Danny Rohl has explained why one former regular in Sheffield Wednesday’s squad has now fallen out of favour.
Sheffield Wednesday remain particularly light in some areas of the pitch as we approach the closing stages of the campaign, with midfield one position that holds very few options.
The Owls opted to send both George Byers and Tyreeq Bakinson out on loan in January, while Barry Bannan’s recent injury leaves only Momo Diaby and Will Vaulks in their registered squad.
The Yorkshire outfit only have one natural senior left-back in Kristian Pedersen, who managed only two appearances following his arrival before he got injured.
However, one position they certainly aren’t light in is up front. While there may not be bags of quality behind Ike Ugbo, they do also have Lee Gregory, Mallik Wilks, Michael Smith, Ashley Fletcher and Bailey Cadamarteri – while both Callum Paterson and Josh Windass can also play in attack.
While the latter are both sidelined and Lee Gregory is nearing the exit door, Ashley Fletcher still hasn’t managed to earn himself a place in the team in recent weeks.
The striker has been left out of the match-day squad since he was sent off against Millwall last month, while he hadn’t played in the four matches prior to that either.
Danny Rohl has now explained his absence, telling The Star: “I can just name 20 players. This is the reason.
“When everybody is available you have to decide and you have some positions that are tough. We have had two strikers on the bench and you cannot take a third one because of the other positions where you need back-up.”
While he has only managed four starts all season, Ashley Fletcher’s zero goals in 26 games for Sheffield Wednesday is a horrific return.
The 28-year-old has been very poor for the Owls, and that’s saying something when the standard of the attack most of the campaign hasn’t been great.
Though it is hardly Fletcher’s fault when Wednesday knew what they were getting themselves in for.
The forward has had one ‘successful’ season in his whole career, scoring eleven goals for Middlesbrough during 2019-20. Other than that, he has failed to score more than two league goals in a campaign since he was at Barnsley eight years ago.
It was an extremely underwhelming loan signing in the first place and the Owls shouldn’t have expected any more from him.
The arrivals of Ike Ugbo and Ian Poveda in January suggest that Rohl has had a positive influence on what has, at times, been a terrible transfer policy. Hopefully this summer they can avoid bringing in players like Fletcher to Hillsborough.
Leave a Reply