Wilder: My players want more now
CHRIS WILDER has demanded even more from his Sheffield United side after seeing them climb up to fifth in the Premier League table. The Blades moved into the guaranteed Europa League position after coming from behind to beat Bournemouth. But boss Wilder has told his team they must not rest on their laurels and has urged them to continue the push for Europe. ‘I’m not a comfortable manager, we are not a comfortable team,’ said Wilder. ‘We want more. The players are saying the same things. ‘They are not just saying it for me to hear, they want more out of their season and I am right behind that.’
Sheffield captain and goalscorer Billy Sharp revealed: ‘We’re just looking above us and trying to catch them now. We just want to keep grinding out performances.’ United now have a fortnight off before their next game at home to Brighton and will spend the break in Dubai, where they travelled last night. But Wilder said: ‘I don’t agree with the break, I wanted to roll on. I don’t really see the point of it at this time. Players are fit and healthy and they want to go again.’ Wilder was booked in the second half of yesterday’s game for pushing Bournemouth’s Andrew Surman, who also received a yellow card, and the pair had to be separated by fourth official Lee Mason. ‘It’s a passionate game and I am a passionate manager,’ said Wilder. ‘Their player thought I had the ball behind my back and I didn’t. ‘I had no problem with the booking. I just want to win. They want to win, Andrew Surman wants to win. It would be disappointing if people didn’t show those sort of emotions.’ Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe added: ‘It was a misunderstanding. I have no problem with Chris.’
For Howe, it will be a long two weeks as his side are only two points above the bottom three and could find themselves in the relegation zone after the winter break. ‘It is really hard to go into the break with the feeling that we’ve got now,’ Howe admitted. ‘The last two results gave us real hope that we could change the momentum of our season and this is a dent in that. ‘We can’t waste games. It is going to be too tight down at the bottom of the league this year. ‘We know the scrap that we are in and these games are pivotal — you have got to come away with something.’