Nine is still the magic number for Sheffield Wednesday
Two 0-0 draws tell a story about what Sheffield Wednesday are still lacking despite a huge summer influx
A hot topic of last summer is now breathing ever harder down the manager's neck for all the impressive range of Sheffield Wednesday's recruitment.
I thought it screamed out again in a second successive goalless draw at Hillsborough last weekend - the lack of a conventional number nine.
Wednesday began with three forwards who like to get in behind defenders but their approach to doing that was ragged - without someone to link play through the middle.
I put that point to Henrik Pedersen and he agreed, albeit he is looking through necessity to find a solution from within.
"The balance is to play behind or play up to a target man and we are working on this," he told me. "It's a point where we have to be stronger."
With the aim, says Pedersen, of gaining "more situations where we can speed up the game and bring more people higher up."
Think of former strikers Lee Gregory and Michael Smith and you can see the kind of element the Owls are lacking.
Mason Burstow doesn't look like the answer and neither does Jamal Lowe, for all his valuable contribution.
Maybe a solution lies with Ali Al-Hamadi when he returns from injury after the international break. Certainly he is the likeliest in style and physique.
Wednesday weren't winning many forward balls against Stockport and when they switched to a wider approach in the second half you didn't feel there was anyone muscling onto the end of a cross.
There was also a strong case for having Kieran Morrison and/or Harry Gray on from the start.
Wednesday carried more threat when they were on, though I'd question whether the balance would be right if both were deployed from the start.
All of that said and acknowledging the huge anti-climax of two successive 0-0s in front of a total of more than 62,000 spectators, who wouldn't have taken second place at this stage?
It's far from convincing, there's work to do, but that position is arguably higher than it should be. One of those rare situations where performances overall need to catch up with results.