Sheffield United made it back to the Premier League after a two-year spell in the second tier, but it is going to be even more difficult for them to remain in the English top-flight.
How the team did last season
Sheffield United started the 2022/23 campaign in the Championship as one of the favourites to make the play-offs following a fifth-place showing the season before. They finished the campaign in second place with 91 points.
Their promotion was built on the foundations of a good start. They lost their opener to Watford (1-0) but then went on a 10-match unbeaten run, picking up 24 points. In fact, the Blades kept putting together decent blocks of form. For example, across November and December, they won eight of nine matches and this overlapped another 10-game unbeaten streak. They also finished the season with nine wins from 12.
They did fairly well against promotion rivals. For example, they romped to a 5-2 win over Burnley at home, beat Sunderland in both fixtures and beat Coventry at Bramall Lane. Their form against the bottom five is what it needed to be though. So many teams drop silly points in these games but Paul Heckingbottom’s men lost just one of their ten matches.
Star of the show for the Blades was Iliman Ndiaye. He was the club’s top scorer with 14 and he also topped the charts for assists (10). However, it was Oliver Norwood who claimed the highest average rating of the campaign (7.63). The midfielder created 82 chances across the season and finished with an Expected Assists total of 9. He was the man pulling the strings in the middle third. One interesting metric to note was that no player in the entire league averaged more successful tackles than Max Lowe (2.7)
What has happened during the summer?
Reports had seemed to suggest Ndiaye would get the iconic No.10 jersey at Bramall Lane and then Marseille came calling. The Blades ‘reluctantly’ accepted the bid for the 23-year-old and allowed him to sign for his boyhood club. While Sheffield United did receive a fee rumoured to be in the region of £15million, and this is going to be reinvested in the squad, this is going to be a blow to their survival hopes.
After all, he was their main man last term.
The club haven’t done much in the transfer market yet but they have made some signings. Auston Trusty, a centre-back, joined from Arsenal while Bénie Traoré, a centre-forward, moved from Häcken in Sweden. Sheffield United continued their Scandinavian raid by signing midfielder Anis Slimane from Brøndby.
They have also brought in Troyes full-back Yasser Larouci on loan.
Their squad has been strengthened but is it Premier League ready?
What they should be aiming for next season?
It isn’t glamorous and expectations, in an ideal world, should be much higher, but Premier League survival should be the aim. Anything more is a bonus.
This is Heckingbottom’s debut campaign as a manager in the top-flight and a lot of these players won’t have top-flight experience either, so it is going to be interesting to see how the squad copes with the demands and rigours of the Premier League, especially given this is still primarily a Championship squad. A talented squad at that, but still a second tier group.
Prediction
19th.
(Images from IMAGO)
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