Chris Wilder outlines key improvement Sheffield United's players must make ahead of next season
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has said his players must produce a big physical improvement after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Wrexham all but killed their already faint play-off hopes.
Despite taking the lead through Andre Brooks’ sixth Championship goal of the season, United saw the game taken away from them via Wrexham attackers Josh Windass and Sam Smith, meaning they are now 13 points behind sixth-placed Southampton with just seven games left to play.
The Blades, who are now 17th in the table, were once again guilty of letting their lead slip, meaning they have now lost 11 points from winning positions in their last six matches. They have dropped 27 points from winning positions across the course of the season.
Despite United, who will resume their campaign with a Good Friday clash against Swansea City on the other side of the international break, remaining determined to finish the season as strongly as possible, much of their focus will soon switch to the summer ahead and drawing up plans for a much better 2026/27 campaign.
Boss Wilder has often stressed the importance of him being allowed to oversee key changes during the summer to try and make up for the hierarchy’s mistakes ahead of this season. Although new signings will be a big part of United’s work, Wilder has stressed the importance of getting a full pre-season with his current crop of players to try and increase their physical levels.
“We will take the season deep in terms of the attitude of the players,” Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield. “I am not criticising any of them, I think they left everything out there even though I will say, physically, there is so much more improvement that we need to put into the players with a big pre-season coming up.
“I can’t be making physical substitutions. The boys can’t be running out of gas in terms of the way we want to play; we have to go the distance.
“That sort of optimises where we are. We will go to the end, we will go to Derby, we will do our best. But doing your best... there is more to it, and they found a way to win a game of football. They [Wrexham] have got that knowhow and they were better in both boxes.”