Chris Wilder says Leeds United were promoted playing “champagne football” last season thanks to the talented squad they had - something that Sheffield United lacked, he argues.
Wilder returned as Blades manager on Tuesday just three months after being dismissed and replaced by Ruben Selles, who has since been sacked after losing all five of his Championship games. This is Wilder’s third stint at Bramall Lane.
The 57-year-old has been the subject of taunts from the United faithful, in part fuelled by his “muppets from Leeds” comment in 2019. Wilder offered superlatives about Leeds’ way of playing during last season’s promotion race and held a phone call with Daniel Farke to congratulate him on going up.
Upon his first press conference back at the club, Wilder name-checked United when analysing last season and what he has to do to turn the tide in South Yorkshire. He said: “Football’s about winning games of football.
“I’ve always said, you look at the Championship and there’s maybe sort of 10 to 15 games where you play well. There’s a group in the middle there, maybe 10 to 15 games, and there’s a group of games where you don’t play well.
“It’s how you approach every game and how you get results. We’d all love to play champagne football and do maybe what Leeds United did last season and play this free-flowing game with the players that they had.
“But that wasn’t the situation that we were put in at the start of the season. And you have to grind out results and, by hook or by crook, gain those results through different qualities. We have the players to do everything here to fight and to grind one out and to play decent football.”
Here at LeedsLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the bestLeeds Unitedcoverage and analysis.
Make sure you don't miss out on the latest Leeds news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clickinghereto subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Clickhereto be sent all the day's biggest stories.