Chris Wilder should consider Sheffield United U-turn – It's landed him huge success at Bramall Lane | OneFootball

Sheffield United have started very badly, but Chris Wilder has experience in ensuring a switch of system can transform their form.

It has been a woeful start to the season for Sheffield United after what had been a fairly bizarre summer, and now they will hope that the return of Chris Wilder can spark another revolution at Bramall Lane – and there is a path already set by him that he could follow.

The Blades finished third last season and missed out on promotion to the Premier League by losing the play-off final to Sunderland in dramatic circumstances.

United then parted company with Wilder, who was in his second stint in charge in South Yorkshire, and replaced him with former Hull City and Reading boss Ruben Selles.

A 5-0 annihilation at the hands of Ipswich Town at Portman Road at the weekend made it six defeats from six across all competitions for United, leaving them rock-bottom in the Championship and even behind arch-rivals and crisis club Sheffield Wednesday.

Selles, as a result, has been sacked by the club, and his replacement is none-other than the aforementioned Wilder, who is returning to the club for a third time since first appointment back in the summer of 2016.

The 2016/17 season is one what should be looked back on now, too, with a tactical change in that season seemingly perfect to fix the issues of the present day.

Chris Wilder should look to his Sheffield United past to fix the issues

At the start of the 2016/17 season, Sheffield United went with a back four setup, with Wilder opting to play a 4-4-2, deploying Chris Basham in the centre of midfield.

The Blades, into their sixth successive season in League One but still one of the pre-season favourites for the title, started the campaign with just one point collected from their opening four matches.

In their fifth league campaign of the season, they managed to edge past Oxford United by two goals to one at Bramall Lane, but the performance remained unconvincing and, as they made the trip down to Kent to face Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium, Wilder made a tactical switch.

Rather than the narrow 4-4-2, United switched to a 3-5-2 that would also often be a 3-4-1-2, with Basham moved to a right centre-back role, and the famous idea of the overlapping centre-backs had been born.

United were relentless for the rest of that season and eventually won the third-tier with 100 points before gaining promotion to the Premier League playing with the same system a couple of years later.

Wilder is a pragmatist and hasn’t always stuck by the same system, mainly playing with a back four, for example, last year, but, as a pragmatist, he is also very smart at identifying the best formation for his squad.

He got it wrong in the first month of that 2016/17 campaign, but his tactical change ensured that United propelled themselves back to where they believe they belong.

A similar tactical switch could be required, with United having started the 2025/26 season in a similarly sorry state under the management of Selles.

The current Sheffield United squad - shaped by Ruben Selles - would suit a Chris Wilder 3-5-2

In the tenth season since the first appointment of Wilder, Sheffield United’s squad would have to be viewed as being in a period of transition, and a little bit of a mish-mash, with veterans such as Ben Mee and Danny Ings brought in to compliment a side that saw several key departures over the summer and some unusual recruitment, continuing to scout in the Bulgarian top flight for new young recruits.

However, it may well be that they have built a squad seemingly ideal to play in a back three shape once again, and that is surely something that Wilder will identify.

The addition of Chiedozie Ogbene on a season-long loan deal from Luton Town means they have the ideal right wing-back to balance Harrison Burrows on the left, with Andre Brooks, Femi Seriki and Jamie Shackleton - none having previously been out and out wing-backs - seemingly ideal profiles to compete for those roles on either flank.

In the middle of the park, Gustavo Hamer had been shifted out-wide in a 4-2-3-1 last season and won the Championship Player of the Year, but he has had success playing in a similar system when at Coventry City, and he could even play in a 3-5-2 and so would be the player with the license to get closest to the front two. He could play alongside Tahith Chong, who has previously proven to be adept in the same system at Luton Town.

They have a plethora of underperforming striking options, such as Tom Cannon and Tyrese Campbell, to go with the experience of Danny Ings, and playing with two up-front, rather than one, would allow the underperformers to be under less pressure and responsibility to score in attack, whilst allowing a veteran such as Ings to simply do less running than as a lone attacker.

Their splurge towards the end of the window defensively also means that, despite the sale of Anel Ahmedhodzic to Feyenoord and loanees such as Harry Souttar, Rob Holding and Harry Clarke all returning to their parent clubs, United have a lot of depth in the centre of their defence, too.

A back three tends to require at least five but preferably six central defensive players and they now boast that in Japhet Tanganga, Ben Godfrey, Tyler Bindon, Ben Mee, Mark McGuinness and Nils Zatterstrom.

Mee, in particular, would surely likelier benefit from playing in a back three, as he did quite often for Brentford, and it would be a good way to protect the 35-year-old, whilst also ensuring he has a place in the eleven.

The squad looks unbalanced but that was exacerbated by Selles trying to play a system that just didn’t work either on paper or on the pitch for this group of players.