‘Is Billy Sharp dead?’ – Sheffield United fans react after Sky Sports pundit says the Blades need a striker

Speaking on Sky Sports News, former England international Smith asked whether the Blades have enough firepower in their ranks to earn promotion but also praised Chris Wilder’s signing of Gary Madine and the togetherness of his squad.

She said: “He’s got a real togetherness but I was thinking are they lacking a striker, an out and out striker? I know they have brought Madine in who could be the man for them, I know he scored two goals against Reading.

“So they seem to have brought somebody in that could score the goals for them because they seem to have everything else, they have the creativity, they have great football.

“But have they got somebody who is going to score a lot of goals that is going to get them promoted? Maybe they have that now.”

Sharp, who is the second-top Championship top scorer with 22 league goals in 30 appearances so far this season, also broke the record of the most goals scored by an English-born player in the Football League since the turn of the 21st century when he bagged his 220th goal on New Year’s Day.

He also marked 100 goals in a United shirt with his strike against Aston Villa earlier this month.

The 33-year-old leads a Blades front line consisting of David McGoldrick, Gary Madine, Conor Washington and Scott Hogan, who are the third highest scorers in the Championship this season with 58 goals – only behind league leaders Norwich (65 goals) and West Brom (67 goals).

And Smith’s analysis certainly confused Blades fans on Twitter.

Steve Kabba wrote: “Is Billy Sharp dead? #twitterblades”, while Tyler Simpson added: “So Billy and Didzy have 33 between them in the league, and we had everything but a goalscorer #clueless #twitterblades #sufc”.

Another Twitter user, James Hanwell, wrote: “And they wonder why some pundits get a hard time, this is ridiculous and just shows a lack of knowledge or a willingness to do some research.”