New rule making a big difference to Sheffield Wednesday this season - Alan Biggs

As a general rule, I don’t like it. Apart from it favouring the bigger clubs in each division, aren’t we supposed to be encouraging smaller squads, not stimulating larger ones?

And much as it helps Sheffield Wednesday, haven’t the Owls themselves experienced severe difficulties from carrying a large wage bill?

However, the rule is there to be exploited and it’s ideal in so many ways for Darren Moore’s mode of management.

It’s not just that he should always have a strong bench and be able to bring on good players for most eventualities. Just as importantly, it’s conducive to the sort of group bonding and togetherness that Moore has restored at Hillsborough.

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There will always be good players not in this Wednesday side and on the bench. But if they all see they have a contribution to make, and have every chance of displacing starters in the next eleven, they have no real cause for disenchantment.

Obviously there was that recent George Byers tiff with assistant manager Jamie Smith but it was a rare exception and at least showed how much the player cared.

And for all the arguments that Moore should find his best team and stick to it, he is committed in style to a degree of rotation, big as he is on what he calls “energy levels.”

That’s his way and it will always give every player a chance; one of the reasons for his popularity and pulling power when it comes to recruitment.

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Now, with Mallick Wilks, ten players of proven quality have been signed this summer. One in this case with a healthy scoring record in League One despite being more of a pacy raider than a conventional striker.

I guess we’ll see more chopping and changing, the only true yardstick being results and they have been pretty good so far, including two emphatic Carabao Cup wins featuring a gallery of extravagant goals.

And, as per others, it’s healthy that Moore is in a position to occasionally leave out or sub Barry Bannan, as in the last two league wins.

That’s as big a sign of the strength of this group as any. There will be oohs and ahhs about selection, but the Owls have any number of sides to win a football match.

Including half of one on the bench for virtually every game.