Why Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Massimo Luongo is confident they can compete on all fronts

The Owls, lying in seventh position in the Championship after winning three of their opening five fixtures, face Rotherham United in the second round of the Carabao Cup at the ASSEAL New York Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Luongo, who is set to make his first start since arriving from Queens Park Rangers on deadline-day for a fee thought to be in the region of £1m, told The Star: "We had a little cup run at QPR in the FA Cup. We didn’t have the depth to handle that and we took a dip in the league because players were playing double weeks.

"But here we’ve got enough players to share the load and I think it would be really important for us in the League Cup, especially if we can get the players who aren’t playing some minutes, so that we’re ready for the other games."

Wednesday will be looking to avoid a third successive defeat on the road. Lee Bullen's side fell to a 2-1 defeat at Preston North End in their last outing.

"I don’t think you can expect to go away to Millwall and Preston and expect a nice game," said Luongo. "You’re not going to go there and have time on the ball – it’s always going to be a battle.

"If there is anything to address it’s that we’ve got to be up for it even more. You’ve got to expect the game to be ugly and rise up to it and use that experience we’ve got to make sure the game goes as smoothly as possible, even if we know it’s going to be a fight."