King of Sheffield to a bad person in four weeks? Luhukay calls for Owls unity
WEDNESDAY HEAD TO BRAMALL LANE DESPERATE TO END LOSING RUN
JOS LUHUKAY has shrugged off fears over his Sheffield Wednesday future ahead of tonight’s Steel City derby.
Four successive defeats – which have seen the Owls plummet from sixth in the Championship to just four points above the bottom three – have heaped pressure on the Owls manager heading into tonight’s Sheffield derby at Bramall Lane.
Angry fans confronted owner Dejphon Chansiri after last week’s humiliating 4-0 home loss to Norwich City, calling for Luhukay to be sacked after just 10 months in the job.
In a impassioned press conference yesterday, the 55-year-old insisted he had the “coolness” and “experience” to rescue Wednesday’s season.
“I have been in football a long time,” said the former Hertha Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach boss. “I’m not thinking about what happens with a good or bad result.
“I have given my best in the 10 months I have been here.
“And what I say before, four weeks ago, was I a king in Sheffield?
“We were in sixth position and stayed in a play-off position. From every side, it was positive.
“Four weeks later, I’m the same person and I’m the same coach and four times later you have a bad result and now I’m a bad person in Sheffield.
“When I have the feeling my work is not accepted or not respected... the most important thing is when the players give me the feeling that I am not the right person in this chair now, then we must make a decision.
“But I do not have that feeling. So my energy must go more into my team and to my players, and not (to respond to questions like this). I am very relaxed with that. And believe me, I have the coolness and I have the experience to try to handle this but we must do it together.
“Alone, you can not do anything. But together you can come, in another way, back. That is the successful way.
“Football is my life and you play with your heart and you feel that.”
Victory in tonight’s Steel City derby would certainly relieve the pressure on Luhukay, whose first game in charge of the Owls in January was the corresponding fixture at Bramall Lane last season. He has also experienced derbies in Germany, and knows the extra pressure which comes attached. “This is not only a game,” he said. “I have been in football long enough that I know what a derby is like to play in and what you must do in a derby.
“You play football for these games. You have two special games in the season and they are the two derbies.
“I know exactly what it means to the fans and hopefully we can give them the best feeling that we can tomorrow.
“We know how important the game is. Derby games have a lot of emotions and passion.
“I was with a blue team in Berlin. We must play against a red team in the same city and we had a home game in front of 76,000 people in a derby game and you know what sort of pressure that is.
“We picked up four points in that season. It is for the fans a very good feeling and the respect and also the players of course.”
Owls captain Tom Lees insists the players are backing Luhukay, despite their recent troubles.
He said: “We are working as hard as ever, doing everything he asks. You will see tomorrow the players will probably work harder than ever. Hopefully that will show on the pitch. That’s the only way we are going to turn it around.
“We are not going to turn it around by sulking, or people going off in their own direction.”
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY captain Tom Lees believes victory in tonight’s Steel City derby can wipe away the “doom and gloom” surrounding Hillsborough.
The Owls go to Bramall Lane tonight on the back of a humiliating 4-0 home loss to Norwich City, which stretched their losing run to four games.
From being in the top six last month, Wednesday are now just four points above the relegation zone.
But Owls captain Lees insists they want to shatter the negativity, which has “snowballed” over the last month, by beating city rivals United tonight.
“We owe the fans, but we owe it to ourselves too,” said Lees. “We are not happy with the results we have been having. Regardless whether it was Sheffield United or someone else.
“I think it’s important in our dressing room, our team, when you have these results, you might lose a game, but then you must win the next game or two, or draw.
“You can’t let it snowball like we have done. But we have lost four (successive) games out of a 46-match season. We can’t let the negativity – the doom and gloom – build up.
“We don’t accept losing, we don’t accept going on a poor run, we are not happy about it.
“But we can’t allow it to build into something where everything collapses.
“I think we have got strong enough players, and I am not willing to let that happen where we go under after a few losses. We have big enough characters to stand up and deal with it, that’s what we have to start doing.”
History shows victory in the Sheffield derby can have a huge influence on the footballing fortunes of the city.
Two out of the last three derbies have set the tone for the coming months.
In 2012, like tonight, Wednesday went into the derby on a fourgame losing streak.
But Chris O’Grady’s winner at Hillsborough started a 14-game unbeaten run which saw the Owls pip the Blades for promotion from League One.
Then last season, Wednesday – on a seven-game unbeaten league run – slumped to a 4-2 home defeat, a result which sent their season into a tailspin. They won just four of their next 17 games a sequence of results which culminated in the departure of head coach Carlos Carvalhal.
In contrast, the Blades put together seven wins in nine outings to claim top spot in the Championship.
Lees was in the Owls team which lost at Hillsborough – he missed January’s 0-0 draw at Bramall Lane – and knows the importance of tonight’s game.
“It was an amazing atmosphere, just incredible,” the 27-year-old recalled. “One of the best atmospheres I have played in. It was so passionate and that is something we are not underestimating.
“All that matters is how we play on Friday, but we know what it can do going forward. A good result is something that we need.
“It can work both ways. That’s why its important we go out there and get a good result. I am sure they are thinking exactly the same, with the run they went on after Hillsborough. It will give one half of the city a big boost.”
Take promotion and relegation off the table, and most Sheffield football fans would measure how successful a season is based on the derby results.
“The derby is a heated affair, there’s no escaping that,” said the former Leeds United defender. “I am not going to play it down, how big an occasion it is, because it’s massive.
“We are aware of what it means, the boys have spoke about it on our own the other day. We spoke about the importance of it, what it can do going forward.
“Obviously we would like to be going into it in a good run of form. But these games are one-offs. It doesn’t matter about form, the players you have, it’s almost like a final, anything can happen.
“We have just got to approach it as the biggest game of our season, so far.
“We are desperate for a win without it being a derby, but we have that added on top now.
“There’s no short-cuts, no magic pill you can take, we just have to work hard, determination and have the right attitude.”
4 The Owls go into the derby on the back of four straight defeats including last week’s four-goal humiliation by Norwich.