‘Honestly…’ – Danny Röhl’s Sheffield Wednesday admission despite impressive form

The Owls are finding their feet under Danny Röhl, and as 2023 comes to a close they have given themselves a fighting chance of getting out of the relegation battle that their poor start to the campaign has put them in.

A late win over Queens Park Rangers at the weekend meant that Wednesday are just six points – and a bit of goal difference – away from escaping the bottom three, and their form over the last 10 games is more midtable than relegation. The German has steadied the ship.

But Röhl isn’t getting ahead of himself, not by any means, and he admits that he’s not paying much attention to how things stand as they head into the final three matches of the calendar year.

“Honestly, for the moment I’m not looking too much at the table,” he told The Star. I’m just looking to the next game, which is the important one. Maybe there comes a point where we can look to the table, but for the moment it’s about taking points and doing it consistently, it’s something that we’ve spoken about. and that’s what we’re doing.

“We’ve taken 10 points from the last five games, which is fantastic when you look at who we’ve faced, and we have to enjoy it, but we have to go forward and do it again and again.”

It’s not an easy time of year for that, though, with the games coming thick and fast and players missing out on family time over Christmas. Röhl says it’s all about balance.

Speaking to the media he said, "From a physical point of view you have to find a balance between a little bit of rotation and still keeping a group strong enough to cover the next game. When I see how fresh my players are and how much energy they have two days after a game it's always a good signal.

"Sometimes two days after a game it's a little bit hard to come in, but they enjoy playing football, they enjoy being here and they show the energy to go again.

"I know it's hard doing Boxing Day and you have lots of games, you have to travel, but the reason why we trained hard was to create a foundation and to have our habits so we can adapt a little bit what we need but it's not completely new.”