Sheffield Wednesday: How does Carlos Carvalhal solve a problem like Almen Abdi?

“Almen must fight to play but it is not a problem to him. He is a clever player. It is very easy for him to understand exactly what we want. He’s a team worker and we appreciate these kind of players.”

That was Carvalhal in August and despite those words of warning, the man Wednesday paid Watford £4m for started the first two games, against Aston Villa and Norwich City.

The Owls head coach has since then been left facing a conundrum. Abdi insisted when he joined that he was looking forward to playing in the middle, having been pushed out onto the flanks at Watford, into a position he doesn’t seem comfortable with. That’s been apparent at Wednesday, where when starting on the right the Swiss international became virtually anonymous.

ALMEN ABDI - Click here for the Owls midfielder’s stats

Those of us who watched footage or saw him play at the Hornets know exactly what he is capable of, but there is a danger at present that he could become an expensive substitute.

Does Carvalhal persevere and hope he gets better as a right midfielder?

It would appear as though that is not going to get the best out of the player and his confidence could suffer as a consequence.

Huddrsfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday - Form guide & betting ahead of Sunday’s clash

In his last six appearances, he has either been a substitute or been substituted, two of those starts, against Burton and Leeds seeing the midfielder hooked at half time. It is not what Wednesday fans expected of a player who Watford fans appeared genuinely sad to see leave in the summer.

So the other option is dropping Barry Bannan or Kieran Lee, which neither would deserve.

It will be interesting to see how Carvalhal deals with this particular managerial challenge. His work in the transfer market has been good. The Portuguese won’t want that copybook blotted.