Sheffield Wednesday tweak needed to get best from Barry Bannan - Alan Biggs

Most of the critical talk has been about square pegs and round holes as Sheffield Wednesday look to knock a new team into shape.

But I thought, at face value, there was a decent shape to the last line-up.

Most of the pieces seemed to fit; you could see what Xisco Munoz was trying to do, even if the result was lacking.

Making it work in practice as well as in theory is the tough part after three games with no points.

And the hardest bit of all seems to be where best to fit the central cog.

Put another way, Barry Bannan is a round peg for any number of round holes.

Ideally, you’d have him picking up passes from the goalkeeper to start moves from the back … then receiving the ball in midfield … and magically finding himself around the edge of the opposition area … before popping up in a shooting position.

The 33-year-old Owls skipper would put his hand up for any of that - or all of it if he could! So where do you play him for best effect?

In the last two seasons, Darren Moore urged Bannan further forward and the Scot responded with 16 goals beside his numerous routine assists.

Xisco appears to be wanting to go a stage further judging from last weekend with Bannan operating just behind striker Lee Gregory, flanked by wingers Juan Delgado and Anthony Musaba.

For me, all roads point back to the middle.

It would be different if this wasn’t a team that needed pulling together.

Cohesion is everything when there are so many new elements to integrate and there is nobody more adept for the task.

We all have our preferences and I wonder if Xisco is missing a trick if he doesn’t play both Bannan and Josh Windass, who sat out the home defeat to Preston on the bench.

If you are fielding three attackers in support of a lone striker then surely Windass has to be one of those three?

And arguably, too, in the role handed Bannan last weekend?

But it goes deeper. Those two guys are big pals off the pitch, which is incidental.

On the pitch, you can see they share an almost telepathic understanding and that is the key part.

Bannan will anticipate a Windass run before he makes it; Windass will make his move knowing the ball is coming.

Again, you can’t blame Xisco for trying new things and putting his own stamp on it.

But, as per last week, you feel he is making the job even harder for himself than needs to be the case.

Trusting the tried and trusted could earn him the time he needs.

And that first point and first win really can’t come soon enough.