McKenna: We Need to Be Ready Whatever Sheffield Wednesday’s Approach
Friday, 19th Dec 2025 19:36
Boss Kieran McKenna says the Blues will give Sheffield Wednesday full respect when they visit on Saturday, despite the in-administration Owls currently sitting bottom of the table on minus-nine points, a massive 27 points from safety.
Wednesday have been deducted 18 points this season having gone into administration and due to multiple breaches of EFL regulations relating to their payment obligations. Earlier today, it was announced that they had escaped a further points sanction.
Even without the points deductions, the Owls would still be bottom on nine points, eight points fewer than second-bottom Norwich City, having won once all season.
The club is in the process of being taken over, Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri having departed in October, with former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley reportedly the last bidder remaining in the running as it stands.
McKenna was asked whether he has sympathy with his counterpart Henrik Pedersen, who took charge in the summer following Danny Röhl’s exit having been the German’s assistant.
“Of course you do. It seems a very difficult situation, from the outside,” the Town manager said.
“But each situation is different, has different challenges, different pressures and from what I’ve seen watching the games, I’ve seen them put in some really good performances.
“They’ve got a real mixture of Championship experienced players, who have been at that club or around the Championship a long time and some really exciting young players, a couple of whom I know a little bit more from Man United [Di’shon Bernard, Charlie McNeill and loanee Harry Amass].
“I’m sure it’s very difficult, but at the same time he seems to be doing a good job dealing with the football matters and that’s why we’ll be giving them full respect on Saturday.”
The Owls have a better record away from home this season having won their only match this season — 2-0 at Portsmouth in September — drawn four and lost four on the road.
They are without a win in 14 matches, losing nine and five of their last six, Derby County having beaten them 3-0 at Hillsborough last weekend.
Wednesday have scored the fewest goals in the division, 15, and have conceded 40, more than anyone else.
Away, they have scored 10 times, the sixth-fewest in the Championship, but have shipped 13, the same as Town on their travels, with only seven sides having let in fewer, although having played only nine away matches with almost everyone having completed one or two more.
McKenna says the Owls are capable of taking a variety of approaches to games.
“When you look at Sheffield Wednesday, they’re a team that can play in really different ways,” he continued.
“They’ve had times this season when they’ve played really, really good football. They went away to Leicester in the first game of the season, had an equal share of the game [but lost 2-1].
“Away to Southampton [in November] they had more possession than Southampton, had nearly high 60s per cent possession in the second half [but lost 3-1].
“So they have good players and they can play with the ball and give you problems in that way.
“They’ve also lost some games and some goals playing in that way and they’ve also gone away to the likes of West Brom and got a 0-0.
“They went away to Birmingham and defended a lot more and got a draw, so they can do both and we need to be ready for both.
“It doesn’t take me to sit here and say that the games this year that we’ve won by greater margins were against teams who have played more open against us or where we’ve got the first goal and teams have had to come out more.
“And we’ve had some games at home when teams have defended really, really deep when it’s been tougher.
“But I think you could probably look at the large majority of ball-dominant teams in world football and say that that’s normally the case. And in our situation, with the amount of changes [to the squad over the summer], it’s going to be more likely so.
“In the end, we need to be ready for both and we need to be able to win both types of game – to be able to win whenever teams come and go toe-to-toe with us and we need to be able to win games when other teams come to frustrate us. Whichever it comes tomorrow, we need to be ready for both challenges.”
When the teams last met, at Portman Road in March 2024, the Blues won 6-0 on their way to promotion to the Premier League, the Owls having come up from League One along with McKenna’s side the previous season having been edged into third and forced into the play-offs.
McKenna says that that was among the most complete displays of his four years at the club: “One of the best ones, I’d have to say that. It’s one which definitely sticks in the mind with fond memories.
“Of course, we would take the same on Saturday. We’re certainly not expecting that every game is going to go as smooth as that, but over the course of the years we’ve had some really, really good ones and that was certainly one.”
Christian Walton seems set to continue in goal with Darnell Furlong at right-back and Leif Davis on the left. McKenna may also stick with skipper Dara O’Shea with Cedric Kipre at the heart of the defence having switched the Ivorian international and Jacob Greaves regularly until more recent weeks.
In central midfield, Azor Matusiwa is treading a suspension tightrope with the Dutchman on nine bookings and a 10th leading to a two-match ban.
McKenna will have to decide whether the former Rennes man is partnered by Jack Taylor, as has been the case most often of late, or Jens Cajuste.
Ahead of them, Sindre Walle Egeli looks certain to come back on the right having missed the trip to Leicester due to illness, while Sammie Szmodics may make his first start since returning from knee surgery as the number 10. The former Blackburn man will hope to finally score his first goal at Portman Road, all four of his strikes up to now – all last season in the Premier League – having come away from home.
Top scorer Jaden Philogene, who conversely has netted all seven of his goals this season at Portman Road, is likely to continue on the left with ex-Owl George Hirst the number nine.
Wednesday will be without once-capped England international midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah, who is set to undergo scans having felt a problem in training.
In addition, Sean Fusire (Zimbabwe) and Yan Valery (Tunisia) are away on international duty at the African Cup of Nations and manager Pedersen outlined the parlous state of his squad at present.
“There are a lot of players on the limit but we are ready to go and we’re looking forward to the game,” he said.
“Right now, we have eight senior players with Championship experience and then we have a big group of U21 players and today we also had some U18 players integrated in training.”
Pedersen says those few senior players can’t be run into the ground and will need to be rested at some point with games coming thick and fast over Christmas.
“It’s necessary because there are days like today where we have eight senior players with Championship experience,” the Dane added.
