Alan Biggs: Why Sheffield United should persist with 'flagship' system against West Brom

At full-time at Bramall Lane last Sunday, I heard it asked twice.

The first was posed directly to me on talkSPORT by TV commentator and radio host Sam Matterface as I reported on West Ham’s 1-0 win.

The second time was moments later on my Twitter timeline, posted by former Blade Curtis Woodhouse.

To which my answer is ... fair question but not yet, let’s see.

In fairness, also, it’s not so much the system that’s not working as the absence of one key player making it much harder to work.

That player, Jack O’Connell is the one United could least afford to lose, especially for all or most of the season.

He is impossible to replicate, missed even more for being an overlapping juggernaut of a centre back than as a robust defender.

But Wilder’s frustration at not being able to cover his absence in the summer window must be felt even more acutely now.

That, and a pacy runner in support of struggling strikers (you know who I mean ideally), are absolute musts in January.

But first, United have to find a way of clawing back some results and not being cut adrift, starting with Saturday’s enormous game at West Brom, who are two points above at third bottom.

Defeat at The Hawthorns would open up the worst fears; a first win of the season would restore hope and, most crucially for the players, infuse some lost confidence.

For me, this is not the game to do something radical. United have been repeatedly edged out of close games; playing at the same level, to a pattern they know, ought to give them a chance of prevailing in this one.

It’s more a question for the rest of the season and Wilder deserves trust rather than anyone presuming to tell him what to do.

You wonder, though, whether Oli Burke, whose pacy thrusts are a dimension United lack, might be worth a start against Albion, the club he left to join the Blades as part of the Callum Robinson deal.

Rather more obviously, Lys Mousset’s imminent return can’t come soon enough. He has all the tools in his box to strengthen United in another type of box if he can prise open the lid.

It’s a big ask after his injury but Mousset’s speed, strength and technical ability represent something the team hasn’t got in that area.

Another missing ingredient, John Fleck’s midfield drive, is back already.

This is not a bad team, essentially it’s still very much a team.

It will be together, rather than individually, that a solution is found.

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