Chris Wilder opens up on Sheffield United dilemma reasoning as Blades look to arrest poor form
Chris Wilder wrestling with overlooked Sheffield United dilemma as Blades look to arrest poor run of form
At the best of times, a million different factors will run through Chris Wilder’s mind when it comes to selecting his Sheffield United side. The primary considerations, of fitness and form, are obvious before he even considers how to knit everything together and perhaps combat, or exploit, something identified in how the opposition set up.
At the business end of the season, however, it’s tempting to wonder if another aspect comes into play - experience, mentality, that knowledge of what it takes to go down the final straight of a promotion race and come out victorious rather than wondering what could have been.
United’s January business saw them bolster their group not just in terms of numbers, but familiarity - Harry Clarke, Hamza Choudhury and Tom Cannon all arrived with fresh memories of getting into the Premier League as recently as last season.
That experience could be even more important now as the Blades look to negate the fall-out of a disastrous run of defeats that has taken them from automatic promotion candidates to rank outsiders. Only victory in Good Friday’s home clash with Cardiff City will calm a few nerves amongst the fanbase, but even that may be a case of too little, too late.
Complementing the experienced heads in Wilder’s squad - such as previous Championship promotion-winners such as Jack Robinson, Kieffer Moore and Anel Ahmedhodzic - is a core of youth who are in this situation for the very first time, including new boys Michael Cooper and Harrison Burrows.
They, and the likes of young guns Femi Seriki and Sydie Peck, are effectively learning on the job at the top end of the Championship and while the temptation may cross Wilder’s mind to fall back onto the experience of Clarke, Choudhury and Co., he is also mindful of the potential benefits for his younger crop of players.
Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United selection dilemma amid Premier League push
"We're trying to develop players as well, so they have to go through the process if they want to be at the top,” said Wilder of the youth-v-experience dilemma. “We want to go into the Premier League, and these boys I've brought here want to achieve success and be at the top of the Championship.
“But there are no guarantees. When I signed Harrison, Cooper, Jes Rak-Sakyi and Callum O'Hare, when Femi and Sydie come through, there wasn't a guarantee of Premier League football. Did we want to push towards the top of the division? Yeah. Was it a little bit of a transitional season?
“Yeah, in some ways because of the amount of players we let go at the end of last season and the amount of players we brought in. But we still wanted it to be a winning season. For the majority of the time it has been, and they [the younger players] have got to come through this process. The team, as a group, has got to.
"It could be in my thoughts: ‘Do I leave him out?’ but then how do these young boys progress? They have to feel it, they have to live it and they have to survive it and come through it. My belief is they all will. And if they don't, they have to learn from that experience.”