Dave Challinor’s first Sheffield Wednesday game ended in defeat as the Owls lost 2-1 to Oldham Athletic after extra time.

The Owls named a strong side for their trip to Boundary Park but came up against a Latics side looking to show they are better than their position in League Two suggests.

Challinor’s side had most of the ball during the game, but, as has been the case in recent weeks, struggled to make many goalscoring chances.

How Did the Owls Lineup?

For his first 11, Challinor opted for a 3-4-2-1 formation, with the two behind the striker tucking in and the width being created by the wing backs. Their starting 11 consisted of:

Maynard-Brewer; Bernard, Santos, Palmer; Valery, Heskey, Bannan, Liongola; Slattery, Keillor-Dunn; J. Lowe.

While you would expect Jamal Lowe to be the sole striker, the side’s average player position from Sofascore (below) suggests it was Davis Keillor-Dunn playing centrally with Lowe and Callum Slattery supporting.

The other takeaway is just how narrow that three up top were playing. By tucking Slattery and Lowe in close to DKD, it gives Yan Valery and Jordi Liongola the freedom of their flank to get up and down. The trio in the middle not only vacate space on the wing, but will attract the attention of defenders, again freeing up space for the wing backs.

Wednesday certainly made the most of the space for those wing backs. The attack graph below from Sofascore shows where most of Wednesday’s attacks came from. The left flank was used more often than the right, especially when Max Lowe came on and had an impact on the game.

Ball Possession But Not Many Chances

Wednesday finished the game with 71% possession, but for all that ball, they only created one big chance and didn’t have many more shots than their hosts.

Oldham, who had just 29% ball possession, managed to create more big chances (two) than Wednesday. The crucial statistic, though, is the big chances scored. Wednesday created one, failing to score it, while Oldham created two and scored both.

That leaves Challinor with two issues to sort: 1) creating more big chances and 2) scoring those big chances.

There are some alarming stats from the game as well. Wednesday had just 14 shots, one more than the hosts, who had much less of the ball. They also only managed to have one more shot on target than Oldham.

While Oldham managed to have eight shots inside Wednesday’s box, the Owls were forced to have most of their efforts (eight) from outside of the box.

Challinor’s side also only managed to have one more touch in the Oldham box (23) than the Latics did in the Wednesday box (22).

Challinor Aware of the Issues at Sheffield Wednesday

One reassuring thing for Sheffield Wednesday fans: Challinor’s comments after the game. Speaking to the club’s media team after the game, his disappointment was clear:

“The first half was like a testimonial; it was miles too slow.

“It was nothing like a team that I want it to look like, which I can maybe sort of accept a little bit. The second half was much better.

“We were probably having our best spell when we conceded. We responded really, really well. The subs came on and changed the dynamic of the game.

“It would have been great to be able to start in that manner or with that personnel, but we were unable to do so. I suppose there’s always been a problem in terms of conceding goals.

“We’ve conceded two really, really soft goals, and that has to stop. I think as the game goes into extra time, there is more of a tendency not to be as aggressive in terms of moving the ball or putting the ball into areas, maybe because of the physical part of what that looks like.

“That needs to get a whole lot better.”