Henrik Pedersen reacts to Sheffield Wednesday's 'disappointing' Sheffield United defeat
Harry Amass emerged from Sheffield Wednesday’s Steel City derby defeat with a great deal of credit.
The inexperienced, teenage defender entered the clash as one of the players with question marks hanging over how he might handle a game as pressured as a Hillsborough date with Sheffield United - but earned widespread plaudits as the Owls’ standout player on the day.
Amass led the home stats on tackles and dribbles and was involved enough to take more touches than any other Wednesday player in what proved to be a painful 3-0 defeat.
He did so after a manic international break that saw his feature in all three of England under-19s’ outings within a six-day period, including 90-minute efforts in breezy wins over their counterparts from Lithuania and Scotland. One of the mission statements of his loan from Manchester United has been to improve his durability in back-to-back matches and on his return to Middlewood Road, the sense he gave Owls boss Henrik Pedersen was that this had been a mission accomplished.
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Steve Ellis
On a conversation shared between the pair, Pedersen said ahead of the weekend: “He (Amass) said ‘Wow gaffer, I feel that I am better now and I feel like it is easier to play those games than it was four or five months ago.’ He could see that in that situation he has come on and I think it was such an eye-opener for how much he has progressed. He was a happy boy getting back from national duty.”
Pedersen has already spoken about the personal strides Amass has taken both as a player and as a person since arriving to S6 amid hugely perilous circumstances. Focus has been placed on defensive improvements and in the last weeks, there is an acceptance there have been strides made there.
United have kept a close eye on the youngster’s development throughout his time at S6 and The Star’s understanding of Amass’ immediate future is that while all parties appear satisfied with how things are going, a deal to extend his time with the club to the end of the season will have to be renewed somewhere down the line. Wednesday will hope it is improvements such as that seen by Amass in the last fortnight will persuade the Premier League side to do so.
“At the moment I haven't really thought to much about it even though it is coming,” Amass told The Star earlier this month on the prospect of United’s January decision. “I just want to play in the games and a lot of stuff has happened higher. We're waiting for things to get straightened out and we'll sort it out closer to the time. But at the moment I'm just enjoying playing here.”
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