Sheffield Wednesday manager's 'honest' advice to out-of-sorts striker ahead of Huddersfield Town
The Owls’ pre-match press conference was held on Friday afternoon
Henrik Pedersen wants Mason Burstow to remember he is Sheffield Wednesday’s ‘number nine.’
Burstow, who is on a season-long loan from Hull City, has not scored in his last six appearances since netting and assisting in the thumping win against Bromley.
Owls boss Pedersen revealed he has held ‘honest’ talks with the 23-year-old and is confident he will start firing again soon, pointing to an in-house friendly game they had earlier this week as an example.
When asked about Burstow, Pedersen told The Star: “We make evaluations, as we do with all our players, and speaking honestly about the situation, what is good, what is not so good. And we have had some really good conversations. I think Mason has had some good weeks now. In the internal game, I think he scored two and made one assist. He's on the way back again and he's working hard for this. And he has to work hard. It's a fundamental. But we're working and doing all that we can to support him in this process.”
Burstow, who scored 12 goals and grabbed five assists for Bolton Wanderers in League One last season, played out wide and centrally for the promotion-winning Trotters. So far at Wednesday he has been used as a central striker and Pedersen has reminded him of what he wants from him.
“I see him as a nine,” he continued. “And then I say again, when he remembers, he is the nine and not the 10. So he has to be a nine with number nine on his back. And it's a very big thing for him to stay high for the deep run and for the higher up position. But we also know he's very, very strong with the back to the goal. So he's a flexible striker. We train him a lot to be the number nine. And this is right now where he has to be to do his performance.”