Why Sheffield Wednesday star man Will Vaulks was out of favour early doors in S6 career as coaches ‘broke game down’

A big-name signing of international caps and League One promotions and no fewer than 186 Championship appearances, Wednesday’s new midfield recruit had been unveiled the day before Massimo Luongo’s exit from the club was confirmed and though Vaulks recoiled at any suggestion he had come in as a replacement for the Aussie, the pressure was on to step up – from the outside looking in at least.

A niggly injury picked up in pre-season curtailed much of his involvement in their Portugal training camp and delayed his first friendly outing in Owls colours.

And in Wednesday’s first nine league matches, Vaulks played more than an hour in only two and after defeat at Peterborough United had to wait five weeks for a start with the likes of Fisayo Dele-Bashiru setting a pace in the middle of a competitive Owls midfield race for minutes.

Vaulks was rendered passive both in and out of possession at Posh in mid-August and was unable to grab a hold of proceedings in a match that saw his side reduced to 10 men after Reece James’ early red card.

Seven months on and a Wednesday midfield without Vaulks in the midfield mop-up role is scarcely imaginable; that race won by Vaulks, George Byers and Barry Bannan in what has become a settled and snarling trio.

Vaulks has started all but one game since the start of December and has become one of the side’s most dependable figures.

Asked of Vaulks’ early weeks at S6 and the in-and-out nature of his involvement, Owls boss Darren Moore told The Star: “Will has wonderful attributes but it was about him adapting to what we needed him to do and getting a level of understanding of what his roles and responsibilities were.

“He came in from a different club with different ideas and coming here there were certain things in his game we needed to break down to let him see and understand what is required.

“We’ve been working with that on the training ground and in matches. There are some matches where we thought we didn’t quite get what we needed from him and so we spent time with him. He’s fully integrated into the team now and he’s performing very, very well.

“It was just about breaking down his game at the start of the season and us all getting an understanding of how effective he can be for Sheffield Wednesday.”

The Welsh international picked up a man of the match gong for another relentless effort in the heart of Wednesday’s midfield in a win on Saturday that took him full-circle perhaps in that it was a dominant performance – against Peterborough United.

Moore said post-match: “He’s worked tirelessly in midfield for us and he’s so good in both parts of the game in terms of having that passing ability over big distances but also off the ball he gets in the right places, he’s strong in the air and tenacious in the tackle and he’s got that long throw for us that is effective.

“It was another good, solid performance and so much of his work has earned us another clean sheet.”

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