Dominic Iorfa makes big claim about Sheffield Wednesday's recruitment so far

That’s according to Wednesday defender Dominic Iorfa, who speaking after the club’s first pre-season run-out at Alfreton Town on Saturday made clear he feels the addition of height in the side will allow them to stop the number of goals they concede from set pieces.

No League One team conceded a higher percentage of goals from that method last season.

The Alfreton game pitted Iorfa against Matt Rhead, the former Lincoln City forward who at one stage was known as one of the most physical players in the EFL.

“He’s a big handful, a big target man,” Iorfa said on a job well done. “When you’re up against that there’s no point fighting him, you make yourself a nuisance and sometimes let him flick it on so we can pick up the second balls.

“Those strikers, if you go out to fight them, they’re always going to win. So it’s about being smart with them. I feel like we did that eventually, we let him flick the ball on and just got on and played.”

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Asked how much the additions of big units such as Michael Smith, Michael Ihiekwe and Ben Heneghan can help with the issue of defending set pieces, he said:

“We conceded a lot of goals from set pieces, that’s no secret. The lads coming in can help with that aspect of defending and we can be much more dominant on that side of things.

“If we can improve on that it will help us of course.

“I wouldn’t say there is any more pressure than last season to be honest. The expectation from everyone last season was for us to go up.

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“Nothing has changed on that front, that’s everybody’s idea and everybody’s plan.

“The pressure is still the same, it’s up to us as players. We don’t want to talk too much about it, we’re just looking forward to getting through pre-season, those five or six games and get it building.”