Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City | OneFootball

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·7 November 2024

Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City

Article image:Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl must bring striker Bailey Cadamarteri back from his loan spell at Lincoln City in January.

It has been a decent opening few months of the season for Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, but manager Danny Rohl may be concerned by the lack of contribution from his strikers.


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Wednesday narrowly avoided relegation last season following a remarkable turnaround under Rohl, and after a big summer rebuild, they look set to have an improved campaign this time around.

The Owls bounced back from their 6-2 defeat to Watford on Saturday with a comfortable 2-0 win over Norwich City at Hillsborough on Tuesday night, with first half goals from Josh Windass and Dominic Iorfa sealing all three points.

Wednesday currently sit 15th in the table, just four points from the play-off places, but such is the competitive nature of the division, they are also only three points clear of the relegation zone.

The Owls have conceded an alarming 24 goals this season, with only Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth, who are both in the bottom three, being breached more than Rohl's men, but their total of 17 goals scored compares much more favourably with those around them.

Rohl will be delighted to see players from across the team contributing with goals, but the struggles of Wednesday's strikers will be alarming for the German, and he should seriously consider recalling Bailey Cadamarteri from his loan spell at Lincoln City in January.

Bailey Cadamarteri's impressive Lincoln City impact

Article image:Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City

After a prolific spell in the academy, Wednesday supporters had long called for Cadamarteri to be given a chance in the first team, and with the club languishing at the bottom of the Championship, he was handed his senior league debut last November.

Few could have predicted the immediate impact Cadamarteri would make, with the striker scoring three goals in his first five starts for the club to breathe new life into the Owls' season and kick-start the revival under Rohl.

Cadamarteri's game time became a little more limited in the second half of the season, but he ended the campaign with a total of five goals and one assist in 25 appearances, which represented an impressive return for his first year of Championship football.

After Wednesday signed three strikers this summer in Ike Ugbo, Jamal Lowe and Charlie McNeill, Cadamarteri was pushed further down the pecking order, and plenty of loan interest began to emerge, with Wrexham, Huddersfield Town, Stockport County, Blackpool, Motherwell and Dundee United all said to have been keen.

However, Lincoln eventually won the race for Cadamarteri's signature, and it looked to be the perfect destination for him, particularly given that Luton Town striker Joe Taylor had scored 10 goals and provided three assists in 19 games during his loan spell at Sincil Bank in the second half of last season.

Cadamarteri has made a strong start to life with the Imps, scoring four goals in his first 13 appearances to help his side to fifth in the League One table, but manager Michael Skubala may be nervous about the prospect of losing him in January.

Danny Rohl should take decisive Bailey Cadamarteri action in January

Article image:Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl must make January decision that will frustrate Lincoln City

Given how well Cadamarteri is developing at Lincoln, Rohl may be reluctant to recall him in January, and in an ideal world, Wednesday would allow him to remain at Sincil Bank for the rest of the campaign to enable him to get a full season of regular League One football under his belt.

However, with many of the Owls' strikers failing to deliver in front of goal, Rohl has a big decision to make on Cadamarteri, and if he maintains his current form with the Imps, the calls to bring him back to Hillsborough may become too loud to ignore.

After he scored a number of crucial goals to keep Wednesday in the Championship last season, Rohl would have been hoping that Ugbo would be the man to fire his side up the table after he re-joined the club on a permanent basis from Troyes for a fee of around £2.5 million this summer, but it has not worked out that way so far.

Ugbo has scored just once this season in the EFL Cup, and his horror miss from a few yards out in the win over Norwich on Tuesday night underlined his current lack of confidence.

It looked as though Smith was set to leave Hillsborough this summer, with Wrexham said to have been among the clubs interested in the 33-year-old, but he remained with the Owls, and he has played a much bigger part this season than anyone had expected, scoring three goals and providing four assists in 16 appearances so far.

The problem for Wednesday is that Smith is not a prolific goalscorer, and given the fact that funds are likely to be too tight in January to bring in a proven number nine, recalling Cadamarteri could be the best option.

Cadamarteri would no doubt return to Hillsborough with much more belief after his time at Lincoln, and his all-round game and physicality will have improved, so he would be far better equipped to deal with the demands of the Championship.

Of course, if Cadamarteri is recalled, Owls supporters should not expect too much from the England U20 international, but he clearly has an eye for goal, and he could be a useful asset for Rohl to have in the squad during the second half of the season.

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