Jarvis Thornton is one of several Sheffield Wednesday youngsters to have benefitted from the club’s troubles this season.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen wants midfielder Jarvis Thornton to start taking more risks in possession as he continues to adapt to life as a Championship regular.

The Owls academy graduate, who turned 20 in January, secured his ninth Championship start of his career in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to promotion-chasing Ipswich Town at Hillsborough.

Thornton, who has made 18 Championship appearances in total this season, started in the engine room alongside Svante Ingelsson and Jaden Heskey, marking his third start in Wednesday’s last five Championship outings.

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Storing 65 minutes under his belt before being replaced by Manchester City loanee Joel Ndala, the midfielder, who signed his first professional contract at Hillsborough in July 2024, produced another energetic and committed performance. He ended the afternoon with a 93 per cent passing accuracy and made seven defensive contributions.

Showing clear signs of progress, Pedersen is delighted with the strides the Middlewood Road graduate has made this season, but has challenged him to become more adventurous with the ball.

Pedersen opens up on Thornton’s development

“The last game, against Watford, I think it was one of his first real Championship games where he, from running, from tactical, but also from duels, ran a lot,” Pedersen told The Star.

“He's good on the ball, but we work a lot with the number of interceptions for him. So he wins more balls, but also a number of tackles he's winning because it's not enough to run a lot if you don't win balls in the midfield.

“We work a lot with Jarvis about his versatility on the ball, that he doesn't always need to play to the neighbour or play backwards. As we did with Jaden [Heskey] in the beginning, when Jaden got playing time, [it’s about] how many opponents can you bypass.

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“So when we have a car and there's a short light and a long light, he needs to have more long lights so he can also play balls behind, play balls in the red zone, short passes where he bypasses, because he has the technique for this.

“But he also needs to have this one to do it, and I think he's growing really well.”