It's pretty much the same style and system now as the pre-Premier League Wilder seasons, so I'd say there's no difference. Heckingbottom is actually using Wilder's system anyway by his own admission, so it's still Wilderball really.
This is much better to watch than last season though and even a lot of the year before, at a lower level, obviously. It shows how wrong Wilder was to ditch Duffy and never play a creative player ever again for United. That was one of his main downfalls for me, possibly even more so than his £130m spunkfest.
I think what will ultimately distinguish one from the other is not tactics, as they are alike in that regard, but rather transfer strategy.
If Hecky can produce football of quality anywhere close to peak 'Wilderball' but with a better transfer strategy, then we're onto a winner.
Of course you could say that Wilder had much more resources to play with than Hecky but that's the point, he squandered much of that on players who were ultimately ineffective.
Any comments have to be with the context that Chris did an excellent overall job when you look at where we were and where he left us.
He was excellent in season one, good in season two though it was disappointing how we fell away when Coutts was injured especially as he was allowed to sign Leonard, Evans and had already signed Lundstram so his signings even then were not infallible. His next two seasons were remarkable and the last one a disaster. Most of the ire a number of us have is based on some of his antics towards the end where he blotter his copy book a little, especially the shifting of blame and lack of acknowledgement of his poor dealings post promotion.
Hecky has made a superb start. He has proven to be an ideal antidote to all the things wrong with the Slav era.
He is deploying the resources he has to excellent effect. Something that Slav didn't do, and that Wilder did do for all but the final year.
His interviews are refreshingly honest and coherent, humble and not about him at all. Contrasting with Slav is no comparison. The latter's were incoherent and hard to listen to. I used to like Wilder's interviews, especially when it was the Blade in him shining through but I wasn't much of a fan when he was either complaining or making it about him and the job he'd done. There was a lot where he spoke of getting the best of the budget he had and that sort of stuff clearly bigging up himself and playing down the level of backing. End of the day he was Sheffield United manager. He was allowed to break the club's transfer record 6 times in little over 12 months (Freeman, Robinson, Mousset, McBurnie, Berge, Brewster). I think he should have been more grateful for that especially as there was a global pandemic of which he failed to ever really recognise the financial impact. He always seemed to appreciate the job Dyche does and he got no way near that level of backing.
Hecky seems far more measured in his comments and has handled the Sharp situation well despite the media trying to make trouble with their line of questioning. I'd get a bit ratty with them if they mentioned it again to be honest. He's made it clear it is a discussion for later when the future finances are clearer. Any more pressing from them is just mischief making plus United have an option anyway. Yes he'll stay but clearly there will be more in the pot should we go up than stay down.
His man management of Robinson has been very good too. He has held his nerve where many of us, myself included, would have blinked and left him out. As a result he's got a genuine rotational option there where he could have had a demotivated player out in the cold.
Transfers, I'm not against Davies or Goode and can see the logic and I admire his stance on not taking players where you are penalised for not playing them. Likewise he's been looking to offload the right players so no fault on his overall judgment. The sample size is too small to judge though.
Thoughts on his pre and post Prem signings is well documented. I will say that Wilder's selling was pretty poor. Firstly he failed to raise anything of note as a PL Manager and I'm sure he could have got money for Lundstram if he'd looked to sell in the summer and for a realistic fee.
Whilst we always argue that ends justified the means with squad construction, it is a little galling to see Ramsdale, Adams and Calvert-Lewin all be almost given away for a million or so each and are worth well over 100m collectively. Hindsight is a lovely thing you can argue, but that shows a tremendous lack of foresight for them all to go on to be 30m+ players and for us to offload so easily. You do wonder whether he couldn't have made concessions elsewhere and kept them within his set up and the club fully benefited from their appreciated value. He will defend this with results quite rightly. But blooding Ramsdale while he was on low money vs spending half his fee on Moore and much much more in wages worked for a season yet there is no saying Ramsdale couldn't have worked both short and long term. Leon gave us great memories but then you do wonder how useful having Calvert-Lewin and Adams would have worked out; imagine how an 80m+ strike force would have been useful last season! It could certainly have saved us lavishing 17m on McBurnie and either 7m on Robinson or 10m on Mousset. I suppose you don't make an omelet without breaking any eggs but the management did a poor job of recognising their potential.
Back to Hecky. To an extent, he's landed on his feet a little with the job and potential of the club to an but he did a decent audition in trying circumstances last season and I like how he's been happy to give Jebbison a run last season and N'Diaye this. His ability to handle young players seems good. I'm not overly convinced this was Wilder's strong point. We should have perhaps seen far more of Brooks during Wilder's time if he'd acknowledged his abilities sooner.
Encouraging signs for Hecky. I just hope he gets the bit of luck you need. He's shown himself capable of making brave calls. Fingers crossed he continues to reap the benefits. God knows we've suffered enough over the years!
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