8 games in, and the Division is starting to take shape, so it is now a good chance to have a look at what Chris Wilder has done so far, and have a look at what we can expect to happen this season.
First of all it is worth pointing out that 8 games in we are no better off or worse off points wise than we was 8 games in to last season. The one thing that is marginally better is this season we seem to have got three of the toughest away fixtures we will be likely to face out of the way early on, and with Scunthorpe doing well this season and looking likely to be amongst the front runners, another very difficult fixture is looming.
What is also apparent is that this is still a squad that is taking shape, playing a totally different brand of football as what we did last season, playing a more aggressive brand of football, and defensively the only defender that remains from last season is Kieron Freeman, and the rest are all new arrivals.
The turnover of the playing squad has been drastic, with several key players from last season no longer at Bramall Lane, and a lot of the replacements have been very much a unknown quantity, and it has been a high risk strategy that could be very rewarding as a new side takes shape, but it could also have been potentially disasterous but in Wilders defence he has made those decisions based on what he will have seen, and it is well known that he is a lifelong Blade and he will have taken a lot of passing interest in the past and this will have formed a lot of the basis of his judgement.
During the close season the axe he wielded was very impressive, releasing 10 players and slamming another 10 players on the transfer list, but he also stipulated that out of those on the transfer list, the door wasn't completely closed on any of them, apparently giving them a clear signal that if they knuckled down and began performing there will still be a chance of a future at Bramall Lane. A lot of the players released were players who had been here too long and it was apparent that they weren't good enough for what we needed and I don't think anyone is missing the likes of Mark Howard, Jay McEveley, Ryan Flynn, JCR, Terry Kennedy and several others who left during the summer. We simply had to change the perpetually underperforming old guard, this is also something Nigel Adkins can take some small amount of credit for as he also shifted on a lot of the deadwood during his reign. Michael Higdon for starters. The outgoings list that he released during the summer wasn't exhaustive as we have seen 3 more players depart under different circumstances. John Brayford off to Burton on a season long loan after it was abundantly clear that his heart wasn't in it at Bramall Lane any more, Che Adams in a big money move to Birmingham, after it became clear that he wanted the move, and also amidst several rumours of him being a divisive character in the dressing room and off the field conduct not befitting of a professional football, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin departing in a speculative move to Everton.
Wilder has also been busy in the recruiting with several players incoming during the same timeframe, in fact to the extent that he has almost totally rebuilt the squad. I think he saw this as necessary because the squad at times didn't seem to be pulling in the same direction at times last season, and a lot of rumours abounded that there was two different cliques within the squad, one of Adkins players, and another consisting of players who had been brought in by Nigel Clough. It seems clear that because of the two different factions at play, he felt the need to bring the squad together and make them his own team as early as possible. It was always inevitable that at least one or two signing might not be as successful as he hoped, whilst others would bed in straight away and add to the squad. The most impressive thing was the absolutely ruthless way he dealt with Dean Hammond, I still feel angry with the way he acted with a complete lack of class and dignity in activating his clause in his loan contract that triggered an automatic contract, it would have been abundantly clear to Hammond that he was no longer up to professional football any more and the way Wilder opened humiliated him and exposed his greed, and got him paid up said a lot about Hammond and a lot about the way Wilder will be managing.
The most impressive piece of business so far as been the signing of goalkeeper Simon Moore from Cardiff for a rumoured £500k, where he had been understudy under one of the Championships best goalkeepers David Marshall. Moore came in with a decent pedigree, he was an outstanding performer in a very good Brentford side who narrowly missed out on promotion in 2013, had moved to Cardiff in a big money move that hadn't quite worked out, and has all the key attributes that you want in a goalkeeper, strong, good on crosses, a decent shotstopper but what we have seen is a goalkeeper who communicates a lot more with his defence than George Long did, and instills a lot more confidence in his defence than George Long did, and I think this has began to shore up a defence that had previously been leaking goals. I'm not completely writing George Long off but it has to be hard to see how he can improve at Bramall Lane after over 100 games and not really developing as a top goalkeeper as many hoped he would. I genuinely think after poor performances and letting in sloppy goals at home to Rochdale and in the embarrassing drubbing at home to Southend that his time at the Lane might be up, and at this point in Longs career I would say that a change of scenery would do the player good at this stage of his career.
Defensively we have gone through quite an overhaul, we signed Hussey, Wilson, Wright, O'Connell during the summer, and have added since with the additions of Ethan Ebanks-Lendell and Danny Lafferty. Also three of the players who featured in the first 4 games haven't featured in the last few games. Brayford has gone to Burton, and Wilson and Hussey have been dropped from the side. The best defensive signing so far as been Jake Wright who has come from Oxford after a career in non-league and then with Oxford in League 2. He is very much a steady Eddie, but he brings a lot more to the team than the sum total of his attributes. He is an organiser, leads the back line well, and whilst he isn't particularly strong in the air, isn't great on the ball, it is his influence that has had a telling effect. O'Connell had a mixed start but has began picking up, he looks like a proper defender and will improve as the season goes on, whist Ebanks-Lendell looks strong and solid, he still looks young and raw and he is another than I feel confident will improve immeasurably during the season, and a player who I think could quite easily become the next cult hero at the Lane. Wilson is a solid and steady League One defender who add strength and cover in the defensive department. Down the left we have been weaker, as Hussey does appear to the worst signing of the newcomers, whilst Lafferty hasn't shone yet, but there is still a lot of time for either or both to come good. The biggest improvement so far in the squad has been Keiron Freeman, seemingly on his way out during the summer, only to come back in to the side after the Southend debacle to replace the outgoing Brayford, and I think his upturn in form has partially come from the change in formation to a formation that really suits his style of play, as he can get forward and still have some form of cover as during the past when he was played as a conventional right-back he would often be a defensive liability as he would often find himself totally exposed.
