Taking every little advantage that we can get.
That could be the thing that puts Sheffield United ahead when it comes to completing the end of the Premier League season, assuming that the season does indeed get finished.
Speaking on yesterday’s episode of The Sunday Supplement, The Times’ Alyson Rudd spoke about the one factor that will give the Blades a major advantage when and if football does return, and it all surrounds the man in the dugout, Chris Wilder.
“Now is the time I think for managers, like Chris Wilder has done, to sort of get in that buoyancy from the start. ‘Yeah, we’re ready, we want to play’. It’s going to be difficult for some teams to go into matches where their club and their manager and everyone around them has been on the more hesitant side”.
This follows the lines that I spoke about last week, prompted by a comment made by a fellow Vital Blades member, but I think that the point more people are picking up on the idea really is an encouraging sign.
Are you a fan of Chris Wilder's attitude here?
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You really can’t underestimate what big a difference the mental side of the game will make in a situation like this. With players like Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero showing a resistance to coming back, potentially because there’s not really a lot left to fight for for them, unlikely to win the league and comfortably inside a Champions League place. Compare that to us who are going to be fighting tooth and nail to achieve something potentially right up until the final weekend of the season.
It’s not just Wilder that is of the opinion too, when you hear players like George Baldock talking about the sacrifices that he’d be willing to make in order to get the season over, you can tell that this isn’t just one man speaking this view, but that it’s a mentality that flows throughout the squad.
And when push comes to shove, that could be the crucial difference that put us over the top in some games.