Rhodes hung out to dry by Wednesday boss over penalty snub
Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal has revealed Jordan Rhodes was not in the ‘right frame of mind’ to take a penalty in the Owls’ shootout defeat to Huddersfield.
Sam Hutchinson, Barry Bannan, Kieran Lee, Jack Hunt and Fernando Forestieri all stood up to the plate in a epic finish to their Championship play-off semi-final second leg against their Yorkshire rivals as the Terriers progressed to reach the Wembley final.
Both Hutchinson and Forestieri would go on to miss their retrospective spot-kicks, condemning the Owls to a second year in a row of play-off misery.
One of the surprises of the night was that striker Rhodes would not take a penalty after coming on as a substitute.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield, Carvalhal said he would never force any player to take a penalty if they were not confident enough.
He said: “Rhodes did not want to take a penalty. He said that he was not confident to take the penalty so that is why.”
“The worst that a coach can do is to force the player to take a penalty when he is not confident. That would be a mistake. Imagine you are the guys to take a penalty and I said ‘you take one’ and you say ‘I am not confident'”.
That is the worst you can do to a player. These five players said ‘yes’. I confirm, also Tom Lees was training well with the penalties and Atdhe Nuhiu also and they were the best.
These were the players that said ‘I am here to take a penalty’.
Despite being knocked out of the Championship play-offs for a second year in a row, Carvalhal praised his teams’ efforts for the season.
“We are very frustrated but we are very proud to once again have put Sheffield Wednesday in the first positions,” he said.
“One season is not easy to put the team in the play-offs and to do it twice is much more difficult because of expectations, and I think we did well this season again”.
“Sheffield Wednesday have turned completely the way there were in the (previous) years and it is now a club everybody respects.”