What Darren Moore said to suggestion Sheffield Wednesday could be more attacking

The Owls have tended to turn out in a variation of a 3-5-2 formation for the bulk of the season but have at times set out with four at the back and four attackers in their line-up alongside creative hub Barry Bannan.

Some of these outings; against Morecambe, Cheltenham Town and Burton Albion, have returned some of Wednesday’s best attacking results.

Moore’s side have failed to score twice in a league match for nearly two months and asked whether he is tempted to return to a more ‘gung-ho’ style of play in search of answers, he said: “As a manager, that has been my aim.

“As a player I was a rugged and no-nonsense defender but certainly as a manager the onus is to attack and win games. That’s been where I’ve been at.

“The option is there in terms of that attacking mindset designed at getting after teams. But the big thing for me is to win games, I have that big desire.

“You look back on performances, on combinations that may have worked or not worked, you look at a lot of different aspects. You analyse it all.”

Moore is one of a number of Owls figures to have admitted the need to improve their attacking threat while continuing a 10-match unbeaten run and a run of defensive form that has seen then collect four clean sheets in their last five outings.

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Wednesday became the first EFL side to score 100 goals in the calendar year earlier this month and had earned plaudits for their fluency, particularly in the second half of the last campaign.

Asked to deliver some clarity on why he feels Wednesday’s attacking form has nosedived in recent weeks, Moore said: “It’s hard to pinpoint that it’s for this reason or that reason. You play against teams with different plans to win a game, there’s the build-up and we’ve had illnesses and different things.

“What I try to do is to push those to one side and maintain my focus on the group. Sometimes you can get detracted and deluded with different things. That’s all part of a Football League season.

“Sometimes you have to grind your way through games and I’ve told the boys; ‘Whatever you do, don’t lose the defensive side and that grittiness’. We never had that steeliness last season. It’s because of the recruitment we did in the summer, the boys that have been round the block and do as it says on the tin. It makes us harder to beat.

“We’ve got players that can score and then we have both aspects of the game.

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“There’s always something to work on, we want to maintain our defensive records but we want to get back to asking questions in an attacking sense.”

Reiterating his desire to return his side to their best attacking effort while not jeopardising the

“We’ve worked again this week we’ve had a full week or nine days to work and we’ve still two training sessions to go. We will continue to work to improve that side of the game while not taking away what we’ve developed across the course of this season, which is a harder, more drilled outfit.

“You keep clean sheets, you’ve always got a chance of winning the game and that’s been our mentality and metaphor this season.”