Sheffield Wednesday will be looking to arrest their poor run of form as they gear up to face South Yorkshire rivals Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday, looking to do the double over the Tykes.

Garry Monk’s side have been in a woeful run of form recently that has put their play-off push at serious risk of coming to an end, as they currently sit eight points behind sixth-placed Bristol City with just 16 games left to play.

The Owls have just one league win in 2020 from their trip to Elland Road when they overcame Leeds and have only four points to their name because of that run. 

They currently sit 23rd in the form table for the last six games and on Saturday afternoon they face a trip to Oakwell to play against 23rd in the actual table in Gerhard Struber’s Barnsley. The Tykes have been struggling themselves of late as the gap to safety stands at six points for them.

Both sides are in desperate need of a win for different reasons with the Owls looking to get their promotion push back on track while Barnsley are looking to close the gap to 21st place and safety, before it becomes too late.

Here is the Sheffield Wednesday XI we expect Garry Monk to field in the hope of getting a league win for the first time since the 11th January…

Monk has been switching between 4-1-4-1 and 4-4-2 in recent weeks to combat injury problems up front, but with fresh faces added on deadline day, they can continue playing with four in midfield and two up front.

In goal, Cameron Dawson will start as he has done ever since Keiren Westwood was dropped following his calamitous performance against West Brom some months ago. Dawson has been solid in between the sticks for the Owls, despite defensive frailties that the side have suffered from in recent weeks.

Having kept a clean sheet against play-off hopefuls Millwall last weekend, the back four will most likely remain unchanged as questions over Morgan Fox’s fitness persist.

In the back four will be Liam Palmer, Dominic Iorfa, Julian Borner, and Moses Odubajo. While Odubajo has come in for criticism for his performances since signing in the summer, he was solid as he shifted to left-back from his more natural right side, allowing Liam Palmer to come back in and take up his usual role on the right.

How much do you know about Wednesday's January signings?

With Kieran Lee being confirmed as available by Monk, there could be one change in the midfield that drew to Millwall, seeing Joey Pelupessy miss out. A four of Jacob Murphy, Lee, Barry Bannan, and Kadeem Harris will start and provide more creativity and delivery for the attack against a weaker Barnsley defence, compared to Millwall’s.

Up front will be another change as new signing Connor Wickham will come in to start alongside Atdhe Nuhiu. The Owls will be looking to exploit the frailties at the back for the Tykes and new signing Wickham will be keen to hit the ground running after signing on deadline day and having a week to prepare for his debut.

Wednesday have a good chance here to put their bad run of form to bed and push towards the play-offs in the next weeks and will fancy their chances of capitalising on a flat Barnsley squad who will be lamenting their missed opportunity when they were defeated by Charlton Athletic.