'What Leeds United did last season' - Chris Wilder makes startling admission amid Sheffield United return
Chris Wilder was sacked after missing out on promotion to Leeds United - but he’s back at Sheffield United already.
Chris Wilder name-checked Leeds United’s title-winning group when explaining how he needs his Sheffield United side to grind out results, having sensationally returned to Bramall Lane this week.
Wilder was sacked by Sheffield United in June despite guiding his side to 90 points and a Championship play-off final last season, losing only to an added-time Sunderland winner at Wembley. Bramall Lane chiefs opted to take the club in a different direction, with a heavy focus on data and the appointment of Ruben Selles, who had recently left Hull City.
But Selles’ stint got off to a terrible start, with Sheffield United bottom of the table and without a single point from five games, a dismal run that saw him axed over the weekend. Then in a surprising U-turn, the club’s owners returned to Wilder, who is now back in the dugout just two months after his exit.
Leeds fans might remember Sheffield United being far from their best for large parts of the 2024/25 campaign, albeit still coming away with three points to keep the promotion pressure on. And Wilder explained how he wants that same grit to resurface, with his side unable to play the kind of ‘champagne football’ many saw at Elland Road last season.
“I’ve always said, you look at the Championship and there’s maybe sort of 10 to 15 games where you play well,” Wilder said. “There’s a group in the middle there, maybe 10 to 15 games, and there’s a group of games where you don’t play well. It’s how you approach every game and how you get results.
“We’d all love to play champagne football and do what Leeds United did last season and play this free-flowing game with the players that they had. But that wasn’t the situation we were put in at the start of the season. And you have to grind out results and, by hook or by crook, gain those results through different qualities. We have the players to do everything here, to fight and to grind one out and to play decent football.”
Chris Wilder critical of Sheffield United squad after Leeds United admission
Despite losing a host of key players from last season, Sheffield United do still boast what many consider a strong Championship squad. The likes of Michael Cooper, Harrison Burrows, Sydie Peck and Gus Hamer are still on board at Bramall Lane but all have looked a shell of themselves from last season.
The Blades have also made a worrying habit of collapsing after going behind, losing 4-1 at home to Bristol City on the opening weekend before a 5-0 thumping at Ipswich Town last weekend proved to be the final straw for Selles. And Wilder pulled no punches in his assessment of the current squad’s performances.
“It’s certainly a position the owners weren’t expecting the club to be in, but we are,” Wilder added. “They are for a reason. And, as I said, the players have to have to accept some responsibility for that. Bottom of the league in duels, you know, bottom three or four in terms of running stats.
“The game doesn’t change. The fight in the players has to be shown and that shows that they’re not fighting. At the moment, they’re not running around. People can talk about the reasons why they’re not doing that, but first and foremost, I don’t compromise on those aspects of the game. And the top guys don’t compromise.”