Garry Monk happy to revert to trusted system at Sheffield Wednesday

The Owls’ dramatic 1-0 midweek victory over Charlton Athletic was only their second Championship win since the start of the festive period, and a third clean sheet.

That run was in stark contrast to what preceded it. Wednesday were third in the table on Christmas Day, and only Leeds United and Brentford had better defensive records at that stage. Twelve games on, Wednesday have dropped to 12th and joint ninth respectively.

With top-scorer Steven Fletcher stretchered off against Brighton and Hove Albion in January’s FA Cup third round tie and only returning last weekend, they have played with two up front just four times in that sequence, and experimented with back fives in the first halves at Luton Town and Birmingham City.

“A lot of it has been out of my control and the players’ control,” manager Monk said of the disruption. “With different combinations we maybe haven’t had the right balance.

“It’s the normal process to look for settled combinations and we were able to do that quite successfully up to the Christmas period.

“This period’s been a bit more difficult with availability issues, injuries, suspensions, illnesses and stuff like that.

“I’ve been trying to find the right balance to help them but it hasn’t looked as comfortable as before when we were very difficult to beat and getting solid performances defensively.

“It wasn’t just the win (on Wednesday), a clean sheet provided a lot of confirmation to the players. It gives you good ammunition as a manager to be able to show them and talk to them,

“Attacking-wise we looked good and created numerous opportunities and that’s the full package you’re looking at.

“It should be a confirmation to the players that when they’re at that level with that work ethic and attitude and you add that combination defensively with the capabilities we think we have, we should always be in a position to win those games.

“That’s what we’re trying to fight back to.”

Tom Lees and Julian Borner played as a central defensive partnership against Charlton for only the second time this year. Dominic Iorfa, one of the star performers of the first half of the season, was an unused substitute in midweek.

Lees made a vital block late on to stop Lyle Taylor converting one of the Addicks’ few clear-cut chances.

“I was pleased they got the clean sheet, that’s important for defenders, even though we defend as a team,” said Monk. “It’s important for defenders and goalkeeper to have that feeling, that’s their No 1 objective, to get that clean sheet and allow the attacking players to win you the game.

“It’s been difficult for the defenders as well in terms of the combinations we’ve had to use and the balance we’ve not quite had, especially with full-backs like Foxy (Morgan Fox) missing after he was doing so well, and having to put Palms (Liam Palmer) to left-back. There was a period of shifting people around out of their natural positions but there’s no excuses, we haven’t done well enough.”

For all that he has tried different formations, Monk is a 4-4-2 man by preference, and it would be a surprise were he not to send his team out in that shape at home to Derby County on Saturday.

“That’s what I set out to do and started to do but I had to adjust it in this run with personnel changes and some availability situations,” he explained. “When we started this run we weren’t quite doing it (playing 4-4-2) to the level where it works so I’ve tried to change a couple of things to see if that would affect it. That didn’t get us to the level I needed.
I’ve tried quite a few things recently, a lot of things.

“When it’s at the highest level, this team will always put itself in positions to win games, that’s the reason we got to third. It wasn’t that we were winning every single game but we were taking regular points.

“We’ve come off it in this period but the last two games we’ve seemed much more like ourselves.”

Fox injured his ankle at the end of January, and made his first start since against the Addicks, with Monk admitting the left-back and Fletcher had probably been pushed back into service quicker than ought to have been the case.

The Owls’ injury list is reducing, though, with right-back Moses Odubajo due back in training next week after a hamstring injury, and midfielders Massimo Luongo and Adam Reach also close to returns.

“To have a fully-fit squad going into an important part of the season (is important),” said Monk. “We’ve got a few more back next week so hopefully we can avoid any more (injuries) and get ourselves ready for the weekend.”