Sheffield Wednesday fans are certainly disappointed with how this season has gone so far.
And manager Danny Rohl will also be disappointing following a run of three-straight defeats in the league, leaving Sheffield Wednesday in 20th place of the Championship table.
Last time out, Sheffield Wednesday lost 3-0 vs Millwall; a fixture they won 2-0 towards the back-end of last season.
Fans are starting to dish out the criticism on social media with Rohl under the spotlight, as well as captain Barry Bannan, though BBC pundit Rob Staton thinks criticism of Bannan is unjust.
With the international break now upon us, we take a look at Sheffield Wednesday’s two highest-rated, and two lowest-rated players in the Championship so far this season (who’ve started two games or more).
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Barry Bannan and Dominic Iorfa are the highest-rated Sheffield Wednesday players
Both these selections may surprise Sheffield Wednesday fans, with Bannan and Dominic Iorfa having both put in some questionable performances this season.
But Sofascore ranks Bannan as the highest-rated Owls player so far this season, and Iorfa the second-highest.
Bannan leads the way for key passes-per-game and comes in third for the most accurate passes-per-game, but he’s certainly taken the brunt of criticism this season.
It looks as though Rohl is trying to shoehorn every forward play through Bannan, but to no avail so far, and many are starting to believe that Bannan just doesn’t fit into Rohl’s style of play.
Iorfa meanwhile has had a few nervy moments at the back. During the 4-0 defeat vs Sunderland, Iorfa looked particularly cagey in possession, and was often caught out of position when out of possession.
But he’s racked up a couple of decent stats so far, hence his high-rating; Iorfa has averaged 1.7 tackles-per-game this season and 34 accurate passes-per-game (fourth-highest in the side).
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James Beadle and Anthony Musaba are the lowest-rated Sheffield Wednesday players
The two lowest-rated Sheffield Wednesday players are much less surprising than the two highest-rated players.
Anthony Musaba was criticised after the defeat vs Leeds United for his obvious lack of end product; that game, Musaba completed more dribbles than anyone on the pitch, but didn’t complete a single cross.
Indeed, Musaba has completed more dribbles than anyone in the Championship this season, but has just one assist to show for it.
Meanwhile, James Beadle has proved to be divisive so far.
Beadle is currently training with the England senior team despite a patchy start to the 2024/25 season with Sheffield Wednesday.
He’s kept one clean sheet in four Championship games, conceding a total of nine, with fans thinking handful of them are Beadle’s fault.
Dan James’ goal for Leeds United at Hillsborough springs to mind, with Beadle going down far too easily, whilst some of his passing helped lead to goals against in the defeat vs Sunderland.
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What all of this means for Danny Rohl
Rohl loves his statistics. But the above information shows that numbers don’t always translate to positive performances on the pitch.
That, and that player ratings systems can often be flawed.
Perhaps the time is right for Rohl to focus less on statistics; passing, possession and so on, and simply focus on individual player performances.
Sheffield Wednesday’s overall performances this season haven’t been as bad as their table position warrants, but they’ve been let down by individual errors in games.