Sheffield Wednesday’s season hasn’t exactly gone to plan up until this point, but Wednesday evening represented a real chance to put things back on track.
The Owls faced Manchester City in the fifth round of the FA Cup, and a victory against the Premier League champions would have seen them just 90 minutes away from a trip to Wembley.
Of course, the Yorkshire club were massive underdogs for the game, but perhaps they could have pulled off an upset if it weren’t for a mistake by their goalkeeper.
‘Keeping issues are nothing new at Hillsborough, and the sad thing is that there’s a simple solution staring the manager right in the face.
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Goalkeeping problems
The number one spot has been something of a problem position for the Owls for some time now.
The stats show that Cameron Dawson ranks 18th out of 25 when it comes to save percentage amongst Championship goalkeepers to have played at least half of their team’s minutes this term, and Joe Wildsmith’s shortcomings were on show against City as his error led to the game’s only goal.
If Wildsmith had kept out Aguero’s effort, we could have been talking about the Owls as FA Cup quarter-finalists, but it wasn’t to be.
It’s clear that something needs to change between the sticks, but that can only happen if Garry Monk swallows his pride.
Bring back Westwood
The most annoying thing about this is that Sheffield Wednesday already have a top-class stopper at the club in the shape of Keiren Westwood.
For one reason or another, the experienced head has been frozen out of the squad, and when the Irishman addressed the issue on social media fans called for him to return as number one, and we’re inclined to agree with that view.
Not only does Westwood have a better save percentage than Dawson this season, but he’s also a previous winner of the Owls’ Player of the Year award.
Of course, the problems at the Steel City outfit run deeper than the goalkeeper position after winning just two of their previous 13 league games, but reinstating Westwood would certainly be a step in the right direction when it comes to fixing these issues.
In other news, Garry Monk’s recent comments show that he’s not the man for the job.