Burnley v Sheffield Wednesday: Clarets a 'role model' but Owls must get balance right

The Owls have only kept two in the time Friday's hosts have gone 11 Championship matches without conceding. Those games – away to Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City – have provided two of their three wins in that period.

So it is little surprise Rohl has put a lot of training-ground emphasis on defending lately, but he must be careful not to blunt what has been good about his side in that time.

Since Burnley last conceded in the Championship, in a 2-1 win over Watford on December 21, only Swansea and Plymouth Argyle (both with 22) have conceded more than Wednesday's 20 goals.

But in the same period, only Leeds (27) have outscored their 18.

When Rohl referred to the Clarets' defending as "not special, special" he was not disrespecting a team which has conceded just nine goals in 33 Championship games this season, just highlighting that their success is based on simplicity and doing the basics well – something it should be possible for his team to emulate.

"They're doing really well," clarified Rohl. "What I mean is that they don't change the shape every week or do something different.

"What they do is outstanding otherwise you can not have so many clean sheets as a group. I like the intensity, how they recover and even break the first pressing line. They know what they have to do.

"How they defend as a group is good to see because they do the basics right and they play nearly without mistakes. This is also hard.

"When you've conceded so few goals and you still have pressure on the ball it's a role model.

"It's also decision-making from players, it's about how you react after you've over-played. All the small things they are doing right."

Rohl has seen his team do it, they just need to be more consistent at it.

"In our good games – for example Norwich at home (a 2-0 win in November) or QPR away (another 2-0, in January) – we are well organised, compact, nasty, we made the right decisions, we had the man-marking, the pressure on the ball, all the things we want to do."

As always, it is about striking the right balance. Wednesday are the Championship's sixth-highest scorers, the Clarets outside the automatic promotion places because they are only 14th in that respect.

"I saw, especially against Coventry, what we can do when we play forward, how dangerous we are," said Rohl.

"In the past I've always tried to find the balance in the group, to be a bit more defensively-minded in some positions.

"We have to be ready, we have to be clinical and make our best game against the ball.

"We have some areas where we have to step up and the players have to take responsibility as well.

"Sometimes we have an overload around the ball but no one really takes the responsibility to take the duel (take a player on), everyone is hoping a little bit that the other guy does this.

"Last season we struggled with scoring, this season we've scored a lot but the key point is to stay in the game."

Offering hope defensively is the news that centre-backs Dominic Iorfa and Akin Famewo are on schedule to return from muscle injuries, discouraging the Owls from signing a free agent.

"We have a good group together," argued Rohl. "In training we still have 23 players plus the goalkeepers, a good group.

"Behind (the scenes) the recruitment (team) is looking but if we're honest there's just three weeks before the final list is in (it is actually March 27)."

Anthony Musaba has had a setback in his recovery, but Barry Bannan has reported no ill effects from his return from a knee injury last week.