Sheffield Wednesday captain Martin Taylor is set to come back into the team for the weekend clash with Leicester City at Hillsborough.
Wednesday have been playing with a centre-back pairing of Miguel Llera and Anthony Gardner of late but Llera picked up his 5th yellow card of the season in the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday and will now serve a suspension.
The Owls defensive displays appeared to have improved at the turn of the month with their first league clean sheet at Ipswich followed by a 2-1 home win against Peterborough with Llera netting the winning goal. Since then however individual mistakes have cost Wednesday dear and they have conceded 6 goals in three successive defeats with the Spaniard scoring an own goal at the weekend.
Taylor was signed in the last transfer window as the solution to the Owls problematic start to the season in terms of their defending. The imposing defender didn’t get off to the best of starts in a Wednesday shirt however as the club leaked even more goals following his inclusion in the team and in his 6 appearances to date the Owls have picked up just 1 point.
Saturday represents a possible opportunity for Taylor to make a positive impression. The fans will be keen to see him succeed and if he can produce a positive display against in an in-form Leicester attack then it will be a big step towards kick starting his career at Hillsborough.
Wednesday have few other options available to them at centre-back at the moment. Reda Johnson has been most effective as a left-back and although he is accustomed to playing in the heart of the defence he is currently out injured. Lewis Buxton is capable of playing at centre-back but has been one of the Owls most consistent performers at right-back and Mark Beevers is currently enjoying a successful loan spell at the heart of Millwall’s defence.