Why Hull City's start brings back Sheffield United memories for Oli McBurnie
Oli McBurnie has seen what good and bad starts to a Premier League season did for Sheffield United so he is pleased his Hull City team-mates took on board what he told them about its importance.
Thanks to Liam Millar’s goal at Coventry City, Hull have won their first two matches of the Premier League season, which only three other newly-promoted sides have done – one the 2016-17 Tigers.
They did not win again until Bonfire Night weekend, and were relegated but if this group can keep the momentum going a bit longer, McBurnie has seen where it can go.
The Blades lost one of their first five 2019-20 games, finishing ninth. The next season they did not win until the new year, and went down.
"Me and Eags (John Egan, a team-mate then and now) were speaking about it and if you actually compare them two seasons, there wasn't a lot in it at the start," argued McBurnie.
"At the start of the first season, we were nicking games 1-0, maybe a last-minute winner or a last-minute equaliser, and then at the start of the second season, we were losing 1-0.
"All of a sudden in the first season we've got eight points after five games, whereas in the second, we've got one and you're thinking how are we going to get a point from here?
"A good start was really important for us, and that's one thing that lads that had experienced it really reiterated to the other lads."
Hull are still looking at signings in a variety of positions but McBurnie is really pleased with the impact of those made so far.
"Having the mix of a couple of lads that know what the league's like and arguably have something to prove in it, but then having so many of the players with that fearlessness and almost naivety of not knowing what to expect, I think is a perfect balance," he commented.
"My first season at Sheff United we were naive probably, but we just went into every game thinking, 'Oh yeah, we can win this.'
"I feel like having lads that have never experienced it before and just are taking it in their stride is good for us lads as well. It kind of just brings us back down to, 'Oh yeah, it's just a game of football.'
"One of the reasons why we were so successful last year was because of the mentality and the leaders and the character we had in that dressing room.
"We lost a lot of that in the summer so it was important that the lads that came in had more quality but had that same mindset as us.
"To say we're the worst team in Premier League history is not a bad start from the boys!"