The change of formation leads me nicely on to midfield, which looks a lot better than it did last season. The new formation seems to really suit Chris Basham, who has been very much a bits and pieces player during his spell at the Lane. He is a player who could play in any position without seemingly mastering any, however his best role appears to be playing in midfield offering defensive cover to the back four and breaking up play and giving more of a free role to Paul Coutts and Mark Duffy. Like Freeman, Paul Coutts has been a revelation this season since he has come back in to the side. It is clear than in midfield that Basham plays a lot deeper than either Coutts and Duffy giving them freedom to concentrate on what they are good at rather than getting bogged down doing the donkey work than neither of them are suited to. There will always seem to be fitness issues with Coutts, especially as his previous injury seems to hamper him, he does offer something different with his ability with the ball, and his vision and range of passing is a lot better than anyone else we have. Duffy seems to have come in and settled in to the side straight away, he isn't the out and out winger that Ryan Flynn was, but is more of a right hand sided midfielder who is a lot more versatile than Flynn was, and represents an upgrade in this area. The signing of John Fleck has been a good one, although the reemergence of Coutts has limited his game time, there is a huge onus on Fleck and Stefan Scougall to come in to the side and add something from the bench and if they perform then it is clear to see there is the chance to come in and replace one of the other midfield three.
Up front we seem to have an attacking line up that is made up for 4 players who all offer something different. The focal point and the first name on the team sheet at the minute is Billy Sharp. He is the ideal player at this level, he is purely and simply and out and out poacher, and he is a clever player who gets in to all the right positions and the player who if he gets a half chance that you would feel the most confident about scoring. Matty Done is a versatile footballer who can play up front, but can play a number of different positions. He is an intelligent and adaptable footballer whose intelligence and clever play can work very well with Sharp, but he is also a good player to have up front as through his tireless running and sheer wholehearted effort gives a lot of credence to the theory that the first line of defence is attack. In reserve at the minute we have Leon Clarke who is a proper battering ram and someone who you would think could complement Sharp, and given time they could work very well together, although Clarke has got off to a slow start, I feel that he has to be given time and then he could perform. Perhaps the most intriguing signing has been Caolan Lavery from Wednesday. He has electric pace and he will be a player that will get the proverbial bums off of seats. What I think Wilder has done has build a strike force of 4 strikers, all of whom are interchangeable, the natural poaching of Sharp, the relentless energy and intelligence of Done, the power and strength of Clarke, and the raw pace of Lavery, in many ways this is reminiscent of Warnock who always used to have different attacking options up front according to what was required. This is always why McNulty leaving makes sense as he will score a lot of goals but will never make an effective partner for Sharp as they are too similar and Sharp is the better the player. I also think that the sale of Che Adams will be a great piece of business as in the signing of Lavery we more or less have a like for like replacement, I don't think Lavery has the potential that Adams did, but I think we have a more professional player and i think that Lavery will improve the squad more than Adams did.
I still think we are in a transitonal period. We got off to a really poor start that left me fearing the worst, but I think that the best thing we have seen so far is the willingness and acceptance of Chris Wilder to realise that things weren't working and to change things around and to try something different. We now appear to be a lot more resilient and defend and attack with a lot more purpose than we have done for quite a long period of time, however we don't seem to be reliant on one style of football and seem to be playing a lot less football that could be perceived as long ball football, but it does seem to be a lot more direct than we have seen for several years, as the ball is moved a lot more quickly in to a position of maximum opportunity than it does appear to have to in the past as the powers that be have tried and failed in their experiment to impose a brand of passing football that doesn't inspire the support at Bramall Lane.
For me, at the minute, i feel that we are at the start of a new era under Chris Wilder, even though we are 6th place at the minute, I don't think we are quite good enough for an automatic promotion slot at the minute even though we have hit a good run early on in the season, and it will be a season where we will be pushing for a play off slot and that will offer our best chance of promotion. I think we will still see some poor result and poor performances along the way, but this a team that has been transient in his nature, and has been a staging post for a hell of a lot of journeyman footballers in the past, but I think under Wilder we have now got a manager who is here for the long run, and will eventually leave us a few years in time in a position that is immeasurably better than amongst the also rans of League One where we have habitually been for the last 5 years. This is where we are, and it needs a long and lengthy rebuilding process and Wilder is than for the job. The board are still absentees who are clearly unwilling to put any more money in, so it is down to the shrewd management of the manager to drag ourselves out of the abyss, the support is still there but always sceptical because we have seen countless new dawns but yet always get disappoint which explains the reaction early on in the season after the Southend match, however all the Bramall Lane regulars have always been a knowledgable crowd, and I think that the general consensus will be that if we experience disappointment this season, that we will still be moving forwards and if we don't get promoted this season, we have a manager in place who we can feel confident in doing even better next season, which we didn't feel confident about with either Adkins or Clough. I don't know, we could even surprise this season and do it this year, but I get the feeling that if we stick with Wilder and give him our backing we will continue to improve and evolve and I think that even though progress might be slow, we might have finally got the right manager in charge
