Sheffield Wednesday have another tough outing on Friday night, with Championship contenders Sunderland heading to Hillsborough.
Sheffield Wednesday will again go in search of their first win of the 2023/24 Championship season. But against an in form Sunderland side, it’ll be tough.
Xisco Munoz is a man under pressure and what kind of team he’ll put out tomorrow night remains to be seen; if not anyone’s guess.
He’s made some questionable team selection decisions this season but one decision that continues to leave fans puzzled is his omission of Reece James.
Former boss Darren Moore said James had a ‘good footballing brain’, but since re-signing for the Owls on a permanent basis in the summer, James has played just 10 minutes of Championship football.
Here’s three reasons why Munoz needs to start James vs Sunderland tomorrow night…
Better than Delgado
Juan Delgado has often been playing at left-back this season. But he’s been very average, if not worse, with Munoz seemingly continuing to play him because he signed him, and he wants to see him do well.
James proved last season that he’s a very talented left-back and one who can provide good creativity and energy going both forward and back.
Getting the band back together
There’s a lot of new faces in the side this season. And James isn’t the only one who’s rather unfairly been exiled by Munoz with others including Marvin Johnson, George Byers, and Will Vaulks.
But bringing back James would mean bringing back a player who played in the promotion-winning side last season, and having more of last season’s players on the pitch would surely be beneficial for a Wednesday side who look a shadow of the team they were last time round.
EFL experience
Another issue with Delgado and a fair few of the other summer signings is that he lacks any experience of the English game, let alone the Football League.
He’s been exposed on a few occasions this season but James is a player who knows the Football League well and who’s been tired and tested in the league before.
Tomorrow’s game vs Sunderland kicks off at 8pm and will be shown live on Sky Sports.