Sheffield Wednesday: Why Jos Luhukay is envious of free-scoring Hull City

The Tigers are bang in form, having won four of their last seven Championship outings.

Nigel Adkins’ men recorded their biggest away victory in over a century at Burton Albion, trouncing the Championship’s basement battlers 5-0 at the Pirelli Stadium.

The result lifted Hull above the Owls into 16th spot on goal difference and all but secured their second-tier status.

Adkins has an array of attacking talent and had the luxury of making seven changes to his starting line-up against Burton.

It is in stark contrast to Wednesday manager Jos Luhukay, who is without nine senior players through injury, including Kieran Lee, Sam Hutchinson and Gary Hooper.

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“Hull have a very strong squad, not just the first eleven but also around 18 to 20 players,” he said. “If you look at their last two games, my colleague has changed five to seven players in each game. It’s unbelievable.

“Hull have a lot of quality in their squad. Their team is not weaker when they make changes. They have the same quality to also come to a good performance and result.”

Adkins has hinted he will make changes again this weekend. Abel Hernandez and Jon Toral, who started up front in the 4-0 triumph over Queens Park Rangers, are also in line to return to the starting line-up.

Luhukay said: “When you win, you do everything good. But when you lose you have the problem.”

Adkins has refused to rule out the possibility of top-scorer Jarrod Bowen playing some part in the Yorkshire derby. Bowen (foot) trained with the club’s medical team today.

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“We will see how he settles and responds,” said Adkins.

“Everyone else is good. We had a good group out training and we had a good debrief after the last two games, with the whole group being utilised. The message at the end of training was to keep the focus on Sheffield Wednesday.

“When you play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, there is a massive drop off in physicality so if you can keep it fresh it helps.

“The beauty of football is everyone has an opinion what the team will be, but we’ll take a look at what changes we’ll make and whether people like Abel Hernandez, Jon Toral and Jarrod Bowen come back in.”

As for Luhukay, he is unsure whether Atdhe Nuhiu (knee/ankle), Lucas Joao (leg), Barry Bannan (groin) and Daniel Pudil will be available for selection. Bannan was due to take part in training today.

Jack Hunt and Frederico Venancio are pushing for recalls, having been rested against Queens Park Rangers. After their mauling at Loftus Road, Luhukay may choose to revert back to a 3-5-2 formation. Wednesday lined up in a 4-2-3-1 system in the capital.

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