Danny Rohl confirms Barry Bannan situation after Sheffield Wednesday absence | OneFootball

The Owls were without the midfielder for their EFL Cup match against Brentford.

Danny Rohl has explained why Barry Bannan was left out of the Sheffield Wednesday side that lost on penalties to Brentford, on Tuesday evening.

You wouldn't think that Bannan, aged 34, was coming to the end of his career based off his output so far this season.

The veteran midfielder has been a big part of what the Owls have been trying to do. He's been allowed to have more attacking influence - providing two goals and an assist in the Championship - due to the presence of Shea Charles alongside him in midfield.

But, with his age, there needs to be consideration as to the amount of game time he gets. Wednesday aren't short of options to play in midfield, and, against Brentford on Tuesday evening, Rohl elected to completely switch things up.

Nine of the midweek starting XI were not involved from the beginning in their previous game against Portsmouth. Bannan, who was one of those that started at Fratton Park, wasn't even included in the matchday squad, and nor was his midfield partner Charles.

Sheffield Wednesday: Danny Rohl explains Barry Bannan's EFL Cup absence

Wednesday's young German boss revealed before the game against the Bees that the decision to not use Bannan at all was based on the amount of minutes he has played so far this season.

The 34-year-old has started every Championship game so far this season, playing an average of 86 minutes per game.

"Today was a difficult one to decide to hold Barry at home," Rohl revealed to Sky Sports.

"He’s played a lot of games and we have the game next Saturday. I think Shea also, he played a lot for the international team as well. We changed James Beadle, our no.1, but we have a good one with Pierce.

"Yan Valery also a little bit of problems with the calf. Yeah, all the small things after a lot of games in the Championship. This is normal but we take this challenge and today I have a good team on the pitch."

Getting to play against Premier League opposition was not just a good occasion for the travelling Wednesday fans, despite the result, but it also gave Rohl the chance to compare his team to one at a higher level.

He said before the game: "We will see today where we are. I think when you look at the table in 2024, we are in fifth position from all the Championship clubs. I think this is a massive improvement since I arrived.

"These are the games we want to have. It's the reason why we took all the small steps in the cup to come here and now, today, we want to show what we can do with our tools, with our identity, and hopefully it'll be a proper cup fight."

Brentford cup tie shows Danny Rohl's faith in Sheffield Wednesday squad

Much was said over the course of the summer about Wednesday's recruitment. In no time, they brought in a double-digit number of players to add to their squad.

Teams in the second tier always need to have strength in depth due to the gruelling season that the Championship always offers.

On those occasions when rotation can happen, managers need to have faith in their usually reserved players that they can perform to standard. That's exactly what Rohl showed on Tuesday night.

He would have expected to see a much changed Brentford line-up too, but to go away to Premier League opposition and make wholesale changes to your first XI shows that you have confidence in all of your players, and not just the 15 or so that get used most weeks.