A really concerning stat has emerged about Sheffield Wednesday’s season so far.
Sheffield Wednesday have looked much better in front of goal since Ike Ugbo started finding his feet at his new loan club, netting eight goals in their last seven games, compared to three goals in the seven prior.
The Owls are creating so many more chances and look a significant threat on the attack, while they have now scored 22 goals from open play.
While it is still quite a low figure and needs to be improved upon in the final run-in, what is more concerning is their lack of goals from set pieces.
The Star journalist Joe Crann took to X to share his concern, writing: “Just looked, and there’s not a single team in the English Football League that have scored fewer goals from set pieces than #SWFC have (5)… A handful have scored the same amount, but only three in the top four tiers have scored less (Palace, Sheffield Utd, Burnley – 3).”
Plymouth, Blackburn and QPR also have five in the Championship, while not a single League One or League Two club have five or less.
According to ESPN, the Owls have 15 players above 6ft, including the likes of Ike Ugbo, Dominic Iorfa and Liam Palmer.
This makes it so much more surprising that they have failed to score from set pieces all term, especially when another X user (@ploehmann) responded to Crann claiming that the team had created 12 expected goals from set pieces, which is the sixth highest in the Championship.
So it would appear that the delivery is fine, but the end product is certainly not.
Danny Rohl isn’t stupid though and will know his players need to be working on set pieces in training, but for whatever reason, they can’t finish their dinner when it comes to the real thing.
Where does the problem lie?
Sheffield Wednesday’s six starting centre-backs this term – Liam Palmer, Michael Ihiekwe, Akin Famewo, Di’Shon Bernard, Bambo Diaby and Dominic Iorfa – have failed to score a single goal between them.
While the team have been struggling in attack this term, they could really do with some contribution from the players further back – especially given their height.
It’s not just from set pieces that is the issue either, with the Yorkshire outfit having the worst goal conversion rate in the second tier this term.
Danny Rohl‘s side have had 545 shots on goal this season, while they have scored 30 goals, which is a conversion rate of 5.5%. Stoke City are the only other team that have under 6% (5.9).
Their ability in front of goal from head to toe is a worry for their German manager, but if he can get the backline to start putting it in the back of the net from corners and free-kicks, then their place in the Championship looks a lot more likely next season.