Darren Moore responds to Sheffield Wednesday 'slow starters' tag and talks tactical flexibility

The Owls got out of the block with a flurry in their opening League One fixtures, keeping four consecutive clean sheets and rising to the top of the table.

But consecutive defeats have offered up something of a bump in the road for what is a squad still very much at the ‘getting to know’ you stage of proceedings.

One criticism levelled at Wednesday has been that they haven’t started so strongly in matches, one Moore rejected, saying rather they had lost control of some passages of play.

“Even at Plymouth we started bright,” he said reflecting on a 3-0 defeat. “Albeit it was the first three or four minutes, but the first passages of play were all about Sheffield Wednesday.

“It’s just after that, we just allowed the game to run away from us and that’s what we can’t afford to do. That’s what I said to the boys.

“It’s come early in the season and with 40 games to go in the season we don’t want to be down this road in terms of when the performances have not been there. That’s what we’ve had to learn from it.

“The main key thing is that we didn’t perform to the levels we set at the start of the season.

“We’ve looked at each other, we’ve addressed it and we want to put that performance to bed with another strong performance tomorrow.”

Though there have been minor tweaks, Wednesday have lined up in a similar formation throughout the season so far.

Asked whether supporters could expect to see different systems in the coming weeks, Moore explained that his preference as it stands is to gel the side together without over-complicating matters too much.

“We’re a new team and with a new team the first thing that has to come is an understanding of what we’re about as a team,” Moore said.

“Once the boys nail that down and we find a level of consistency and understanding, all of a sudden you can start tweaking shapes and formations and what people are doing for the team.

“It’s about not trying to run before you can walk. That’s what we’ve been trying to do here at the football club.

“There have been some solid performances along the way and we know there are going to be one or two bumps along the road with the huge turnaround. The big thing is that we have to be learning from it. We want to be the most complete and smooth operating team. We know we’re nowhere near that.

“That’s where we’re aiming to get to and the only way to do that is work on the training ground.

“You’ll always get straight talking on where we feel we are as a team and a group. And we’re a team that feels there is so much more to come from us. It’s about time and we’re working extremely hard every single day to be that smooth operating team.”