Carvalhal puts protective shield around top duo

The Sheffield Wednesday head coach will make wholesale changes for tomorrow’s final game of the regular season, away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, with one eye on the play-offs.

Carvalhal will leave out “eight or nine players” from the side that beat Cardiff City last Saturday, to secure a top-six finish, for the lunch-time trip to Molineux.

Two definitely ruled out tomorrow are top scorer Fernando Forestieri – who has been red-carded twice in the last three months and has picked up yellow cards in his last three games – and midfielder Sam Hutchinson.

Former Chelsea playmaker Hutchinson has not played since March 19 due to glandular fever, but has been back in training for several weeks.

But after picking up 13 bookings this campaign, Carvalhal is refusing to risk Hutchinson – an unused substitute last weekend against Cardiff – who could receive a third ban this season with two more yellow cards to reach the 15 bookings mark.

“Sam was not involved (against Cardiff) because of the situation with cards; he has 13 yellow cards,” said Carvalhal.

“He’s a special case, and we don’t want to take any risk of losing him.

“If he picked up two yellow cards he would be ruled out with suspension.

“He won’t be involved on Saturday, either, because it doesn’t make sense for him to risk getting another yellow card. We want him to be available for the play-offs.”

Forestieri, top scorer for Wednesday with 15 goals, has collected 10 yellow cards and been regularly punished for alleged diving.

It is an accusation about an aspect of Forestieri’s play that Carvalhal dismisses, but he refuses to take any chances ahead of next Friday’s first leg at Hillsborough, against either Middlesbrough or Brighton.

“Fernando is also a player who we don’t want to take risks with,” said Carvalhal.

“We must protect him. These are two players who I can say in public I am protecting.

“After this, we will pick the best XI players to win the game.

“Against Newcastle we changed something like eight or nine players, and this is a game when we will do something similar.

“It’s the best way to manage our squad. It’s important we trust all our players, because if we don’t trust them, we will not change.”

Carvalhal has not been afraid to make multiple changes to his team, with the likes of goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith, Michael Turner, Vincent Sasso, Liam Palmer, Jeremy Helan, Marco Matias and Aiden McGeady all likely to feature tomorrow.

He did something similar in the League Cup, away to Newcastle United earlier in the season, and came away with a victory against Premier League opposition.

“All of our players have started in the first XI during the season,” he said.

“Some of them have had more chances to play than others, because some have had a fantastic season and those in the shadows, it’s not easy to play.

“That’s not their failure or attitude, it’s just because they don’t have too many opportunities.

“On Saturday we have a chance to play the players who haven’t played often, but they have started for the first team this season.

“They deserve to play. We will take the game seriously, we will have a lot of fans there.”

Carvalhal has a mantra of “one game at a time” so he refuses to get carried away with the distraction of promotion and the financial riches the Premier League would bring.

But he does admit relief at having secured a top-six spot last week – after an impressive 3-0 win over Cardiff – to give the Owls an extra week’s preparation for the play-offs.

“We solved the problem last week, beating Cardiff helped a lot,” he said. “We can prepare for the play-off much better and we have a week without pressure. Pressure is the enemy of perfection and creativity.

“It’s a real positive that we reached the play-offs a week before the end of the season.

“Promotion and money is not important to me (at this time) because I know to achieve these things, you have to work hard and focus on the games.

“In this moment we are focused on Wolves, after we will prepare for the play-offs.

“Afterwards, we can get the consequences of our work and dedication. That’s how I think.”

Carvalhal believes one of the keys to Wednesday’s success this season has been specific attention to detail by his coaching team.

That includes dossiers on opponents, to identify weak points in their team, so players are not stepping into the unknown on match days.

“We try to predict what will happen during the game, that means the players are more confident,” he said. “We know what the opponent can do, and what we can do to them.

“If you go into a dark room and you don’t know what it’s inside, you will be anxious. If you saw the room before and you know there is nothing inside, you can go in there and no problems.

“We try to minimise everything, preview anything, and try to make the players more safe and confident.”