Alan Biggs: The breaks will come for Chris Wilder and Sheffield United ... they have to

Ridiculous extremes in the case of Sheffield United over the past 20 months. And yet without extremes in general performance.

That’s why one point from 11 games and the worst start by a team in Premier League history is so hard to sum up, let alone resolve.

Here’s the truth as I see it. United weren’t anywhere as good a squad as their ninth place last season suggested. Nor are they bad enough to be falling adrift at the bottom now.

Over-achievement, for which the manager is a victim now, versus under-achievement by comparison. There has to be middle ground and it’s that which the Blades board should follow.

The extremes in terms of results, fine margins or not, are hard to fathom. But credit to the vast majority of the club’s support for recognising there’s a happy medium in there somewhere.

I was convinced United would stay up on their return to the top flight last season. But no way did I imagine the margin would put them on the brink of Europe.

This time I reckoned it would be about fighting relegation. No way did I envisage a single point from 33.

And, of course, it starts to become of no consolation that United have been in practically every game.

Except that logic suggests that, for all the lack of proven top flight quality at the business end, a break will come; a win when it is not necessarily deserved.

United haven’t had that fortunate bounce and they are going to have to make their own luck somehow.

How? Settling for, or taking, a point, as they should have done for the Jamie Vardy moment against Leicester last weekend, won’t make up the ground.

For my money, it’ll be a start at Southampton, though, even if the intention has to be to win - with hopefully better crossing and maybe earlier delivery too.

The January window? A few weeks ago Chris Wilder’s mindset was undoubtedly to challenge the board to fund what the team lacks.

That argument, while absolutely valid considering United’s position mirrors their place on the pay scale, has been eroded by results.

Wilder himself has suggested that only a couple of loan signings will be possible. Clubs facing relegation are weakly placed to attract quality, besides the pressure to avoid reckless expenditure ahead of a potential drop in income.

But whatever results might say, United have a stronger squad than when they came up. It would stand an excellent chance of an instant return.

Once you realise that, the chance to stay up can be viewed as some kind of bonus. Something to be gained rather than lost.

Maybe the dressing room needs to get into that frame of mind, casting inhibitions to one side.

However unlikely it may look, with 27 games to go United do have a chance of staying in the Premier League in 2021. And what would they have given for that in the summer of 2016?