Liberating lack of expectation takes away the derby dread: Sheffield Wednesday fan's column

There is a freeing sensation that there is no expectation on us to win. Everyone assumes we won’t, based on our results and injury list. No one has any clue how the new manager will play with the team he’s inherited. So why worry about it? A win will just be a pleasant surprise.

It’s like pressing the reset button on your faulty TV box. You hope that retuning it will make it work again and if you’re ‘Luhukay’ there will be a few new channels that will be worth watching.

A loss will sting but there is a bigger picture to look at, and that doesn’t include what Sheffield United will or won’t do. We can only concentrate on ourselves.

Our new manager, not head coach apparently, has a reputation for being a man who can get promotion and get the job done through strict discipline. Let’s hope that discipline is as strict when it comes to fitness levels. A key objective of the new man is to discover why we as a club are incapable of keeping players fit and injury free.

For those players who can walk we hope the new appointment will bring a surge of enthusiasm and maybe a little fear. They will want to impress. We are in the transfer window after all. Their Wednesday career may depend on it.

As for Mr Chansiri’s quote that he’s now looking for “substance over style,” points towards the expected outcome from Jos Luhukay. Not that Carvalhal achieved much style in the last 18 months of his tenure. There were some results last season that only a mother could love, but more often than not we wrestled three points from an ugly performance.

We’re learning that ugly performances are more bearable when you collect points.

You can’t predict a local derby, but you can look beyond it if we do succumb to a defeat.

I look forward to seeing what Jos Luhukay can do for us.