Sheffield Wednesday: Jack Hunt in midfield – the surprise positional decision explained

In-form midfield man, George Byers, was rested as a precautionary measure after picking up a slight knock in the win over Charlton Athletic, but rather than using Sam Hutchinson alongside Massimo Luongo he opted to place Hunt there, with Liam Palmer taking over the role as right wingback.

But while there was surprise over the decision, the defender certainly did a job for the Owls and played his role in the big 5-2 victory.

When asked why it was Hunt who got the nod in Byers’ absence, Moore said, “He plays forward, he gets on the half turn, and he’s got good technical ability - we know about Hunt’s ability on the ball.

“From that deeper position in the midfield I thought that he could execute some crosses into our front two and get us playing from there. He’s comfortable on the ball when we’re playing out like that.

“So I thought that he would be the one. Over this run of games we’ve had three dominant midfielders in terms of Mass, George and Baz, but if anything was to happen to them then I needed a versatile player - so I had to pick somebody from a different position.”

With that in mind, it wasn’t a decision out of the blue when Moore decided that Byers wouldn’t be risked, with the Owls boss saying that ‘Hunty’ has been working on a possible positional change in training for if it was required.

Moore explained, “It’s something we’ve been working on, he’s been playing there in the last month in training, we’ve had some in-house games and used him in those advanced positions, just like you saw when we used Mendez-Laing in an advanced position as a nine.

“We’ve worked with players in different positions, and Jack had to go in there tonight because we didn’t want to risk George, and it was good to see it come off.”

Moore did say that he was hoping Byers would be back available for the trip to Lincoln City this weekend, but no doubt Hunt will be happy to fill in again if he’s required to do so for the good of the team.

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