Sheffield Wednesday had been without a manager for nearly two months until they decided to hand over the reins to Garry Monk last Friday.

The Owls, who saw Steve Bruce leave Hillsborough in July to take over the vacancy at Newcastle United, had made a relatively bright start to the 2019/20 campaign under the guidance of caretaker boss Lee Bullen.

However, following back-to-back defeats in the Championship to Preston North End and Queens Park Rangers, Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri opted to appoint Monk as the club's new manager.

Whilst questions may be asked about why the Thai businessman decided to wait until six games into the season to bring in the 40-year-old, all will be forgiven if the former Swansea City boss can lead the club to a relative amount of success over the coming months.

Yet in order to have the best of chance of hitting the ground running in the second-tier, Monk may first have to sort out the Owls' defensive issues.

Although Wednesday have managed to keep clean-sheets in three of their seven clashes this season all competitions, they were far from convincing in their last two Championship match-ups.

After conceding twice at Deepdale to Preston, the Owls then repeated the feat against QPR a week later.

Given that they are no longer able to call upon the services of Michael Hector at Hillsborough following his return to Chelsea, Wednesday have had to rely upon Julian Borner to deliver the goods in recent weeks.

Despite the German making an impressive start to life in South Yorkshire since his move from Arminia Bielefeld, it could be argued that he is need of a permanent partner at the back if Wednesday are to push on in the second-tier.

Whereas Dominic Iorfa is more suited to the full-back position, Tom Lees has not been at his brilliant best so far this season.

Taking this into consideration, it may be worth Monk starting David Bates for Sunday's clash against Huddersfield Town.

Brought in on loan from German second division side Hamburg earlier this summer (via BBC Sport), the Scotland international has been limited to just one appearance so far by the Owls.

However, during this particular clash against Rotherham United in the Carabao Cup, Bates managed to produce an encouraging performance in the heart of defence which helped his side to progress in the competition.

As well having the ability to read the game in a defensive sense, Bates is also confident whilst on the ball and thus could be the perfect fit if his boss decides that he wants his side to adopt a possession-based style of play.

Whilst there is no doubting that the centre-back will have to make the adjustments needed to his game in order to impress at Championship level given, there is no reason why he cannot go on to become a mainstay in Monk's starting eleven.