da supremo： This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
da aviator aposta： Sheffield Wednesday’s season has followed a very similar pattern, and Wednesday night was no different.
The Owls, for once, needed late heroics from Kadeem Harris to salvage a point against Birmingham City at Hillsborough as the 26-year-old glanced an effort from range under multiple players and into the back of the net just nine minutes from time.
Garry Monk’s side dominated the game completely, recording 24 shots and 58% possession, per SofaScore, but they couldn’t secure their first win in five matches.
The 40-year-old’s tactics could prove to be the main cause behind their woes in recent weeks…
On the Chalkboard
Wednesday managed just five shots on target during the match, which goes to show just how bad they are struggling in front of goal.
Monk has stuck with Steven Fletcher solely up top in recent times, understandably so as he is their top goalscorer after all, but if you’re going to have a target man on his own, he needs to be supplied efficiently.
And that’s just something they have struggled to do.
Fletcher wins on average 6.4 aerial duels per game, so whipping in crosses to him is an obvious threat in Wednesday’s locker, but to manage an accuracy rate of just 17% helps nobody.
To put that in perspective, from a mammoth 41 attempts, the Owls could only manage seven accurate crosses. Birmingham only attempted 14 themselves – that speaks volumes.
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If you delve deeper into this niche issue, you’ll soon see that both Adam Reach and Harris have regularly been playing on the opposite flank to their strong foot.
This enables them to cut inside and support Fletcher from close range, but that does very little in supplying his strengths, although it does show why they have been so off the mark with their crossing.
The simple solution is to swap them back to their natural sides – Reach on the left, Harris on the right, and Murphy too if he plays.
Wednesday will only continue to suffer if this tactical blunder isn’t amended in the immediate future.
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Meanwhile… this Owls outcast has just proven why he should be called upon…