Sheffield Wednesday's Henrik Pedersen speaks with pride on 'free' Owls
West Bromwich Albion will be without two key players in midfield for their welcoming of Sheffield Wednesday this weekend - with Henrik Pedersen hopeful his side can disrupt their hosts’ natural mode of play.
The Baggies sit locked in midtable under Ryan Mason after three defeats in the last four and will be keen to regain momentum to throw themselves towards the early days midtable places. They’ve not been helped with injuries and will see issues for midfield pair Jason Molumby and Toby Collyer continue with both ruled out of contention for the weekend.
Collyer, a Manchester United loanee, is understood to have been a loan target for Wednesday this summer before it became clear the deal wouldn’t be ratified. Molumby was the man at the centre of a post-match melee in last year’s Hawthorns fixture.
But West Brom do have a glimmer of positive news from the physio’s room in that former Sheffield United loanee right-back Alfie Gilchrist could feature.
“They’re improving but they’re not an option for the game,” Baggies boss Mason said on the midfield pair. “I think naturally any player that’s injured, each day is important and you keep progressing so they’re progressing but they’ve not trained with the team yet and certainly not an option. It’s unfortunate but certainly no complaints.
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"Alfie (Gilchrist) is ok. He’s alright. He’s trained this week. Obviously he was on the bench against Ipswich with some painkillers and he’s trained this week so he’s an option.”
Speaking ahead of the game, Owls boss Henrik Pedersen discussed the complexities in preparing for West Brom, who move the ball faster than any Championship side. Wednesday have no fresh injury concerns.
“It’s a game where to win the ball in pressing, you have to invest a lot,” he said. “And you have to prepare to be a long time without the ball. They are good at moving the ball quick and keeping the ball, then speed up the game. One of the challenges will be the triggers for pressing, to get enough players involved in our pressing.
“They have four front players when we are on the ball that we have to keep an eye on. When we are on the ball we have to think defensively as well as offensively because those four players are so good in the transition. If we start on those two things it can be a good start for this game.”
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