This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
Sheffield Wednesday succumbed to just their second defeat of Garry Monk’s reign at the south Yorkshire club, but it was one that could have easily been prevented if the 40-year-old made a bolder choice in either starting Atdhe Nuhiu or bringing him on much sooner.
Snapshot
The Owls thought they had won the match seven minutes from time when substitute Jacob Murphy headed home a close-range attempt, but the home side fought back with two goals in the final three minutes.
Watch Sheffield Wednesday Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below
First, Tosin Adarabioyo looped a header over Keiren Westwood before John Buckley’s first senior goal clinched all three points for Tony Mowbray’s side.
Monk meanwhile opted for just one striker in attack and didn’t change it up until there were less than 15 minutes left on the clock.
Off the Bench
The decision to omit a presence like Nuhiu may have cost Wednesday the match, or at the very least, some form of points.
Prior to the game, the only loss on Monk’s record was a 1-0 defeat to Hull City, and that was in the absence of top goalscorer Steven Fletcher.
But in this match, he was given far too much to do on his own, the 32-year-old had five of their 17 shots at goal, when we have seen that a 4-4-2 or a formation utilising two up top has paid dividends on multiple occasions.
None more so than when the Owls stuck four past Middlesborough in the space of just half an hour – the Kosovan was a nuisance, assisting Adam Reach’s goal while winning a total of 13 aerial duels.
The 6 foot 5 colossus just simply offers Wednesday something that no other player can, and if he started the match alongside Fletcher or even if he was brought on ten or 20 minutes earlier, then the result could well have been a different story.
Instead, they were made to suffer with another underwhelming performance from Joey Pelupessy, who lost possession 12 times while managing a dire 58% passing accuracy rate, per SofaScore.
