Joey Pelupessy has come in for a lot of criticism during his time at Sheffield Wednesday after a long run of inconsistent performances, ranging from very solid to very poor.

The Owls haven’t been anywhere near good enough since the turn of the New Year and have seen their push for the play-offs ripped to shreds as they continue to lose in the most abject manners with little positivity to show in their performances.

Season lows have seen the likes of Blackburn Rovers and Reading dish out Hillsborough thumpings along with turgid displays away to the likes of Luton Town and Wigan Athletic. However, their inconsistency is summed up by the fact that they have still managed to pick up hard-earned victories over Leeds United and Charlton Athletic in that time, along with making it to the last 16 in the FA Cup.

They headed into this weekend looking to get back to winning ways in the Championship after falling to a 3-1 defeat at home to Derby County, but they were handed a serious beating at Griffin Park by Brentford as they fell to a 5-0 defeat.

It was an afternoon to forget for the Owls but Joey Pelupessy had a solid outing in the middle of midfield, even though the scoreline would suggest otherwise.

Our graphic indicates how the 26-year-old was a rare bright spark in an otherwise bleak outing for the visitors:

While he’s had a largely shaky season in midfield, this was a very solid outing for Pelupessy as he completed 93 minutes at Griffin Park and was successful in 79% of his total actions, demonstrating good all-round ability on and off the ball.

Pelupessy is caught in a role where he’s being deployed by Garry Monk as neither a holding midfielder nor an attacking midfielder, but his ball retention was a prime example of what he can offer to the side when he is on his game, as he managed a staggering 93% passing accuracy with 42 out of his 45 passes finding an Owls shirt, but he did still manage to lose the ball six times, with three of those being in his own half. Over the season his average for losses of possession stands at 5.65 per 90 minutes, so he did worse than he has done on the whole but in a very tough game against a team pressing high up the pitch, he’s done better than a lot of his teammates.

Are these Wednesday facts true or false?

With Wednesday playing poorly of late, they need to ensure that key players in key areas are doing the basics well and not making many mistakes, which has been their major downfall in a lot of the recent games, so Pelupessy’s efforts are worth noting in possession.

Defensively, the Dutchman was solid too, managing a 64% success rate in his defensive duels, well above average for a midfielder playing in the engine room against a very energetic opposition. With just one aerial duel contested, he won it and managed a 100% success rate which might look a lot better at face value, but further exemplified his solid ball-retention to make the most of Wednesday’s lack of possession. His reading of the game was also quite impressive with six interceptions to his name, a solid return for a box-to-box midfielder getting overrun by a lack of tracking from his side.

These stats don’t tell the whole story of his and the side’s performance, however, as it would indicate he had a near flawless game for the away side when he was still part of a midfield that was thoroughly outplayed from the first minute until the last, with three of the goals scored by Brentford’s midfielders, Josh Dasilva with a brace and Emiliano Marcondes netting too.