Sheffield Wednesday undergo major coaching shake-up ahead of West Brom Championship fixture

Sheffield Wednesday have appointed former Swansea City, Watford and Brentford man Andy Parslow as their new set-piece coach ahead of Saturday afternoon’s Championship meeting with West Brom.

Ben King has also been recruited from Accrington Stanley, with the pair starting work in South Yorkshire this week as the Owls prepare to host the Baggies at Hillsborough at 12.30pm on Saturday. In his pre-match press conference Owls boss Danny Rohl, via the Sheffield Star, said: “Yesterday we appointed a new set pieces coach, Andy Parslow, who has come in and will work together with Ben (King). It’s good to see, I’m very happy to that we can improve in this part, and we’ve worked very hard in the last days - it’s important and it will be helpful.

“He worked last at Swansea last season, I met him some weeks ago - I’m always looking for good communication and discussion. We had a good talk, we spoke in the summer about which parts we can improve, and sometimes it’s about timing - who is available or not. I spoke with my coaches, got their opinion, and all in all I think it’s now a good couple with Ben and Andy. They’ve worked well together in the last two days, and from this point we want to improve in both boxes.”

The Owls have also seen a backroom exit in the lead up to West Brom’s visit, with senior analyst Niklas Lanwehr leaving the club to return to Germany. The addition was only made over the summer after Lanwehr arrived with a highly-regarded reputation having worked at Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt when they won the Europa League in 2022.

“Niklas left the club yesterday,” Röhl announced via the Sheffield Star. “He has some private reasons and he has to go back to Germany. This sometimes is football, it is not perfect sometimes during the season. He said his goodbyes yesterday, it is sometimes good and bad news; we get two new guys and one guy left. These are the things I have to manage around the team, but everything goes in the right direction.”

West Brom have enjoyed a strong start to the Championship season, winning five of their opening six games and drawing the other to sit top of the table. The Owls, who are 22nd, have endured a tough start to the campaign and have been hit with some late blows in recent games. They were on the cusp of beating QPR after a 93rd-minute goal from Barry Bannan but conceded in the 96th minute to draw the game. Last week they led 1-0 at Luton Town before Di-Shon Bernard’s red card proved the turning point as he was sent off for a handball which appeared to strike his shoulder. The penalty was scored with the Hatters grabbing a winner in the 88th minute.