Sheffield United will get even better – Oliver Norwood

OLIVER NORWOOD thinks the best is yet to come from Sheffield United now players are starting to find their feet.
Oliver Norwood. Picture: Simon Bellis/SportimageOliver Norwood. Picture: Simon Bellis/Sportimage
Oliver Norwood. Picture: Simon Bellis/Sportimage
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Manager Chris Wilder had asked his summer signings to be patient but is now starting to reap the rewards, with centre-forward Lys Mousset having a hand in all three goals at the weekend, in addition to the three he has scored himself.

Mousset was the only exception in the starting line-up which destroyed Burnley 3-0 on Saturday. The other 10 all played for them in last season’s Championship. The nine players signed in the last transfer window have just 17 Premier League starts between them – and eight of those belong to Callum Robinson, plus five to fellow forward Oli McBurnie.

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Midfielder Norwood, who joined in August 2018, says the new signings have had to go through an acclimatisation process.

“When you first come to the club you don’t actually realise the demands on you from the fans,” he said.

“They expect 100 per cent every single week and they expect you to win, which is massive. That’s a pressure in itself.

“The lads who’ve come into the club are starting to find their feet, Lys in particular, and it takes time to bed into new football clubs. That’s why I think there’s more to come from us because once people find their feet and the way we play is quite unique, quite difficult at times to get used to.

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“But we work hard on the training ground and everyone’s starting to find their feet now.

“I think you’ll see us developing as a team and kicking on,” he added.

United are sixth in the Premier League, with Mousset scoring in the October matches against West Ham United and Arsenal to add to September’s at Everton.

Since moving to the Premier League with Bournemouth in 2016, he has never scored four times in a season, but has had a hand in a goal for every 42 minutes he has been on the field in 2019-20.

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Manchester United youth product Norwood says he was fortunate when he first moved to Bramall Lane that the team had to adapt more to him as a deep-lying playmaker than the other way around.

“As soon as I got here it was home,” he recalled. “I’ve never felt as settled at a football club as I do here.

“With being successful last season and we want to be even more successful this season.

“When I was brought in everything went through me so the way we played suited me and I’d worked with Knillly (assistant manager Alan Knill) before at Scunthorpe as a young lad so I knew their mentality and how they wanted to work. It suited me and it suited them.”

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Son Heung-min will be able to face the Blades in Saturday’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after successfully appealing his red card at Everton on Sunday. The force of the forward’s challenge broke and dislocated Andre Gomes’s ankle at the weekend, much to the Korean’s obvious distress. Replays showed the Portuguese midfielder got his foot stuck in the turf.

Gomes was discharged from hospital yesterday following a successful operation.

West Yorkshire official Martin Atkinson initially showed Son a yellow card, but changed it to a red after the tackle was reviewed by the video assistant referee.

Captain Harry Kane missed the trip to Goodison with a virus, but could return in Wednesday’s Champions League match at Red Star Belgrade.

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McBurnie and John Fleck have been called into Scotland’s squad for their Euro 2020 qualifiers in Cyprus and Kazakhstan.

Midfielder Fleck, who scored the Blades’ third goal in Saturday’s 3-0 win at home to Burnley, made his international debut in Russia last month.

Defeat that day means Scotland can no longer finish in the top two, giving manager Steve Clarke some scope for experimentation, but they are guaranteed a place in next March’s play-off courtesy of their exploits in the Nations League.

Mo Besic, on loan from Everton, has been called up by Bosnia and Herzegovina, who face Italy and Liechtenstein.

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John Egan, Enda Stevens, Callum Robinson and David McGoldrick are in the Republic of Ireland’s provisional squad for their all-important qualifier at home to Denmark.

Meanwhile, former chairman Kevin McCabe has confirmed he plans to take his long-running ownership dispute with Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz al Saud to the Court of Appeal.

In September the High Court ordered Prince Abdullah to buy McCabe’s 50 per cent stake in the club for £5m. The lifelong Blades fan had been hoping to buy the Saudi prince out for the same amount after they fell out in 2017.

In addition to McCabe’s shareholding, Prince Abdullah is required to purchase Bramall Lane, the Sheffield United hotel and the club’s Shirecliffe training ground from McCabe’s Sheffield United Ltd company.