Sheffield Wednesday: What We Did Well

Last week I brought to you a piece on what Sheffield Wednesday need to improve on in 2015/16. Basically it came down to two of football’s most important features, getting shots on target and keeping possession.

This week I’m going to assess the things that we did well in 2014/15, however as you can probably guess from our mid-table position, there isn’t a great deal that we excelled at.

However, as you might expect given that only Bournemouth conceded less goals than us last season, defensively we were quite good indeed.

Wednesday

Keep ‘em out! 

If it hadn’t been for our defence, including Keiren Westwood, I’m not sure we’d have been 19 points clear of relegation last season, and the stats certainly prove that, defensively, we were up there with the best in the Championship.

Firstly, and it seems surprising given the amount of work that Westwood had to do, we actually only allowed 12.3 shots against us per game, that was the fifth best in the league and just three shots away from first-placed Norwich City.

Also, we made 19.1 successful tackles per game, the fourth best tally in the league, as well as managing the second best number of passes blocked per game (9.1). Only Charlton (9.4) achieved more.

We were also inside the league’s top 10 when it came to interceptions made, meaning that the basis of our miserly defence came down to the fact that we actually just managed to keep teams out for the most part. That’ll need to happen against this season if we’re to push on.

Lees-ing The Way…

Tom Lees

It’s difficult to praise our defence for last season without giving a special mention to Tom Lees. The 24-year-old centre back played 44 league games (more than any other player by the way), only missing two the whole season.

As well as playing the most games, Lees also made the most interceptions, most clearances and most passes in our entire team, blocked more shots than any other player and was only dribbled past eight times throughout the entire campaign.

I’d say Mr. Lees is going to be a tad important this season too.

Tom Lees’ Stats 2015/16:
Successful tackles: 51
Dribbled past: 8
Total interceptions: 113
Total clearances: 265
Blocks: Shots – 34, Crosses – 15, Passes – 11.
Passes: 1594
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Wednesday’s Stats (average per game):
Shots conceded: 12.3 (5th best)
Tackles made: 19.1 (4th best)
Passes blocked: 9.1 (2nd best)
Interceptions: 16.9
Successful dribbles: 7.4 (7th best)

Over the course of the 2015/16 season I’ll be trying to do a gamely statistical breakdown to highlight areas where we were both bad and good as the campaign goes on. 🙂

Stats via WhoScored.com

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