Sheffield Wednesday lost 2-1 at home to Cardiff City in the Championship this afternoon.
Sheffield Wednesday welcomed Cardiff City to Hillsborough this afternoon, for their final home game of 2023.
It was a hard-fought first half, though an Anthony Musaba goal on 28 minutes handed Sheffield Wednesday the lead going into the break.
And it looked like Danny Rohl was overseeing another win. Cardiff offered very little but found a way back into the game on 74 minutes.
Karlan Grant’s cross was deflected past Cameron Dawson and into the bottom corner, with Akin Famewo being unfortunate to see the ball bounce of his shin and into his own goal in the 89th minute.
Here are three things we learned about Sheffield Wednesday today…
The Cameron Dawson debate rumbles on
Dawson has been a talking point throughout this season.
The 28-year-old shot-stopper replaced Devis Vasquez in goal earlier in the season and despite fans being divided over his performances, he’s kept his place in the XI.
And Dawson looked to have turned a corner in games against the likes of Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers recently, but he had a tough afternoon today.
The first Cardiff goal took a deflection but he’ll be kicking himself over the second, fumbling the ball and eventually seeing it go over the line off Famewo.
Dawson will once again be hotly contested among Wednesday fans after today.
Anthony Musaba is becoming a quality player
The Dutchman scored his fourth goal of the season this afternoon, and it’s yet another crucial one for the Owls.
He scored the winner at Stoke City and the winner against QPR last week, and now he’s bagged another here; Musaba’s goals in December have earned Sheffield Wednesday an extra four points.
There was some doubts over him just a few weeks ago, though.
It looked like Musaba was still a bit raw, even in the earlier games under Rohl. But he’s playing with mounds of confidence now and we’re seeing the best of his ability.
He continues to provide the goods and he continues to get better with each game.
A ball-playing defender is still needed
Rohl has got Sheffield Wednesday playing out from the back, and for the most part, it’s a great watch.
The Owls build some nice attacking plays with their passing but they lost possession a couple of times today and found themselves scrambling back.
That’ll inevitably happen in this system, but if Rohl had a centre-back who was a natural ball-playing defender, Wednesday would have someone more comfortable in this set up and who’d minimise risk when playing out from the back.