After weeks of lacklustre performances and scraping draws, Sheffield Wednesday have lost their second game of the season.

The Owls went to Notts County on the back of an impressive 5-0 victory against AFC Wimbledon. Some fans thought the corner had finally been turned, but despite naming an unnamed side, Henrik Pedersen’s side failed to have a single shot on target against second bottom in the league.

The game showed the Owls have no plan B, and despite all the attacking quality the side possess, Pedersen can’t seem to get them clicking game-to-game.

No Squad Rotation Comes Back to Bite Pedersen

Naming an unnamed, strong 11 is every manager’s dream. But when you’re facing a run three games in seven days, there’s the expectation that, when you have the squad depth Wednesday has, one or two changes might be made. That’s especially the case when you’re managing older players and players just coming back from injury.

Di’Shon Bernard has been out for so long and has been a ray of light since returning, but given his long absence, why wasn’t he rested? He picked up an injury after blocking a tackle; you could say that’s just unlucky and could happen in any game, but when he’s just coming back to first-team football, there’s no need to take the risk.

Pedersen might have been put off by the poor form of Gabriel Otegbayo, who again struggled. But there are other options who could play centre half. Ernie Weaver, Max Lowe, or maybe even managed minutes for Sil Swinkels.

It wasn’t just Bernard who suffered. Jamal Lowe struggled in the first half; he was shifted a little further back at half-time when Ali Al-Hamadi came on, but his game went from bad to worse after a tired-looking touch forced him into a horrific tackle. Red card, three-match ban.

With the three striker options we have: Lowe, Al-Hamadi, and Mason Burstow, why isn’t one of the latter two being trusted to start this game? Al-Hamadi showed when he came on why he probably isn’t cut out for starting, but Burstow has shown some positive signs; surely these three games without Lowe are a chance to give Burstow a run.

No Plan B

It’s clear that while Louie Barry is out, Pedersen wants to play with a narrow three behind a striker. It worked against Wimbledon, albeit they were poor and HP must have expected it to work last night.

However, it was obvious in the first half it wasn’t working like it did Saturday. Notts County had most of the ball, had the best of the chances and prevented Wednesday from doing much in the way of attacking.

Most fans then turn to the bench and see Kieran Morrison, an out-and-out right winger, sat on the bench after being one of Wednesday’s best outlets before the international break, and expect him to come on. But Pedersen opted to go for Callum Slattery off, Al-Hamadi on, Lowe at right wing and Morrison left watching.

Wednesday needed an outlet; that was clear. The ball into Lowe wasn’t working, Davis Keillor-Dunn was being pressed, often by two players at a time, whenever he touched the ball, and the two wide men weren’t having any luck.

Instead, Morrison came on in the 77th minute with Wednesday down to 10 men and struggling to make any chances. He had an immediate impact. A lovely free kick found Liam Cooper, who should have done better with the chance.

Despite only playing 13 minutes, plus some added time, Morrison had the joint most dribbles (two) and joint most key passes (one). He also has eight carries, two of which were progressive carries covering a distance of 57.7m.

Morrison made a difference when he came on; it’s just a shame he was used so late.