Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder hints at a change of approach ahead of his team's Premier League opener against Wolves

Beautifully chaotic in fact, as attackers charge about like overexcited children and bewildered defenders forget how to defend. What emerges usually makes for compelling viewing. If you are a neutral observer at least.

Managers watch the game through a different lens, however. Rather than being a joy to behold, in coaching circles the product of confusion and pandemonium is taken as a sign that something has gone badly wrong during the week, when players, particularly those operating at Premier League level, are likely to have spent hours being briefed on systems and strategies.

“It’s a bit like a game of chess at times,” Chris Wilder told journalists on Thursday morning. “That’s probably the best way to describe it. Everything, well what we like to think as everything, gets thought about and talked about.”

Tomorrow evening, when Sheffield United begin their new season with a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wilder and his opposite number Nuno Espirito Santo, will regard it as their responsibility to bring structure and order to the game. United, whose pioneering take on the 3-5-2 formation won them an army of new admirers en route to a ninth placed finish last term, encourage displays of imagination. But only within a clearly defined and well rehearsed framework which, Wilder implied during his most recent media briefing, has undergone a series of subtle adjustments over the past few weeks.

“We all pinch ideas,” he acknowledged. “We all nick bits and pieces off each other, and I’m not afraid or ashamed to say that.

“Everyone has their own ideas on how to go about things but you also look at what other teams are doing and think ‘That’s good. I wonder if we could work that or do something similar?’ That’s how it happens and that’s the process we all go through.”

“Everyone in this business will have sat down at the end of the season and looked at what they did over the course of it,” Wilder continued. “We’ve certainly done that, and talked about what went well and just as importantly what didn’t work well, what we’d like to do differently. Then you wouldn’t be doing your job if you didn’t try and put that right.”

Although Wilder has ruled out any radical changes - “We’ve got a way of doing things we think suits us” - past experience suggests the meeting with Wolves is likely to see United unveil a slightly different shape to the one they employed so successfully after being promoted from the Championship 17 months ago.

Back then, as they plotted a course out of the second tier, Wilder positioned his most physically powerful midfielders directly in front of United’s three centre-halves; providing Mark Duffy, who used finesse rather than muscle to prise apart opposition defences, with a licence to roam forward.

After reaching the top-flight, and parting company with the Liverpudlian, Wilder decided United would require more muscle in this area of the pitch. John Lundstram, previously tasked with shielding his rearguard, was nudged upfield and duly excelled while John Fleck’s position was also tweaked.

After poring over footage of United’s last 38 outings, and studying events during pre-season games against Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian, Derby County and Preston North End, the way Wilder has reshaped his squad over the summer provides some clues to his intentions.

“At the beginning of last season, we were seriously looking at going with a three up top in quite a few matches,” he said, having brought six new faces to Bramall Lane and allowed Callum Robinson and Luke Freeman to depart.

“Callum could come in from out wide and we saw Luke slotting in there, possibly if we moved things about towards the end (of a game) at the start as well. Or he could come in just behind the two.

“But as things went on, and we were getting good results, there didn’t seem to be any point in changing things. What we were doing was working and so we didn’t go with it.

"In that sense, Callum and Luke have been a bit unfortunate, because they didn’t get the opportunities they’d have liked and we genuinely thought they would get, not through anything they’d done wrong but because of how things panned out and evolved.

"We decided we needed a few different qualities, so that’s what we’ve tried to bring in and I think we have.”

Although moves for Aaron Ramsdale, Wes Foderingham, Max Lowe and Jayden Bogle were designed to fill obvious gaps within the squad and greater competition, the arrival of Oliver Burke and Ethan Ampadu, the latter being signed on loan from Chelsea, appear to provide United with greater flexibility.

Burke’s pace and presence should be assets in attack while Ampadu, who turns 20 tomorrow, is comfortable in either defence or midfield thanks to his excellent eye for a pass.

“There’s options,” Wilder noted. “Some of those are ones we didn’t have before.”

Nuno also has a number of fresh faces at his disposal, having recruited Fernando Marcal, Vitor Ferreira and Fabio Silva who, despite being only 18-years-old, commanded a £35m fee when he left Porto.

“You wouldn’t believe the level of planning and analysis that goes on now,” Wilder said. “The thought and planning that goes in, especially at Premier League level, is immense.

“We’ve studied them and they’ll have studied us. Soon it’s going to be time to try and put all of that to use.”

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