This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Sheffield Wednesday crumbled to their first defeat under the stewardship of Garry Monk on Tuesday night as Hull City ran out 1-0 winners.
Tigers striker Tom Eaves bagged his first for the club after coming on as a substitute late in the second half – the summer arrival met a floated Eric Lichaj cross having entered the pitch just six minutes earlier.
The Owls seemed to strongly feel the absence of five-goal striker Steven Fletcher as his injury came somewhat out of the blue.
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That meant that Monk opted for Sam Winnall to partner Atdhe Nuhiu in attack as he continued to operate the 4-4-2 system which was seen against both Everton and Middlesbrough.
Sam Hutchinson shook off an injury of his own to start after being withdrawn early in that Boro victory while the likes of Kadeem Harris and Adam Reach kept their places on the wings.
But not for the first time this season, their long-serving winger failed to live up to the standards expected of him and his inconsistencies could suggest an underlying issue.
After scoring and assisting at the Riverside on Saturday, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were witnessing him living up to his true potential having cost a then club-record £5m back in 2016.
But on Tuesday night he followed it up with one of his worst performances this campaign.
In 90 minutes of football, the 26-year-old managed to get just 25% of his shots on target which included him squandering one big chance.
He also lost possession a shocking 18 times, which was one of the most in the Wednesday team.
Reach’s figures with the ball were particularly dire too, recording a passing accuracy of just 63% and an even worse crossing accuracy of 20%, per SofaScore.
Earlier in the season, the winger followed up an assist against Preston North End with a poor showing in the very next game, recording a WhoScored rating of just 6.41.
The 6 foot 1 man is entering a fourth year at the club, yet barring a couple of outrageous screamers, he’s never set the ground alight at Hillsborough.
Managers past and present have struggled to know his best position, even with Monk believing it’s out wide, but this performance would give reasoning to suggest otherwise.
Reach has scored 16 goals and assisted 24 more in 150 appearances in the blue and white stripes with last season being his career-best as he managed nine in all competitions – the best return of which came from central attacking midfield per Transfermakt’s recorded matches.
The constant curiosity surrounding Reach is just too much of a problem to be dealing with every week.
