"The rebuild" - Chris Wilder drops exciting Sheffield United promotion claim | OneFootball

Top of the league probably isn't where the Blades expected to be at this point of the season.

Chris Wilder has been happy with his Sheffield United side's start to the season as they look to achieve their promotion hopes.

Those hopes of a top flight return certainly weren't present when the last campaign finished. A terrible term ended in relegation for the Blades, who forever cemented themselves, well, at least that version of United, as one of the worst teams in Premier League history.

Even without a takeover, which, despite some unexpected bumps in the road, is getting closer to completion, the club's fortunes have completely turned around, and they are now one of the favourites to go up.

Chris Wilder's Sheffield United promotion push claim

The month of November was a particularly strong one for the Blades. They won the Steel City derby, as well as five other games of the eight that they played, and ascended to the top of the Championship table.

This run has earned Wilder the league's Manager of the Month award for November, one that he believes also reflects what his players and colleagues have done over that time.

"This award is recognition for a lot of hard work from the players and the staff in the opening months of the season," the boss said, via The Star: "It seems that Blades fans have enjoyed the start to the campaign, including the fresh approach and attitude we have adopted."

Often, managers are reluctant to acknowledge the good work that they have done early in the season, probably for fear of jinxing what is to come. But Wilder reflected well on the first 20 league games of the campaign.

He said: "The rebuild of the squad has been talked about numerous times. What needs to be taken into consideration is that this is a new group, providing a new dynamic, which includes the lads who were here last season. There’s still a lot of work to do but the signs are good."

Sheffield United will need a good January in order to maintain their momentum

Every team is going to have some sort of dip at some point in any season. We saw it last term. Even with the quality of the four clubs competing for the top two spots, all of them had slip-ups at various points.

It's inevitable, you just need to make sure that you have the wherewithal to come back from it. United have a lot of quality in their squad, but they don't often win games comfortably.

Their defence, as good as it has been, is leaned on heavily. There is reason to think that this way of playing might not hold up for a whole season. Adding more attacking firepower could be key to making the run-in a much smoother one for the Blades as they hunt down the automatic promotion spots.