Inside Sheffield United's plan to turn pain into promotion push after pre-season "pressure" admission
Sheffield United believe last season's frustrations have provided valuable lessons rather than a reason for wholesale change, with captain Japhet Tanganga insisting the focus has been on improving rather than starting again.
Sheffield United could have spent the summer dwelling on a below-par Championship campaign. Instead, the message to Chris Wilder's squad has been clear - understand exactly what went wrong, learn from it and make sure it never happens again.
Not that there has been a tear-it-up-and-start-again approach taken at Shirecliffe this summer. Far from it. For all the frustration of last season, there were positives too.
United, for a period, were the form team in the division. Many of their underlying statistics compared favourably with the rest of the division. The stat that matters most is always the scoreline, but the data suggested United weren’t a million miles away.
The focus this summer has been evolution, rather than revolution. Help is still expected to arrive via the transfer market but this week in Valencia, which ended with a 2-1 win over Levante on Friday, has been viewed as a key opportunity to nudge standards higher, both physically and mentally.
“This is a club that should be playing in the Premier League,” said skipper Japhet Tanganga, “and that’s our aim. Last season wasn’t good enough and our main focus is to do better and get into that top eight.
“That’s the minimum. We had conversations at the bac end of last season and then as soon as we came through the door this summer, the focus was on improving. People talk about taking time and growing into pre-season.
“But I think how you go about it sets the standard for going into the first game, and into the season. So it's been homed in. We know what’s expected, even if it brings a bit of pressure.
“But I think that's important because that's where we are. We're playing for a top-end Championship club that should be in the Premier League, and that's what we've got to deal with.
“It’s a privilege, playing under that pressure. We learned a lot about ourselves in tough moments and now we know more about ourselves going into the new season. We know what went wrong. We know the mistakes we made.
“The aim now is to rectify those and make sure that whent he first game comes, we start quickly out of the blocks. That we challenge, and get promotion.”