Sheffield United Football Club

2018-19 Championship Finish: 2nd place (Promotion)

2019-20 Premier League Prediction: 20th place

Transfers In:

Oliver McBurnie FW - Swansea City £20,000,000

Lys Mousset FW - AFC Bournemouth £10,000,000

Ravel Morrison MF - Ostersunds FC, Free Agent

Phil Jagielka DF - Everton, Free Agent

Luke Freeman MF - Queen Park Rangers, Undisclosed

Callum Robinson FW - Preston North End, Undisclosed

Ben Osborn MF - Nottingham Forest, Undisclosed

Transfers Out:

Paul Coutts MF - Fleetwood Town, Free Agent

Martin Cranie DF - Luton Town, Free Agent

Daniel Lafferty DF - Free Agent

Caolan Lafferty FW - Free Agent

Conor Washington FW - Heart of Midlothian, Free Agent

I just want to start off by apologizing to Sheffield United fans for picking your team to finish last in the Premier League, but it had to happen to somebody. I am actually pulling for Sheffield to have a good season and survive as well. So Sheffield United are in the Premier League for the first time since the 2006-07 season. Since then, Sheffield United have split time between the Championship and even in the third tier of English football, League One. When Sheffield’s current coach, Chris Wilder, took over in 2016, they were playing in the third tier of England. Wilder led them to promotion to the Championship in his first season and it only took him two seasons in the Championship before gaining promotion to the Premier League. As you can tell, Wilder’s tenure at the helm of Sheffield United has been a major success thus far. But now the question is how will Wilder and his team fare in the biggest league in the world? I obviously have Sheffield finishing in their worst case scenario spot, dead last. Best case scenario for Sheffield United is surviving relegation and I can’t see them finishing much higher than 14th.

Strength:

Enda StevensCredit: The42 — Enda Stevens
Credit: The42

It’s always tough to know how teams will translate into the Premier League but their is no denying that Sheffield United had one of the best defenses in the Championship division last year. Sheffield United only gave up 41 goals in 46 games last season, which was tied for best in the league and is very impressive. Any time your goals conceded is fewer than the number of games played, you had a really good defense. Last year Sheffield were led by a core of essentially 5 players on defense. Enda Stevens lined up at left-back for all 46 Championship games. Jack O’Connell and John Egan paired up for 40+ games as the team’s center backs. And then the one position that did split some time was George Baldock and Kieron Freeman at right-back. Granted you have to give the nod to Freeman for scoring 16 goals as a defense-man, right? Sheffield United retains all 5 of those players and they added the veteran Phil Jagielka, who returns to Sheffield United since his departure from the club following the 2006-07 season. I talked about Jagielka a little bit in my Everton review, but the man is a club legend at Everton. He will soon be 37 yrs old, so i’m not sure how much playing time he will actually get but he should be able to provide great leadership and coaching to the rest of the squad.

Weakness:

Jagielka, by far the most experienced player in the squad.Credit: Sport24 — Jagielka, by far the most experienced player in the squad.
Credit: Sport24

Inexperience in the Premier League. On paper, this team looks solid all around. They were great on defense and in attack last year. They also added some forwards via transfers so far, so there isn’t really too big of a glaring weakness in the squad, other than the fact that hardly anyone has Premier League experience. Going through the squad there is a handful of players at most that have even appeared in a Premier League match. Sheffield’s two new additions, Lys Mousset and Phil Jagielka, are the only players in the squad that have played in the Premier League on a regular basis. Jagielka of course has played in over 300 Premier League games with Everton. Mousset has played 58 games in his 3 seasons at Bournemouth. Other than that, pretty much nothing. All these players have been in the Championship or League One for pretty much their entire careers. So it’s really great to all these guys finally get their chance to play at the top level, but in the end I think that inexperience is going to be their downfall.

Top Goalscorer Predictions:

Billy Sharp: 12 goals

Oliver McBurnie: 8 goals

David McGoldrick: 5 goals

Home Kit: Big fan of everything about this home kit. From the red and whites stripes, to the black stripes on the shoulder, as well as the sponsor. Everything about it is great. Definitely top 5 jersey review so far.