completely by Saturday evening.
This is a huge week for all of the teams in the shakeup and two big performances from us could really change things in our favour.
Likewise, two poor results could leave us in trouble.
As @Sage says, keeping Barry Bannan quiet is likely to be pivotal, as he is their key creator and playmaker.
Given that clean sheets are not our forte, I hope that we don't adopt too passive an approach and instead have a real go at Wednesday.
I'd be surprised if Bowyer starts Lapslie after his long layoff, but we could certainly do with his dynamism during the 2nd half.
It's doubtful if Pratley will be fit, so keep Davis as gate keeper protecting the back line. It's where he's played most of his career and where he plays best.
I thought Oztumer was a breath of fresh air yesterday, good possession and passing; probing and always looking to thread through the killer ball. Expect to see him share the role with McGeady - but yesterday we saw Lyle drop back to do that for the last 20 mins, leaving Bonne and Green more forward.
Not sure if Green will be started ....... he's never started Saturday/midweek in succession with us; for the midweek game against Fulham he was sub and came on pretty late. There's been some talk that he has a problem with a toe and finds it difficult to play twice a week - let's hope that's some sort of urban myth.
My biggest fear, is despite their crap run, Wednesday are a big direct side. We often struggle against those sort of physical teams, but have made a habit of getting decent results against good footballing sides, who perhaps allow us to play our own game.
Verdict: Ain't got a clue.
If Pratley is fit to start I would like him in the middle of the back 3. Gives us an option to switch to the diamond early on if we need to.
Cullen Lapslie and Oz in midfield. Bonne to partner Lyle.
Lockyer to score.
I think it's a score draw.
Bowyer's smart use of subs changes the game again.
If we play a back 4 I would go with Purrington.
Hoping we can continue our decent form.
I think Saturdays win will fill the dressing room with confidence.
The massive have not been in great form recently so
2.1 Charlton.
WLWLW what's next in sequence ?
Wednesday win Wednesday with windy weather worrying weary wanderlust wayfarers. (wanker !)
The good news is we win at Huddersfield