Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder explained his team shake-up for their 1-1 draw with Fulham.
Max Lowe's selection at left wing-back, which saw Enda Stevens line up in the back three, shows a manager looking for his best combinations at present. Wilder recalled Oliver Norwood and admitted he had considered changing both wing-backs. He also handed club record signing Rhian Brewster a debut from the bench.
“(Max) has got concussion and it's another desperately unfortunate situation for us following on from Flecky, Jack O'Connell and (Lys) Mousset (all injured)," said Wilder.
“There was a decision whether to start Jayden (Bogle) and Max, I made the decision just to put one in. It think it would have been too much of a gamble to stick both into a game we needed to get something from.
“He (Lowe) took a nasty whack and had blurred vision.
“I went with moving Enda to a position I didn't really want to move him to. Max coming off early scuppered all those plans.
“I talked to John (Fleck) after the Arsenal game and said he needed to get himself up to speed and I need him in the team. He'd gone up the road with Scotland and was pencilled in to play.
“He was unfortunate to land on such a small space on his back to do the damage he's done so it's going to be four to six weeks without John."
Of Norwood, he said: “I don't think Ollie's hit the heights at the start of the season and I've got to pick the right team so he has to take a bit of responsibility for not being up to scratch but he's looked more like himself over the last couple of weeks.
“But I thought we lost a bit of midfield control in the second half. In the first half I thought Sander (Berge), Lunny (John Lundstram) and Ollie dictated that area of the pitch. I think Sander ran out of legs a little bit, the schedule he's had to deal with contributed to that, and John did a little bit too."
