"Whatever he lacks in terms of experience in that position, he makes up with his outstanding, pace and strength, just like Ricky did when he moved to full-back," Allardyce said.
"They've also found themselves with a lot more possession on the ball in deeper positions and are reasonably good at using the ball.
"Henrik was our man of the match at West Ham, where he didn't just defend well but was also our most productive player.
"It just proves to me that we've found a position for him that challenges Ricardo Gardner and gives us the opportunity to move either of them up or back, and that's a huge bonus. It was only born out of the lack of players we had in Japan."
Pedersen is not the first to undergo a career change under Allardyce.
"I've done it with lots of players who have discovered they could do something they hadn't wanted to do before and become so comfortable that they didn't want to move back," the manager said. "Simon Charlton, for instance, who moved from left-back to centre back, and Mike Whitlow the same. Ivan Campo went from centre-half to centre-midfield.
"Things like that have worked very well - Kevin Nolan is another, having moved from youth team centre-half to attacking central midfield player and goalscorer.
"My job is seeing where and when they can play and then convincing them they might actually be better there than where they think they should play."
Pedersen still needs convincing.
"I'm getting more comfortable the more games I play there," he added, "but I still don't know much about the position. Everybody says I'm doing OK, so I must be doing something right."