Sheffield United have been the main big spenders in the Championship this transfer window so far with a whole host of new faces entering the building.
At the time of writing, the Blades have added in four new faces to their ever-growing camp, with the latest addition seeing Ipswich Town promotion hero Harry Clarke arrive through the door to strengthen in the right-back spot.
The promotion hopefuls aren’t done there in terms of enhancing their options defensively, however, with the centre-back department still a cause for concern if another fresh body doesn’t arrive.
United’s centre-back issues
Indeed, there isn’t significant depth for Wilder to rely on in this problem area of the pitch, owing to Harry Souttar picking up an unfortunate season-ending injury on Boxing Day.
Before that untimely development, Souttar was starring in the heart of defence for his loan side with a mammoth 13 clean sheets picked up from 21 league appearances, only for his positive campaign to be derailed in an instant against Burnley.
As a direct consequence of the Australian suffering a serious achilles tendon injury, the Blades only have three fit centre-back options at the club, with Alfie Gilchrist often drafted out to play as a right-back owing to more depth issues.
That has since been resolved somewhat by Clarke’s arrival onto the scene, but a new centre-back remains a top priority, with this face perhaps their number one target in easing concerns over numbers.
United could now sign Darling upgrade
The automatic promotion candidates have been very keen on adding Swansea City star Harry Darling to their ranks to plug some gaps, with the Swans defender nearing the end of his contract in Wales.
But, instead of solely pursuing the 25-year-old, the Blades could switch their focus back to Queens Park Rangers colossus Jimmy Dunne, who would be more than an apt replacement for the injury-stricken Souttar.
Away from being a rock at the back for his current employers this season with a mighty 7.8 duels won on average, Dunne has also proven himself to be a scorer of some audacious strikes across his QPR career to date with this stunning effort back in March gifting his team a last-minute win.
Darling is also well known for popping up with the goods in an attacking sense too, with two goals and three assists coming his way this campaign under Luke Williams’ guidance, but he does fall flat in comparison to Dunne – who Marti Cifuentes dubbed a “quality, quality human being” – when looking at their defensive dirty work.
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Darling’s league numbers (24/25) vs Dunne’s (24/25) |
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|---|---|---|
|
Stat – per 90 mins* |
||
|
Games played |
28 |
29 |
|
Goals scored |
2 |
4 |
|
Assists |
3 |
1 |
|
Touches* |
79.2 |
69.3 |
|
Accurate passes* |
58.4 (89%) |
34.7 (76%) |
|
Tackles* |
0.7 |
2.1 |
|
Ball recoveries* |
3.9 |
3.2 |
|
Clearances* |
4.6 |
5.6 |
|
Total duels won* |
4.9 |
7.8 |
|
Clean sheets |
6 |
7 |
|
Stats by Sofascore |
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Looking at the table above, it’s clear that Darling fits Swansea’s possession-heavy approach, but with Wilder in need of a similarly no-nonsense figure to Souttar, Dunne could well be the perfect late buy with the Irishman bettering the ex-Milton Keynes Dons man in most areas of their basic defensive games.
It might well be more of a challenge for the promotion chasers to gain Dunne’s services, with Swansea arguably resigned to Darling not penning a new deal in Wales and are looking to offload, but a last-gasp deal coming to fruition for the £8.5k-per-week man will further show how seriously Wilder’s men are taking the automatic promotion battle.
After all, many of United’s recent promotion glories have been built on a tough presence at the back who can also be a goal threat – with John Egan and Jack O’Connell coming to mind – with Dunne perhaps going down as the next memorable titan.
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