Danny Rohl’s name rang around Hillsborough during Sheffield Wednesday’s win over Plymouth Argyle.
Fans had high expectations of Sheffield Wednesday as Rohl enjoyed his first preseason campaign since joining the club.
The German welcomed ten new signings to Hillsborough and gave five of them debuts at the weekend.
The entire squad looked to have made significant improvements from last season as they netted four goals and had a whopping 30 shots against the Pilgrims.
The Owls earned high praise as they moved to the top of the Championship table following their opener, while Rohl has now been applauded for one visible change from last term.
- READ MORE: Jeff Stelling rates Sheffield Wednesday’s promotion chances in the Championship this season
Sheffield Wednesday looked ‘completely revolutionised’
Speaking on the Second Tier podcast, Ryan Dilks said: “Wednesday, not only did they win this so comfortably, they were playing some really nice football as well. The first goal – it started off with the goalkeeper and they worked their way all the way up the pitch and ended up in the Plymouth net… but not just that, the different interchanges they were doing, it was really good.
“Considering Wednesday last season when Danny Rohl came in, they were quite direct, but this… they just seemed completely revolutionised. Rohl-volutionised!
“Plenty of individuals stood out as well. I was very impressed with the new signing Svante Ingelsson in midfield. He looks like a really good player. Anthony Musaba was so dangerous throughout the whole game. Gassama was really really good as well. Josh Windass, Jamal Lowe… you could go through the whole team because everyone was just superb.
“They’ve done it without Ike Ugbo as well. We kept saying Wednesday need to sign a striker, but it didn’t look like an issue for them in this showing. I’d go as far to say that Wednesday were the team I was most impressed with over this opening weekend.”
Rohl’s major changes are made possibly by his transfer business
Rohl’s arrival in October meant he didn’t have much time to completely transform the way the squad played, but instead he just made minor changes to what they were used to.
Wednesday would have struggled again this season if they had stuck with the same tactics and playing style as the previous campaign, but now that the manager has had a full summer with the squad, he has been able to make huge changes and can finally adopt a style that he wants to see.
The Owls are playing out from the back and are playing exciting free-flowing football, which arguably also wouldn’t have worked without the talent he has brought in during the transfer window.
It’s a change that fans will be delighted with, but they will still face a huge challenge as to whether they can keep it up when they play the top teams who will pose a major attacking threat.
Wednesday are likely to go through some learning curves this season because it is all very new for both the players and Rohl, but there is no doubt that they have already massively stepped up.