“We have to manage every single exercise, every single training session. We have to manage the whole load for the whole training, every single player, [and ask] ‘how much can X player play against Ipswich and then against Hull [on Boxing Day]?’.
“We need to make a plan because senior players cannot play all the minutes. The risk for injury is too big and they cannot perform for 90 minutes every game. We will integrate the young players as we have done.”
Nevertheless, Pedersen wants to see his team to take a proactive approach, fans having criticised them for passing themselves into trouble more often than they progress the ball into dangerous areas for the opposition in recent matches.
”I love to have a very aggressive pressing team,” Pedersen continued. “Again, when we play so many games with the amount of players that we have, we cannot press high every time.
“We want to be an aggressive, compact team. On the ball, we want to develop a team that can be strong and effective. I like a big part of versatility when we are on the ball.
“I am not a coach who likes to have the ball just to have the ball, I want to be dominant and be able to play out against a team that is pressing high, but also a team that is standing deep.
“It is a running, possession game. What we saw against Derby it was more to keep the ball than it was to create with the ball, and this is not what I want to stand for and also the players.
“We want more, we want to create something and we want to be effective. In the same part, when you want to be effective and create something, then you need to speed up the game and not always keep the same speed because you don’t move them quickly enough.”
Regarding a tendency to overplay in dangerous areas, Pedersen added: “Yes, I think so. We want to play, we want to break the first pressing line so that we can have a step in and from here we can speed it up and have the versatility instead of just playing it out and playing a long ball.
“We don’t have the team to play only long balls and only the second balls. I think this is a place where we have to improve.
“We don’t have to play four, five or six times, but this is what we are working on to be more effective in this part, so we are not only keeping the ball, but we break lines and speed up the game.”
Historically, matters are very evenly balanced but with the Blues having the edge having won 22 games (21 in the league), Wednesday 21 (20) and with 16 (15) matches having ended in draws.
Town are unbeaten in four against the Owls, while the South Yorkshiremen were last victorious at Portman Road in February 2019 when Lucas Joao’s 90th-minute goal secured a 1-0 win.
The teams most recently met at Portman Road in March 2024 when Omari Hutchinson and Ali Al-Hamadi both netted twice and Cameron Burgess and Nathan Broadhead once each as Town thrashed Wednesday 6-0 to record their biggest victory of the season and climb back to second in the Championship.
Hutchinson got the ball rolling in the 15th minute, Burgess added the second on 37, then Broadhead made it three in first-half injury time. Hutchinson made it 4-0 three minutes into the second half, before sub Al-Hamadi added the fifth and sixth on 80 and 90 as Town ran riot against the Owls.
In September 2023 at Hillsborough, Chaplin’s third goal of the season saw Town to a 1-0 victory over Wednesday.
The Blues, who remained third with a 100 per cent record on the road, had had a number of chances to go in front before Chaplin slammed home Davis’s low cross just before half-time and had opportunities to increase their lead in the second half.
Blues striker Hirst started his career with the Owls where his father David had been a legendary striker in the eighties and nineties.
Having come through the academy, Hirst junior made two sub appearances before moving on to Belgian side OH Leuven in the summer of 2018.
Owls defender Dominic Iorfa spent 2017/18 on loan with the Blues from Wolves making 22 starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. Iorfa is winless in nine games against Town.
Ex-Blues midfielder Giles Coke is a first-team coach with the Owls. Coke spent an injury hit spell with Town between 2015 and 2017 making four starts – one in the league – and 10 sub appearances.
Saturday’s referee is David Webb, his assistants Ian Cooper and Alan Cresswell, and the fourth official Oliver Mackey.
Lancashire-based Webb, who has shown 36 yellow cards and one red in 15 games so far this season, has already been at Portman Road once this season, for the 1-1 draw with Watford in which he yellow-carded Hirst and two Hornets.
However, his one dismissal this season was Town right-back Furlong for a second bookable offence while playing for West Brom against Blackburn on the opening weekend of the season.
Webb also took charge of the Blues for the 3-2 home victory over Bristol City in March 2024 when he cautioned Al-Hamadi and three Robins.
Prior to that, he was in the middle for the 0-0 draw at home to QPR between Christmas and New Year 2023 in which he yellow-carded Chaplin, Luke Woolfenden, Marcus Harness and two of the visitors.
He refereed the 4-2 victory over Preston North End at Portman Road in October in which he booked only four of the visitors.
Webb’s previous visit to Suffolk was a while before that, a 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City in November 2018 in which he cautioned Jordan Spence, Jordan Roberts, Kayden Jackson and one visiting player.
He was also in control of the 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in August the same year in which he booked only two Millers and denied the Blues what looked a certain penalty when Roberts was felled in the area late on as he looked to add a finish to a cross from Kieffer Moore, who was in his first spell with Town.
Webb was also in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Burton Albion in the previous February in which he cautioned only one Brewer.
Before that he was the man in black for the 1-1 draw at Leeds in January 2014 in which he yellow-carded only Cole Skuse and awarded the home side a penalty, which Ross McCormack converted, after Luke Chambers fouled future Blues outcast Cameron Stewart.
He also refereed the 1-1 draw at Bolton in October 2013 when he booked one player from each side.
More notable was his previous game involving the Blues, the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest in March of the same year when he red-carded two Town players, Lee Martin and Richard Stearman, and showed five yellow cards to Tricky Trees.
Webb’s only Town matches prior to that were the 1-0 victory over Derby at Portman Road in December 2011 – when he booked no Blues and two Rams – and the 2-0 victory at home to Scunthorpe in March of the same year when he yellow-carded Martin, Gareth McAuley, Grant Leadbitter and one visiting player.
Walton, Palmer, Button, Furlong, Johnson, Young, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Philogene, McAteer, Szmodics, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.
Photo: TWTD
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