Röhl Slams Sheffield Wednesday’s Set-Piece Woes After Crushing QPR Defeat

Sheffield Wednesday suffered a late disappointment when Queens Park Rangers scored an injury-time level at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon. The Owls were back in play after the international break, but it looked like a difficult afternoon at Hillsborough.

Sheffield Wednesday were locked in a 0-0 stalemate with Queens Park Rangers as the clock ticked down to injury time, and they appeared to be on track for a point. However, Barry Bannan performed a feat of pure wizardry, swiveling to send a spectacular goal into the net in the 93rd minute. That should have resulted in a 1-0 victory for Wednesday, but there was an absurd twist in the story.

A late QPR corner caused the ultimate goalmouth scramble, and Alfie Lloyd swept the ball home, leaving Wednesday to rue some ‘woeful’ finishing.

Danny Rohl on Sheffield Wednesday problem

If this had ended 0-0, Wednesday fans would probably not be as disappointed. Wednesday had this game won with only three minutes to play, but conceded a goal you will most likely see on Sunday League pitches.

Wednesday has the lowest record in the Championship for goals from set pieces. According to WhoScored, five of the Championship’s ten goals have been scored, although manager Danny Rohl believes it is six. Wednesday even conceded from a corner kick against Grimsby Town in the EFL Cup in August. Rohl has now remarked on the matter after his team conceded a scrappy late equalizer against QPR.

Rohl told The Star that Wednesday’s set-piece defence is a ‘huge, enormous problem’. Rohl claimed that Wednesday ‘would improve’ in this area, but he did believe that his side defended set pieces well against QPR before the late hammer blow, having used a back three against the R’s. “This is the problem, we know it,” Rohl remarked.

But we have to acknowledge that until this corner, we defended effectively as a team; the last one is all or nothing, but if you look, we have conceded I believe six out of ten goals from set pieces. This is a huge problem, and we need to learn from it and improve. We keep going, and this is all part of the game. We’ll work on it and improve in this area,” he said.

Wednesday must show improvement in coming games

Next up is another EFL Cup tie as Wednesday take on Blackpool and former Owls manager Steve Bruce after his arrival at Bloomfield Road.

Bruce will undoubtedly be eager to get set pieces into the box, and now is the time for Wednesday to step up and demonstrate some improvement. When Wednesday resume league play, Rohl will face Luton Town, West Bromwich Albion, Bristol City, and Coventry City before the next international break. Luton and West Brom are two of the 12 Championship teams that have failed to score from a set piece this season.

Bristol City has only scored once from set pieces this season, and they will need to improve in this area before facing Coventry City, who has two set piece goals. The nature of QPR’s equaliser will sting for Rohl, but he knows where Wednesday need to improve – and Owls fans will be looking attentively in this stretch of games.