WILDER WAY IS PERFECT FIT FOR STEVENS
ENDA Stevens has never seen anything quite like the attacking nature of boss Chris Wilder.
But, with Sheffield United flying high and in with a chance of promotion, the Irish full-back isn’t going to be complaining any time soon.
The Blades have consistently flirted with the top two spots in the Championship this season. Their free-flowing football has caught many by surprise in their first season back in the second tier.
But for Stevens, who signed from Portsmouth in May, this is a team keen to keep pushing forward in more ways than one.
“It’s good to be around the positivity and the way he (Wilder) goes about playing football,” he said.
“He just wants us on the front foot for the whole game. That’s positivethinking and gives us great chances to be winning every game.
“I’m learning the system as the game goes on and enjoy playing in the team.
“I didn’t expect the lads to be this good when I came in. And, when you see it up close, you can see how good we actually are.
“We always had an expectation of achieving something this season.”
This is not the first time Stevens has played under Wilder. He was previously on loan with Northampton in 2014 when struggling to break into the Villa squad.
And the 27-year-old, who helped Portsmouth to League Two promotion last term, cannot stress enough how important that stint with the Cobblers was for his development.
“He helped me along in a tough situation,” he added.
“I was stuck at Villa with some contract issues and not playing games.
“I was almost rotting away and rightly so because I wasn’t good enough to get in the team.
“He just told me to go and play games and concentrate on my football and it would happen.”