This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Sheffield Wednesday’s season has ticked like an erratic metronome, and it’s only going to get worse as the season closes in on the halfway stage.
The Owls ended a run of five games without a victory last weekend by defeating Charlton Athletic 3-1, meanwhile off the pitch, uncertainty grows and grows with chairman Dejphon Chansiri staring down the barrel of a potential ban from football.
During their barren run, Garry Monk persisted to the press that his side were rather ‘unlucky‘ claiming that he wasn’t worried by their misfortune in front of goal.
If their performance last time out was a mark of exactly that then Wednesday are heading down the right path, but it as very much a game they were expected to pick up a result in given Lee Bowyer’s troubles with injuries.
“You want to be clinical, but I can’t pin that on anyone. We’ve been unlucky I think. The key is, if we keep performing like that and keep pushing that standard as we have been doing then we will win games and dominate games.”
– Garry Monk, 30th October.
The 40-year-old’s remarks appear to be rather accurate when delving into the latest expected goals (xG) table from Experimental361.
According to this model, the Owls are deserving of third place, where they would appear to be quite comfortable having lost just two of their 19 matches.
Experimental361 suggest that they should have lost four fewer games, adding a win and three draws to their record instead.
As of right now, Wednesday are sat ninth, two points outside the playoff zone, so it only goes to show just how accurate Monk’s comments were over a month ago.
So it turns out that the south Yorkshiremen have indeed been ‘unlucky,’ had they converted more chances then their outlook on this season would be far more positive.
In other news, fans at Hillsborough have been raving about one of their first-choice stars after he clinched an award for his recent performances.