Sheffield Wednesday head coach Steve Bruce has told The Star that he made a mistake selecting Barry Bannan for this weekend’s match against Leeds United.
The Owls went into Saturday’s televised game hoping to be spoilers as a win for their Yorkshire rivals Leeds would help them on their way to automatic promotion. But they ended up being dominated by Bielsa’s side and were lucky that they didn’t lose by more than one, with Jack Harrison netting the only goal of the game for Leeds.
One disappointment in the match was the performance of Bannan, who returned from injury for this game. He was well below his usual standards and attracted criticism for his display. However Bruce has said the mistake was on his part for picking him in this match, saying that he had only completed one training session before this game and he was obviously not ready to play.
He said: “If anyone could have found a pass, it was him (Bannan) but he hasn’t trained all week and at times it looked that way as well.”
“It was a big call for me and maybe I got it wrong.”
“Their intensity, fitness levels were excellent,”
“They came out of the gate very quickly.”
“They come and press you. They don’t do anything against you that any other team doesn’t do but they do it with an intensity and a quickness.”
“To do that you have to have lots of individuals in the squad who are young and aggressive in your work and they were very good.”
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