Romelle Donovan’s recent performances have given Sheffield United fans reasons to be excited

Following Romelle Donovan’s fantastic showing against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night, again bagging the winning goal, how can Wilder get the most out of the Brentford loanee?

After a lacklustre debut against Birmingham City, Donovan has proved that when fed the ball in the right areas, he can be dangerous.

With a point to prove after not playing against Swansea, the 19-year-old impressed against Blackburn in the EFL Carabao Cup, scoring his first goal for United.

The teenager clearly has talent, but is still incredibly raw and is still finding his feet in first-team football.

Speaking after the Bolton victory, the Blades boss appreciated that “‘he's jumping into big centre-halves. He's tracking back, even from the first game against Chesterfield. He's going to frustrate.”

Wilder also admitted “he's going to run the ball in, he's going to take too many touches at times, he's going to make wrong decisions’, but insisted ‘he’s going to be positive and he's going to get us on the front foot.”

Romelle Donovan’s stats so far

	v Birmingham	v Blackburn	v Cardiff	v Bolton
Minutes	60	90	45	90
Passes	11/13 (84.6%)	26/31 (82.9%)	4/6 (66.7%)	22/29 (75.9%)
Shots on target	0	3	0	1
Shots off target	0	0	0	2
Blocked shots	0	1	0	0
Successful dribbles	2/4 (50%)	4/7 (57.1%)	0	5/10 (50%)
Accurate crosses	0/3 (0%)	1/4 (25%)	0	1/3 (33.3%)
Touches in opposition box	2	11	0	6
Ground duels won	7/13 (53.8)	13/23 (56.5%)	1/3 (33.3%)	8/18 (44.4%)

Stats via FotMob.

In order to get the best out of Donovan, Wilder needs to get his players linking up with him and offering support, so the ball can be fed to his feet when in threatening positions.

With the absence of a clear number ten to link up with since O’Hare’s departure, Donovan can be left completely isolated at times.

When unlocked with passes like Kalvin Phillips’ assist on Tuesday night, Donovan has the potential to punish defences and has proven on two occasions already that his finishing can be deadly.

In comparison with his teammates, the winger outperforms them all on dribbling stats. The Brentford loanee could be the only player with the ability to beat his man consistently.

Speaking to Sheffield United after the Bolton victory, he said: “The more opportunities I get with the ball at my feet, the better I'm gonna be. I'm not an aerial player, so the more times the ball is at my feet and I can get at my man, that’s when it’s my time to shine.”

Chris Wilder complemented the loanee’s grit and determination, too.

“I thought Rom optimised our performance, as well, a young kid working his way into championship football, he had a difficult afternoon on Saturday at Cardiff, he came roaring back.”