Fans had enjoyed their best half of football under Xisco Munoz and were looking forward to it building into a maiden Championship win.
Only 68 minutes later the players came off to boos after losing to a limited Preston North End.
Football is impatient.
Munoz saw signs of progress from his Sheffield Wednesday side but admits there is a long way to go#swfc @sturayner reportshttps://t.co/Y0tpBKvDYy
— Yorkshire Post Sport (@YPSport) August 19, 2023
Fans are impatient, chairmen are impatient, journalists are. And Sheffield Wednesday are not delivering.
Under Munoz, they have played three, lost three in the league, the only consolation a League Cup penalty shoot-out victory at home to League Two Stockport County.
Last season Danny Schofield was given nine games by Championship Huddersfield Town before being handed his P45.
Expecting a new coach, as Schofield was, to get quick results from an Owls squad with 10 summer signings is pie-in-the-sky stuff but the emotions behind that impatience are hard to keep at bay.
It therefore takes a brave man to stick to his principles. Munoz seems determined to despite already being in his fifth managerial job at 42.
The more you ask about his methods, the more evangelical he gets. That was certainly the case after Liam Lindsay’s 50th-minute header beat his new-look side, mentally as well as on the scoreboard.
“I know at this point nobody understands,” said Munoz. “It’s normal.
“If we change the style can we win? I don’t know. But if you have a process, once the team understand the process can you win? One hundred per cent.”
“Sorry, but I like the process and I like it when we try to change,” he insisted. “If people don’t have patience, nothing is possible in life.
“Do you think it’s easy if tomorrow one person in your office changes? We changed 10 (players).
“Maybe you can be selfish (and take a safer approach), but I’m never selfish, I push them for change.
“They (the players) need time to adapt to one of the seven best divisions in the world.
“Anthony Musaba is 20. To sign a player like him with 20 games in the Championship would cost £25m.
“If we’d taken the three points I’m sure everybody’s spirit would be better because results are important.”
Munoz is set on winning a different way to how Preston pinched three points, largely relying on defensive qualities which have become a hallmark under Ryan Lowe, and scoring from a set piece. Simply going direct is out of the question too.
“I don’t like rugby, I like football,” he said with a smile. “And I also feel people like (his style).
“If you play long balls for Barry (Bannan), what will that achieve? Nothing.”
But for all the talk of processes, my colleague Leon Wobschall was right to ask on these pages seven days ago “Just what is Xisco-ball?”
For 30 first-half minutes we saw it.
Passes started to find their men with pace and purpose. Bannan found space behind Lee Gregory as players switched positions from a 4-2-3-1. Momo Diaby knitted everything together in midfield.
To see him limp off in the 65th minute was concerning, to hear Munoz say his ankle/Achilles was badly swollen and needed an MRI scan uncomfortable, and hearing him wonder out loud about “two or three months” out alarming.
Musaba showed fancy footwork and a willingness to run at players, Diaby a brilliant turn, Bannan a cheeky backheel. George Byers reminded the Owls what they have missed while he has been injured and Liam Palmer got up and down to his usual good effect.
An 18th-minute move overloaded the right showed what Munoz’s Owls are capable of but Musaba’s not picking anyone out was typical. There were three shots on target.
“We need to keep the ball sometimes, we need more attention (care) in certain situations, we need more one-on-ones, when we get crosses in we need more people inside the box, we need to stay closer to the second ball so we can counter-press more easily,” said Munoz, “but if I tell you three or four things, maybe you need three weeks to change all of them.”
The bubble burst when Lindsay gave Wednesday’s hulking defenders the slip to score a diving header from Kian Best’s curling free-kick.
The Owls never looked the same again, reduced to hoping Callum Paterson’s long throws dropped dangerously for their two substitute strikers in the final 10 minutes.
“We lost through one stupid action,” argued Munoz.
“We’re generating our own problems right now.
“It’s normal the guys stay a little bit disappointed (after conceding). If every day you work hard and at the end of it you never get the reward, that’s normal.
“We are close. Every day we are closer. In some moments I start thinking, ‘This is our team, this is what we want.'”
Buried in a disappointment of a match was a trailer that made you think you cannot wait to watch the feature-length production. Unfortunately, we will have to.
Hopefully no one loses patience before it comes around.
Sheffield Wednesday: Vasquez; Palmer, Iorfa, B. Diaby, Famewo; Byers, M Diaby (Smith 65); Delgado (Paterson 72), Bannan, Musaba (Gassama 72); Gregory (Fletcher 76). Unused substitutes: Dawson, Ihiekwe, Bakinson, Vaulks, Windass.
Preston North End: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Browne, Ledson, Best (Whatmough 76); Holmes (Woodburn 76), Frokjaer-Jensen (Mawene 88); Keane. Unused substitutes: Cunningham, Bauer, Cornell, Rodriguez-Gentile, Taylor, Leigh.
Referee: J Simpson (Lancashire).
