Sheffield Wednesday boss explains controversial George Byers substitution – and why it wasn’t a striker

Byers was taken off with just over half an hour gone of the game against Peterborough United on Tuesday evening, with the midfielder being sacrificed following Reece James’ early red card.

The 26-year-old was visibly frustrated with the decision and there was a fracas on the bench in the moments that followed, but Moore explained that it was a decision made to try and keep them solid defensively.

Wednesday, however, went on to lose the game 2-0.

When asked about his choice of Byers for Dominic Iorfa, Moore told The Star, "Because we had Tyreeq and Will in midfield, I wanted to keep the two strikers up front. It was either a striker or a midfield player coming off. I thought Tyreeq and Will would cover the base because they had an extra man. I knew defensive-wise we would be on our back foot.

"We wanted to keep the two midfield players solid in there. One of the midfielders had to come off - it could have been any one of the three.

"We kept Will and Tyreeq in there; they put crosses into the box and those two are decent in the air. They are good at set plays.

"It was about staying disciplined in there and trying to keep what we had in terms of the clean sheet. Our defence was breached by a cross into the box and you are then trying to get back into the game.

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"From making decisions late in the game to get more midfield players on and maybe affecting your front two, they got the goal at the time and I was maybe a few minutes away from affecting one of the players up top. I was thinking of getting another midfield up there and probably one up top.”

Oftentimes a defensive red card will see a striker sacrificed in order to keep the backline intact, however Moore’s decision to replace a midfielder rather than either Callum Paterson or Lee Gregory raised some eyebrows.

That, he said, was done in order to try and try and give Wednesday an out with two men up top still.

"It was the timing,” Moore said, “There was a lot of time left in the game… We knew we were going to have to defend but we had to get out as well and relieve the pressure.

"I thought playing the two big men up top and them getting a hold of the ball would relieve the pressure. I thought they could gain us some free kicks.

"If you play one up there all night, it is going to just keep coming back and back.

"We got to about 60 odd minutes and I was looking at roughly affecting the front two around 70 minutes in and got an extra one on there.”

James will now miss the next three games due to his straight red card, and Moore will have to reshuffle the pack once again when they travel to Bolton Wanderers this weekend.

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