Sheffield Wednesday host Bristol City in the Championship this afternoon.
Sheffield Wednesday are back at their iconic Hillsborough ground after a couple of away trips in their last two outings.
The Owls lost at Leicester City last week in a midweek clash, before beating Millwall 2-0 at The Den and prompting the Lions into a managerial change.
Sheffield Wednesday now find themselves four points adrift ahead of the final run in, with today’s game against an inconsistent Bristol City side being the first of 13 cup finals for the Owls.
Bristol City lost 1-0 at home to QPR in their last outing but beat promotion-chasers Southampton in the previous game, currently sitting in 12th place of the table.
Danny Rohl could name unchanged Sheffield Wednesday side for the first time
Rohl has chopped and changed his XI since taking charge in October; so much so that he’s yet to name an unchanged side in what is now 25 games at the helm.
But after a positive run of performances; the win over Birmingham City, followed by a commendable overall performance against Leicester City and then the win vs Millwall, combined with no new injuries, an unchanged XI might well be on the cards.
The likes of Dominic Iorfa has been tipped to return, whilst Bailey Cadamarteri may also feature vs Bristol City, but both have had spells out and look set to start on the bench if they do make the team.
Change in shape may be the only though ahead of Bristol City
Sheffield Wednesday played with a back-five against Millwall last time out.
But playing at home, Rohl might revert to a back-four so that the Owls are more dominant in possession and in attack.
And a change to a back-four would no doubt see Liam Palmer removed from the defence, despite a strong performance vs Millwall, and another name put into midfield.
So it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Sheffield Wednesday line up today.
A back-five seemed to make them more potent on the counter-attack, so playing at Hillsborough where they know they can be formidable, a usual back-four might be better-suited as it could prevent Bristol City form dominating possession.
Then again, the Millwall performance was arguably Sheffield Wednesday’s most complete under Rohl, and the Owls might fancy countering Bristol City today, so a first unhanged line up for Rohl is very much on the cards.
The Robins have some top players in their ranks; Nahki Wells, Jason Knight, and Rob Dickie make up a very solid spine, and in Liam Manning they have a manager, like Rohl, who is still very young but very tactically astute.
But Wednesday go into this one in good form and with a huge amount of belief ahead of the final run-in, with a win here able to lift them to within one point of safety depending on Millwall’s result away at Southampton.