Sheffield Wednesday boss explains what his side got wrong in heavy Sunderland defeat
Sunderland ran out 4-0 winners over Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday
Danny Rohl says he will not get carried away with Sheffield Wednesday's defeat to Sunderland but admitted they had played into the opposition's hands too often in the first half.
Wednesday started brightly at the Stadium of Light as they looked to build on their emphatic win over Plymouth Argyle on the opening day of the campaign, but fell behind to a clever set piece routine from the home side. Sunderland then surged into a 3-0 lead, with Eliezer Mayenda scoring his second of the game shortly after the interval to complete the rout.
Wednesday's boss noted his team's excellent form over a long period under his management, saying that it was important to overreact to the defeat. But he felt his team had too easily played into Sunderland's intense pressing game, with the home side's midfield trio winning plaudits for the dominance of that particularly battle.
Rohl said: "For me it is clear, after the win against Plymouth I was not in Disneyland and dreaming for more. I was in reality and today I am in reality. What I want to do with my team looks good in the last days, today we did not really come into the game and what we wanted to do.
“This [defeat] is also because of our opponent, and we should never forget we always have an opponent who will try good things with good players. They did well today and for us it is still about learning, learning, learning, improve. On Tuesday we start to prepare ourselves for Leeds. I want to see a team that is again nasty and able to be competitive with a strong Leeds, we will try it again.
”Today we played too much into the six position,” he added.
“We know they are man to man press, especially in this position. From us, all the dangerous actions we from where we played behind instead of in front and this was a clear message in the match plan, where we want to attack them. They [Sunderland] did well, we can learn from this game, we have to learn from this game. When you win games it is always easy to have togetherness but it's also about staying together, taking the right things from the defeat and going forward.
"It's important when you concede a goal to get through the next minutes," Rohl said.
"If we'd conceded for 3-0 and then scored immediately (Svante Ingelsson had a goal disallowed) you could say it was a good reaction but of course we have to learn from this – 13 minutes, three goals and then it's difficult. I know my team will learn. Today was a big disappointment because we thought we were a little bit further with the next step."