Sheffield Wednesday - inside track: Garry Monk, Steven Fletcher injury blow, EFL points threat and who Leeds United should look out for

We get the inside track on the Owls from Sheffield Star writer Alex Miller. He chats Garry Monk, Wednesday's style, how big a blow it is to lose top goalscorer Steven Fletcher and gives us his predicted line-up for the visitors at Elland Road.

Sheffield Wednesday appear to be having a strong season under Garry Monk? How do you assess the campaign so far?

Strong would be the word.

After the upheaval of Steve Bruce's late departure in the summer and Monk's arrival six weeks into the season, the side are performing above expectations and ahead of where they've been over the last two seasons.

They rose to third at Christmas but three defeats on the spin - against Stoke, Hull and Cardiff - saw them tumble from the play-off places.

An impressive 1-0 FA Cup win at Premier League Brighton last week has lifted the gloom and the feeling is that a top six finish is within reach.

How they deal without top scorer Steven Fletcher for the next couple of months at the very least remains to be seen though - they've looked rudderless so far this season when he's been missing.

There’s the obvious off-field issues with Wednesday potentially facing a points deduction... can you give us a quick overview and what the latest is?

It's difficult to cram everything that's gone on into a nutshell, but here goes... Wednesday were facing a huge deficit in staying within the £39m losses permitted over a three-year period as per Profitability and Sustainability rules.

In order to do this, owner Dejphon Chansiri effectively sold Hillsborough stadium for £60m to another company set up in his name, returning a profit for the 2017/18 season and staying within the £39m loss rule.

This seemed to be ratified when the league accepted their accounts in August, but in November the club, Chansiri and two former directors were charged with misconduct by the EFL.

Wednesday fired back, accusing the EFL of unlawful action. It's stuck in arbitration now and the EFL case can't move until it's been decided whether or not Wednesday are right.

In short, it's a bit of a mess.

How best would you sum up the Owls style of play?

They're fairly direct. Monk made no secret of his need to focus on shoring up the Owls' defence first and foremost and for large periods of the season they've done that.

They've jumped from 4-5-1 to 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 throughout the season - Monk preferring 4-4-2 on the whole - and can be fairly flexible in their set-up, but short, snappy passing isn't something Wednesday fans have seen a huge amount of.

Steven Fletcher is on 12 goals and has been their focal point throughout, but he's injured now and Wednesday may need to re-think their approach a touch.

Who have been the key performers and who should Leeds be keeping a close eye on at Elland Road?

Barry Bannan has been the key man for Wednesday for years and when he is on song, the Owls are at their best. His delivery from set pieces is important and he can control the tempo of the game at will.

Kadeem Harris has blown hot and cold at times but provides pace from the left wing, and although he's been out of form for much of the season, Adam Reach remains one of the side's most creative players.

One player who will be hoping to make a big impact on the second half of the season is Massimo Luongo. Injuries have stuttered his impressive start to life at Hillsborough but he has the quality to make a difference. If Monk switches to a 4-5-1 he'll feature much more.

But Dominic Iorfa has been the player of the season so far. Moved to centre-half, he may well fill in for the injured Liam Palmer at right-back at Elland Road, but the 24-year-old looked every part the Premier League defender this season.

How are Wednesday viewing this fixture? It’s obviously a Yorkshire derby, but is it a good chance to make a statement about their own intentions?

Clashes with Leeds are always one that Owls fans look forward to, but from a footballing viewpoint this feels like a big one.

Off the back of three league defeats it's important they stop the rot with at least a point this weekend - at the very least an encouraging performance - the weekend's win at Brighton was a boost.

Leeds are obviously one of the two top teams in a division that doesn't seem to know what to do with itself and the match has come at a tricky time for the Owls. A result in west Yorkshire would certainly reinstate their promotion ambitions.

Steven Fletcher has been ruled out for at least 8-10 weeks, how much is this a blow for the Owls?

To sort of paraphrase Chris Morris - this is the last thing that Wednesday wanted to happen.

Fletcher has been central to everything the Owls have done this season and has scored 12 goals - the next highest scorer is on three. Everything goes through him and his absence in games he's missed this season has been palpable.

Who steps into the breach is anyone's guess. Atdhe Nuhiu has the hold-up play but not the mobility, Sam Winnall the work rate but not the hold-up play.

Jordan Rhodes scored one the finest hat-tricks you're likely to see at Forest in December but has done little before or since and Fernando Forestieri is injured for the next week or two.

Wednesday will likely dip into the loans market for the true Fletcher replacement.

Finally, what is your predicted line-up?

Predicting a Garry Monk line-up at Wednesday has been a thankless task so far, but here goes - I'll pin the tail on a 4-5-1.

XI: Dawson; Iorfa, Borner, Lees (c), Fox; Reach, Bannan, Hutchinson, Luongo, Harris; Winnall