Sheffield Wednesday: Carvalhal calls for balance of emotions

The Portuguese believes that losing is such a rarity for his squad that some players struggled to cope with the disappointing result.

Wednesday turned in arguably their poorest performance of the campaign as they lost to Karl Robinson’s struggling outfit.

“We were very upset after the game,” Carvalhal said.

“Some were crying in the dressing room.

“We were very upset, me and the players.

“We want to win and we do not have the habit of losing.

“That loss and, if you take away the cup game, we lost to Charlton but that was a long time ago.

“We are not losing. We don’t like losing.”

Despite his squad showing their disappointment at the midweek result, Carvalhal is urging supporters and players alike to keep a balance on emotions.

The defeat saw Wednesday slip from within touching distance of the play-offs with a four point gap opening up between themselves and the top six.

Carvalhal labelled the loss at stadium:mk as an ‘accident’ and insists they are a fact of life for every team in the Championship.

But he is also refusing to be too downbeat over the recent setbacks for the Owls and wants to ensure a balance is maintained over expectations.

He said: “The balance of the team and the club is very important. At this moment we are a balanced team.

“We did not start the season well, we didn’t get too many points.

“I remember that we was in 18th place when we played against Bolton.

“At this moment we are in ninth place which is a very good position.

“Since the beginning to now we have grown.

“Accidents will happen. All the teams will have these sort of accidents, like we had at Charlton and MK Dons.

“Sometimes people will come a little more down or be more frustrated because they have expectations we will win these games as these are the teams that are down.

“But this competition is not like this.

“You can win against the first team and lose against the last team.

“This is why I talk about balance.

“If you can continue as a balanced team, believe you can win points, not be disturbed if you are three or four points behind or get excited if you are six or seven points ahead, we can do good all the season.

“I think we can do good. If you take the first games out, you will see our points are fantastic.”

The progression since the away trip to Bolton referenced by Carvalhal – the seventh game of the season – has been fairly impressive.

In the 14 league games since, Wednesday have won six and drawn six.

Taking away the results from the first seven rounds of fixtures of the current Championship campaign, Wednesday would sit fifth in the table behind Derby County, Middlesbrough, Hull City plus Blackburn Rovers on goal difference.

While there may be some disappointment in Wednesday’s current position but Carvalhal says the nature of the Championship means the picture could look a lot brighter within just a couple of weeks.

He said: “You can change everything in four or five games.

“In other countries, four or five games is one month or more. In this country it is two weeks.

“So in two weeks you can change a lot of things, even if you are four points, six points or nine points ahead or behind.”