Blackpool boss Neil Critchley's view of Sheffield United - after comparing Chris Wilder's achievements to Liverpool winning Champions League
Neil Critchley, the Blackpool manager, admits he is intrigued by the change of Sheffield United’s style under new boss Slavisa Jokanović - after comparing the achievements of the Serb’s predecessor Chris Wilder to Liverpool winning the Champions League.
Jokanović took over as Wilder’s permanent successor in the summer and has set about changing the club’s style, abandoning the back three that took United from the League One relegation places to ninth in the Premier League.
And Critchley, who takes his Blackpool side to Bramall Lane this weekend, admitted: “It has changed.
“To take them from League One to the Championship, then take them up into the Premier League and keep them there...what an unbelievable achievement that was.
“I’ve seen how hard this division is and for them to get promoted and stay in the Premier League, that’s as good as Manchester City winning the league or Liverpool winning the Champions League.
“You’d have to say it might even be better because you’ve got to do it over 38 games in the Premier League or 46 in the Championship. It was just an incredible feat.
“There are a lot of players that are still there from Chris’s time, but the new manager has brought in a different way of playing and a different system. It does take time for the players to adapt.
“I totally understand why Chris would play the way he did and he had great success with his way of doing it with three at the back. You could say he invented the underlapping outside centre-backs joining in and it caused teams a lot of problems.
“The system has changed now, but what I would say is they’ve got a very good group of players. Their possession stats are one of the best in the league and you can see why with the quality they’ve got.”
Last weekend’s derby victory over Preston was Blackpool’s sixth in their last nine games in the Championship, sending last season’s League One play-off winners level on points with fifth place.
“We won’t get carried away – the gaffer won’t let us,” striker Gary Madine, formerly of United, told our sister paper The Gazette.