Sheffield Wednesday, minus an emphatic 4-0 opening day win over Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle, have actually struggled within the Championship up to now.
The Owls have misplaced all of their league video games since this false opening daybreak, transport a dire 9 targets within the course of, because the likes of Sunderland and Millwall capitalised on Danny Rohl‘s facet being charitable in defence.
Ike Ugbo has been notably quiet since his return to South Yorkshire, with zero league targets managed up to now having sealed a dramatic transfer again to England in the course of the not too long ago closed switch window.
Ugbo’s return to Wednesday
The Owls will need to have breathed a significant sigh of reduction when Ugbo was lastly unveiled final month, bringing to a detailed a long-running switch saga with Troyes over whether or not or not the Canada worldwide would ever pull on a Wednesday strip once more.
The second-tier facet went all out to get Ugbo again – for good cause too – paying a rumoured £2.5m to completely tie him all the way down to Hillsborough after his standout mortgage stint, with the previous Chelsea teenager bagging a formidable seven targets from 18 league video games final season.
It hasn’t fairly labored out for him in the course of the infancy of this marketing campaign, nevertheless, with solely one purpose and help coming his means within the EFL Cup towards Grimsby City, as no targets or assists have been forthcoming within the Championship from three appearances up to now.
Wednesday supporters will hope that Ugbo simply must get again up to the mark and finally hit the bottom working after a frantic summer time noticed his future always cling within the air, with solely one begin afforded to him within the league by Rohl since returning to South Yorkshire.
It is not as if he is been the one underwhelming performer up to now in assault, because the likes of Anthony Musaba and Djeidi Gassama have additionally been quiet throughout their facet’s latest span of worrying losses, with the Owls sitting simply two locations above the dreaded relegation spots proper now.
It’s only early days, however Wednesday would like to have one explicit former participant now again on their roster.
Mendez-Laing’s type since leaving Wednesday
Allowed to depart for £0 again in 2022, it is truthful to say no one who watched Nathaniel Mendez-Laing week in week out at Hillsborough would have anticipated him to be a purpose and an help machine for Derby County when he left two years in the past, having significantly unimpressed for the Owls throughout an unmemorable one 12 months keep.
The previous Cardiff Metropolis winger would solely muster up an unsatisfactory two targets and three assists from 19 video games donning Wednesday blue and white, earlier than being allowed to depart for nothing when Delight Park got here calling.
Nonetheless, now into his third marketing campaign enjoying in Derbyshire, Mendez-Laing may be very a lot a Rams icon, together with his plentiful purpose contributions actually serving to Paul Warne’s males final season in breaking out of League One.
Mendez-Laing even outperformed Ugbo throughout his full season, with a really spectacular ten targets and 18 assists managed in all competitions from the EFL veteran, in comparison with his Canadian counterpart’s lesser tally enjoying for each Rohl’s facet and in addition for Cardiff on mortgage.
Mendez-Laing vs Ugbo (2023/24) | ||
|---|---|---|
Stat – per 90 minutes* | ||
Video games performed | 46 | 38 |
Objectives scored | 9 | 11 |
Assists | 16 | 2 |
Photographs* | 2.0 | 1.3 |
Massive probabilities missed | 7 | 11 |
Massive probabilities created | 20 | 3 |
Aim conversion % | 10% | 22% |
Stats by Sofascore | ||
Even simply inspecting their league numbers, Mendez-Laing betters the ex-Chelsea man significantly in the case of purpose contributions, with an incredible 20 massive probabilities created by the ex-Bluebirds attacker for Warne’s males throughout the League One marketing campaign.
Annoyingly, within the right here and now, Mendez-Laing could be a determine Rohl would like to have at his disposal at Hillsborough to assist the likes of Ugbo discover their goalscoring mojo once more, with the ageing winger already notching up two assists within the second tier this season from 4 league clashes.
As an alternative, Wednesday’s loss has ended up being Derby’s main achieve, as each golf equipment intention to maintain their heads above water and keep put within the Championship previous this season forward.
