Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United come face-to-face this weekend for the first time since 2019, and both sides will be looking for any advantage they can possibly get.
While the Blades have undoubtedly been the best team in the city for the last few years, Sheffield Wednesday will know that form means very little in a game of this magnitude.
Sheffield United may have been mixing it in the Premier League while the Owls were fighting it out in League One and the Championship relegation zones, the two teams are in the same division now, with all to play for on Sunday.
It will be Danny Rohl‘s first taste of a Steel City derby, and the Wednesday boss has already given his players an ‘important’ demand ahead of the game.
Luckily, Rohl may just have an ace up his sleeve, and it’s all thanks to three players he has in his dressing room who know what the derby truly means.
Barry Bannan’s experience key for Sheffield Wednesday
The upcoming game is obviously the talk of the town around Sheffield this week — in truth, it has been since the fixture list was announced.
Bragging rights are up for grabs, and both sides go into the game on the back of impressive wins in midweek, but Sheffield Wednesday legend Lee Bullen believes his former team could have the upper hand in one area.
Speaking to Football Heaven, Bullen said: “For me, Sheffield Wednesday need to lean on Barry Bannan and Liam Palmer, the boys that have been there, seen it and done it. Players-wise, at United, they don’t have anyone like that who have played in a derby.
“That could be crucial, for me… Bannan, Palmer, and Dominic Iorfa, too, they’ve had that experience, they need to portray that through on top of the messages Danny Rohl will give the team.”
The Steel City derby is a unique game
As with any derby game, the run of results leading up to the Steel City derby do not really factor into the match, nor does it matter which team has been playing at a higher level in recent years.
Chris Wilder will know exactly what the derby means, and he’s had plenty of experience of this fixture in the past, which probably does give him the edge over Rohl. But, the manager can only do so much, and it’s up to the players to influence the result on the pitch.
This Wednesday side should be desperate to prove they are not the inferior team, and there’s now years of that idea being conveyed around the city that they need to combat and ultimately, dispel on Sunday afternoon.
The role of those players Bullen mentioned is absolutely key to the game, and they will have to stand up and take responsibility in the dressing room to give the rest of the squad that extra motivation that could potentially make all the difference in a game as intense as this.
