Will Osula handed Iliman Ndiaye compliment as Sheffield United man primed for Prem chance

Will Osula has been handed the ultimate compliment ahead of a potential dream Premier League debut this weekend. The Sheffield United starlet could face Crystal Palace on Saturday with a number of fellow forwards missing, just over a week after turning 20.

A Denmark youth international, Osula has featured prominently in pre-season with fellow strikers Oli McBurnie, Rhian Brewster and Daniel Jebbison injured, while Iliman Ndiaye’s sale to Marseille earlier only cleared his path to the first-team further. Osula was unfortunate to end United’s warm-up schedule without a goal to his name, seeing a beautiful finish ruled out against Estoril and later hitting the bar in the same game, and away at Derby County.

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His pace and power mark him out as an uncomfortable player to face, at any level, and although there are still many raw elements for United’s staff, including striker coach Jack Lester, to work on, Osula will take great confidence from a ringing endorsement from George Baldock - who admitted recently that, apart from Ndiaye, Osula is probably United’s “toughest to mark when he’s running with the ball”.

“That’s for me, personally,” the Greece international added. “Jack works with him on stuff where he hasn’t got the ball with his feet or his back to goal, to work on. You can see when he gets someone squared up 1 v 1 he’s such a talent and he’s so young and so raw. Everyone needs to relax a little bit with Will and just let him improve.

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“I spoke to Richie Barker before the game at Derby, I know him from MK Dons and they had him here on loan last season, and said the same thing. Will can do things many players can’t do and now it’s just about fine-tuning the other part. In terms of goals, he scored a perfectly-good goal against Estoril that was a fantastic finish. I think we need to relax with him and let him improve.”

Osula endured an at-times frustrating loan spell with Derby last season and was recalled in January, with United open to looking him leave on a temporary basis again if they can bring in further reinforcements up front - or get their walking wounded back up to full speed.

“You saw the development from Iliman’s first and second season,” Baldock added. “I’m not going to put that kind of pressure on Will’s shoulders but those kind of players, just coming into the team, will improve just from being around the first team and training with the lads. They’re very fortunate to have the likes of Hecky, Stuart [McCall], Jack and Huds [Mark Hudson], because they’ll spend any given part of their day to help them. And that can only bode well for the young players.”