A third match in a week against a rampant Coventry City side proved a step too far for Sheffield Wednesday, with boss Henrik Pedersen left rueing a difficult afternoon for his threadbare squad.
The Owls now head into a two-week international break hoping to refresh and shake off the 5-0 defeat against the now table toppers. They had gone into the clash three matches unbeaten and off the back of a gruelling midweek draw at Birmingham City.
Wednesday’s small squad has left little room to manoeuvre in terms of rotation but given the exhausted nature of the players coming off the field at St Andrews, Pedersen’s naming of an unchanged side was a cause for some surprise from onlookers. The Dane said he had no regrets over his selection and saw positives in how his side played in portions of the first half.
A stop-start pre-season devoid of any meaningful friendlies left the Owls playing catch-up on their match sharpness in these early stages of the campaign and coupled with the thin nature of their changing room, a level of fatigue even just nine games into the season seems something of an inevitability – particularly with the off-field stresses involved.
Pedersen maintained that his squad is getting closer in terms of its physical capability when it comes to the intensity of Championship football, but admitted the mental fatigue of recent weeks will have taken its toll as the Coventry scoreline began to slip away.
“If we could have stayed longer in the game today, if it was 1-0 at the end of the first half or something, we could have had more physical (strength) to us to do something,” he said. “But of course when you are 3-0 down it is tough. They are tired, there is no question.
“They have used so much energy, so much mental load to perform again and again. But still I think we are much further on in the physical level. To be 3-0 down was the toughest part. Of course we are also fighting from the physical side but the boys have made big, big steps in that direction.
“The belief and the confidence that they played with after 1-0 and 2-0 was strong from the boys. It’s important we don’t have to evaluate too much for the second half. Of course it was a mentally tough challenge for the boys. ”
Asked whether he had any second thoughts on his unchanged team selection given the exhaustive nature of their midweek efforts, Pedersen replied: “No, not at all.
“I think the team we started with today was the right team and how we played in the first half was in many ways the right way. The set pieces, losing the ball, the offside goal (cost them). We did a lot of things right even though we were 3-0 down. It easy to say when you are 3-0 down that everything is not good, or at 3-0 up everything is good. But we have to see more colour in the picture. I would not have changed anything.”
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