Chris Wilder identifies main Sheffield United concern as damning numbers show why Ruben Selles era fell flat
Chris Wilder identifies main Sheffield United concern as damning numbers show why Ruben Selles era fell flat
Chris Wilder has barely had time to draw breath since his return to Sheffield United came about over the weekend, but it didn’t take him long to identify a glaring weakness in the Blades’ season so far. Wilder was reappointed as Blades chief earlier this week after time was called on Ruben Selles’ disastrous tenure.
The 57-year-old took training for the first time on Monday before his return was officially announced, with his comeback game coming this weekend at home to Charlton Athletic. United go into that match still looking for their first result of the campaign after six straight defeats.
The most damning came on Friday night when they were battered 5-0 by Ipswich Town and barely laid a glove on the Tractor Boys in response. Under the Spaniard United badly lost their identity, something that the players will be given no choice but to rediscover quickly with Wilder back at the helm.
“I don't think you'd be surprised about my reaction to the call,” Wilder said in his first press conference of his third managerial spell at his boyhood club. “As I said, I come back to help the football club. I'm in a unique situation, really.
Chris Wilder identifies main Sheffield United concern as damning numbers show why Ruben Selles era fell flat
“Quite easily I could have not taken up the opportunity. It's amazing how your stock goes up when you're not even in work, and you're not even on the side of a pitch. But there it is. I'm here to help the football club, to restore a little bit of pride, restore some belief into the players and get us out of the position that we're in.
“It's a position that the owners weren't expecting the club to be in. But we are, and they are for a reason. And as I said, the players have to accept some responsibility for that as well. Bottom of the league in duels, bottom three or four in terms of running stats. The game doesn't change. The stats show that they're not fighting and at the moment they're not running around.
“People can talk about the reasons why they're not doing that but first and foremost I don't compromise on those aspects of the game and the top guys don't compromise. So if people think in the Premier League people don't run around and don't tackle and don't compete, then they're completely off what football is all about.”
United’s owners made the decision to part ways with Wilder earlier in the summer after last season’s promotion tilt ended with a cruel play-off final defeat to Sunderland at Wembley. But the Selles experiment failed badly, leading to another SOS call to Wilder on Friday evening.
“It's about winning games of football. and I've always said, we'd all love to play champagne football and do maybe what Leeds United did last season,” he added, referencing Daniel Farke’s 100-point centurions.
“Play this free-flowing game with the players that they had, but that wasn't the situation that we were put in at the start of season. And you have to grind out results and by hook or by crook, gain those results through different qualities. We have the players to do everything here, to fight and to grind one out and to play decent football.”