Sheffield United have signed Jairo Riedewald to be a calming influence
Chris Wilder believes Jairo Riedewald can be the calming influence Sheffield United's midfield needs after a tough start to the season.
The Blades have picked up former Crystal Palace player Riedewald on a free transfer after he was released by Royal Antwerp at the end of last season.
His knowledge of English football will be important to hit the ground running, but it is his influence on those in the team's engine room Wilder sees as most pressing.
"If you look at the middle of the park, we've got three really young players at the moment – Sydie (Peck), Alex (Matos) and Diji (Djibril Soumare)," he argues.
"Tom Davies has had his issues from an injury and availability point of view, and Oli Arblaster's 21-22, so an incredibly inexperienced group of players there for a really important part of the pitch.
"I've gone on record saying that needs bulking up and I think everybody recognises that.
"With the inexperience you don't sometimes get the consistency.
"There were six or seven things we looked at from Jai's point of view.
"One was his availability, two was his experience, three was his quality, four he was at Palace for six or seven years and you don't play at a Premier League club if you're not a good player.
"Another was obviously the injury situation there and another was the inexperience of the department
"The seventh was his character which, as you'll understand from my point of view Is incredibly important.
"The only (concern) is his match minutes but he's a fit guy (who's) looked after himself, so we're looking forward to working with him.
"He's kept himself fit. It's a situation we've had with Danny Ings, with Ben Mee, with a couple of other players that have come in late but he's equipped himself well.
"We've covered everything From the sports science point of view, we've given him a big MOT and he's come up positive.”
Arblaster was a talismanic figure when he broke into the first team, but suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage last autumn. The hope is that he might return to the first team next month.
"I should imagine he'll be coming back into first-team training in maybe the next 10 days so I think we will be looking maybe to come back in after the next international break or maybe a week or two afterwards,” said Wilder.