Henrik Pedersen has explained his vision for Sheffield Wednesday’s playing style in the new season.
It was hard to fairly judge the Dane last season because of the club’s dire financial situation, which resulted in Pedersen’s options being extremely limited to academy products, youth loans and free transfers on short-term contracts. Throughout the campaign there were some positive glimpses of what he wanted to instill, especially the last day win against West Brom
It will be difficult to turn it around overnight and tough to gel virtually a whole new squad over one summer, but Pedersen has a clear plan for how he wants them to play, with lots of focus on how they break teams down at Hillsborough who will defend deep.
“I hope an intensive pressing team,” he told BBC Radio Sheffield. “It does not mean it always has to be high press. It can also be a medium press, but the intensity, the swarm, the swarm intelligence, the swarm intensity, that we see a collective team with a clear, clear identity defensively.
“We’ll see a team who is on the front-foot. We’ll see a team who hopefully intercepts more ball than tackles, and that does not mean we don’t like to tackle, but the higher level of tackle is to intercept, to defend in front of, because to defend in front of does mean there is a bigger chance to play transition on the balls we are winning. “
The Star, along with other local media, has been lucky enough to watch training close-up this week at a camp in Hungary before Saturday’s behind-closed-doors friendly against Stoke City. After failing to net against West Brom earlier in pre-season, they put three past another Championship side in Preston last time out, and they will be aiming to keep the goals flowing against The Potters.
Pedersen added: “Two days ago we had a meeting about our offensive way of playing. And one of the key things the boys spoke about is we want to be brave on the ball. And brave on the ball does mean we we want to be a team where the players like to have the ball. We want to be a team where the players have the courage, where they don’t have to think too much, and we want to be a dominant team on the ball, but that does not mean we need 1,000 passes, because when we play at Hillsborough we play to score goals. So hopefully, a team who likes to have the ball and who has a clear identity on the ball.
“We know when we have to play in Hillsborough, it will be a game where the opponent will be try to do everything to be strong defensively. So we have to be a strong team on the ball, we need to speed up the game. We need those killer instincts to bring enough people in the box.”
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