Sheffield United's Vini Souza selection explained after Blades suffer Femi Seriki injury blow

Sheffield United’s shock 3-0 defeat at home to Hull City last night promoted question marks from supporters about why Vini Souza started on the bench, with left-back Harrison Burrows once again filling in in the middle of the park against the struggling Tigers. Souza came off the bench in the second half for his first appearance since Boxing Day, when he aggravated a hamstring issue he was already carrying.

He was named on the bench to start, we understand, because he was only able to play around 30 minutes on his comeback from injury and with boss Chris Wilder wary of the possibility of re-injuring one of United’s key men this season so far. Ben Brereton Diaz is still getting up to speed after his period of inactivity at Southampton while new signing Tom Cannon endured a frustrating debut after his move from Leicester City was confirmed on the eve of this game.

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“Would I have liked to start Vini today? Of course I would,” Wilder said. “Would I have liked to maybe got Ben up to speed a little bit quicker? Yeah. I’d have liked a few more days with Tom Cannon and for Tyrese [Campbell] to be able to play more than 45 minutes. But we have that opportunity now, to really be at our best at Derby and have a full week’s work in training.”

United suffered another blow before the game when Femi Seriki was ruled out with a tight calf after coming on at half-time of Tuesday night’s win at Swansea. “We’ve pushed a few,” Wilder added, “like Femi and Tom Davies, and unfortunately they've picked up little niggles. Just enough to leave us a little bit light.

“Yet again we've got a pretty inexperienced bench, with three of them that are not really going to get on. We didn't turn up tonight not to win, but I'll protect them and I'll back them because we've been absolutely outstanding.”