The Championship season is long and gruelling, and squad rotation is essential, but Danny Rohl is not giving enough minutes to one Sheffield Wednesday player who is clearly performing well this term.
Sheffield Wednesday’s target this season is, first and foremost, to ensure they are not sucked into a relegation battle again like last year. Anything more than security would be a bonus for Danny Rohl right now.
Results have been up and down so far for the Owls, who find themselves in 15th place in the Championship table with 18 points from their first 15 games.
One of the key problems for Wednesday has been finding consistency, while in attack, Danny Rohl’s side are struggling to create enough chances, never mind finishing them.
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Michael Smith ranks high for Sheffield Wednesday
Perhaps, then, Rohl should consider giving more game time to the seasoned striker, Michael Smith. And if the Sheffield Wednesday boss needed any convincing, he only has to look at data from SofaScore that shows Smith is among one of the five best performers in the Owls squad this season.
Smith ranks joint-third for Wednesday, with an average rating of 7.01 this term, matching the score given to Akin Famewo.
Above him are Shea Charles in second (7.07), and top of the pile, rather unsurprisingly, is Barry Bannan, with the captain bagging an average rating of 7.26.
| Rank | Player | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barry Bannan | 7.26 |
| 2 | Shea Charles | 7.07 |
| 3= | Michael Smith | 7.01 |
| 3= | Akin Famewo | 7.01 |
| 5 | Josh Windass | 6.97 |
| 6 | Marvin Johnson | 6.93 |
| 7 | Dominic Iorfa | 6.89 |
| 8 | Di’Shon Bernard | 6.81 |
| 9 | Svante Ingelsson | 6.79 |
| 10 | Olaf Kobacki | 6.75 |
Rounding out the top five is Josh Windass, who achieved an average rating of 6.97, with Marvin Johnson just behind him on an average score of 6.93 for the season.
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It’s time for Danny Rohl to give Michael Smith a run in the team
It may be surprising, then, to learn that Michael Smith has only clocked up 436 minutes of action across his 14 appearances this season, averaging just over 31 minutes per game.
The striker has scored three goals and has four assists in all competitions, and has shown his range of skills with long-range efforts and more traditional target man work in and around the box.
It would seem obvious that Danny Rohl needs to put Smith in for the struggling Ike Ugbo now, especially given the impact the former made when he came on as a substitute during the Steel City derby defeat.
Ugbo is low on confidence, and while it’s important for Rohl to try and turn that around with his striker, he cannot do so at the expense of the team and their results. Smith has proven time and time again this season that he can influence games and score goals, and a more consistent run in the starting XI could only, surely, lead to more of that.