Ollie Burke backed to play huge role in Sheffield United survival challenge ahead of Man City clash

And now, with the other side of Manchester providing Sheffield United with an even greater challenge this afternoon, the Scotland international will be looked to, to produce even more heroics.

Burke had taken a while to really get going at Bramall Lane but the last few games, which eventually reaped his first Blades league goal in midweek, have shown how important he can be as United attempt to pull themselves up off the bottom of the table.

And a man who has worked with the much-travelled forward knows a way of getting the best out of Burke.

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Andy Reid, who saw a young Burke come through at Nottingham Forest at the tail end of the Republic of Ireland international’s career, says the mantra should always be ‘keep it simple.’

"He's fantastically quick and he runs in a straight line and he understands how to hurt the space in behind and he makes decent runs,” Reid said on BBC Radio 5Live this afternoon in the build-up to United’s clash with Man City.

"You have to make it simple for him. You don't want to make things complicated, getting him dropping into pockets and making it difficult for him to understand.

"What we tried to do - I was just finishing at Forest and doing a little bit of coaching towards the end - what you need to try and do with Ollie is focus on what he can do and what he can't do.

"If you focus on defensive play and tracking back, and I know that you need to do that in the Premier League, but focus on his real strengths and that is, he will get your team up the pitch.

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"If you are playing in a low block and not really gaining that much territory, when you win the ball back he will hurt the space in behind or if he drops a little bit deeper, he will get your team up the pitch. That's the real strength of Ollie.

"It seems to me like, it took a while for Chris Wilder, maybe he had the ideas in his head and was working it slowly, but it looks like he's started to understand what Ollie is all about no and Ollie is starting to understand what Chris Wilder wants an what this team needs. I think he's been a big factor in their upturn recently."

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