Chris Wilder is still trying to find the right formula for Sheffield United after a summer transfer window that left him with a squad lacking a clear identity.

Fully-functioning football clubs in the modern day tend to recruit players to suit the style of the team, which is set by the manager. Instead, as Sheffield United emerge from the wreckage of their summer transfer window, Chris Wilder is still trying to work out how to get the best out of the players he has been left with.

He persevered with 4-4-2 at home to Norwich City yesterday afternoon and, for a time, it helped United control the game. From around the time Patrick Bamford dragged them level, to the point Mohamed Toure put the Canaries back in front on the stroke of half-time, there was a lot to like about United’s play.

But the last half an hour or so was a much more difficult watch as the away side controlled the game and won 3-2. United’s lack of depth was highlighted by the enforced substitutions of Wilder’s two wingers, Ben Brereton Diaz and Romelle Donovan.

In the third of three games in a week, both gassed out. Their replacements, with Ryan One and Tahith Chong missing through injury, were utility man Jamie Shackleton, and central midfielder Oliver Arblaster.

There is the flexibility to change, though, and Wilder is not wedded to one system if he doesn’t think it gives United the best opportunity of winning a game. He admitted after the game that United don’t have “an absolute, unbelievable, clear identity.”

That is concerning. This club has historically been at its best when that identity runs all the way through it, yet this still has the feel of a work in progress, with potential changes in shape and personnel for Tuesday night’s trip to Blackburn Rovers.

“I thought we’d always have to go game by game,” Wilder admitted. “We're not that type of football club at the moment that's got an absolute, unbelievable, clear identity. So I understand that. And I'll go game by game to try and get a result.

“And we've been pretty successful with it. Unbeaten all pre-season to now. You look back at the Birmingham game and the Swansea game now, and they’re okay performances. For me, it's getting the balance right.

“The criticism of the team at the start of the season, or the opinion, was: ‘Where do we get the goals from, how do we score goals?’ And then, we score. We score at Blackburn, we score at Cardiff, we score three on Tuesday night.

“But it's like the old duvet one, isn't it? You pull it up, your feet are cold. You pull it down, and you expose your chin. So I've got to try and get the balance right in terms of the, in terms of the shape of the team or whatever.

“We’ve always been a flexible football club in terms of how to get results. When teams press us, we go over it. If they sit off, we've got enough ability to play through them. And if they’re narrow off, we go around.

“That's always been my philosophy. I don't get sucked in about: ‘This is the way we're going to play.’ It's plan A, plan A, plan A. There are all different types of ways to win a game of football.

“We're going to have to have a look at that and see. We’re trying to get the best players on the pitch, the fit players on the pitch, trying to get players back. We're just going to have to battle through. I think the international break is a really important one for us.

“We're just going to have to battle through because we are missing players. We're trying to get players up to speed as well. We're trying to get Hamza up to speed. We're trying to get Ben Brereton Diaz up to speed. Matt Doherty missed today through illness.

“And Kalvin is not a starter for us until after the international break. There's a temptation for me to put him in. And I’m sure that he’ll add to the team. But my dilemma is that I can't risk that until we're really sure that Kalv can go and play 50, 55, 60 minutes and build off the back of that, off the back of his previous situation.”