It might not come across as the most ambitious response, but it’s certainly a responsible one.
Sheffield United will tonight get their League Cup campaign underway as they face Burnley. The League Cup is today seen as very much 4th choice on people’s priority list with a number of changes from both sides
Chris Wilder has already announced that there will be some changes to the Sheffield United team, as it looks as if he will be following that same mantra, focusing the vast majority of his attention on the Premier League.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference (via @The_Bladesman), Wilder spoke about what he hopes to accomplish this season, and he kept things relatively simple by laying out what his priority is going to be:
“We have to be realistic. Another season in the Premier League has to be our main aim. Establishing ourselves in the Premier League, what position? I haven’t got a crystal ball but certainly that has to be our aim.”
Should the Blades take the cup competitions seriously this year?
Yes
No
As I said, it’s not ambitious, but given Sheffield United as a club, it’s a pretty sensible approach to take. With this being our second season in the Premier League, we’re still not quite ‘established’ as a top flight side yet, and whilst we have been predicted to finish comfortably in mid-table, we’re still not quite there when it comes to what you’d expect a side like Newcastle United, Southampton, Everton and so on to have.
So for us to focus solely on a cup run at this stage of our development, possibly taking resources away from becoming that type of side in the Premier League would be foolish. Leave the cup run for now, let’s just make sure we don’t go backwards as a club before we can start looking for what kind of silverware we can be in the hunt for.
What about you? What do you make of Wilder’s comments about what we can achieve this season?